Mildred Campbell Yates, despairing optimist and free-thinking Methodist, died on Saturday, January 9, 2010, at Christus Hospital St. Elizabeth in Beaumont. Born in Beaumont, she was the daughter of Eula Owens Campbell and Will H. Campbell. She attended local public schools, graduating with honors from Beaumont High School in 1936. Mildred attended Randolph Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Georgia in Athens in 1940.
Returning to Beaumont with war clouds brewing, she realized that all she knew how to do was to write scholarly papers and play the cello, so she took a secretarial course and found work in the defense industry, first at the Defense Plant Corporation which was overseeing the building of Neches Butane Products Company in Port Neches, then at Pennsylvania Shipyards in Beaumont. She married Reed H. Yates, Jr., in 1944, and they lived in Gulfport, Mississippi, where Reed was an instructor at the Gulfport Army Air Base. There were two children born to their marriage, Reed III and Mary.
In 1953, Dr. Lena Milam asked Mildred to teach music and language arts at the new elementary school, Eugene Field, and she began the career she was born for. She spent fourteen happy years at Field, then two years at Lamar teaching graduate students who were working toward their Masters Degree in Language Arts. In 1969, she returned to the Beaumont Independent School District, this time to French High School, where she taught English and occasionally various history courses. Mildred loved teaching – she was a natural – for it came easily to her and all her students were dear to her. She also enjoyed her own children and entered joyfully into their lives. In 1962, she earned the Master of Arts Degree in English from Lamar.
She took early retirement in order to spend time with her family and travel with her husband. She threw herself into Historic Preservation with the same enthusiasm she had put into teaching and was pleased to play a part in the restoration of the Tyrrell Historical Library, the Jefferson County Courthouse and the Jefferson Theatre.
She was the author of two developmental readers, Images and Keystone, published by Houghton Mifflin. She was associate editor and author of two chapters updating the history of First United Methodist Church, Beaumont, With a Dome More Vast. She belonged to the Beaumont Heritage Society and was twice its president, and held membership in the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, the Mental Health Association in Jefferson County, of which she was for four years its secretary, the Tyrrell Historical Library Association, in which she served in many capacities, the Jefferson Theater Preservation Society, Pi Beta Phi national sorority, Texas Gulf Historical Society, for which she served as genealogist, and First United Methodist Church and its Alpha Omega class. She had docented in both the John Jay French House and the McFaddin-Ward Historic House. Mildred is listed in Who’s Who Among American Women for the years 1999-2005.
Her husband, Reed Yates preceded her in death, as did her sister, Mary Bond Belk; and her brother, Jeff H. Campbell.
She is survived by her son, Reed H. Yates III and his wife Linda of Southlake; daughter, Mary Yates Kirkpatrick of Beaumont; grandsons, Phillip Kirkpatrick of Austin, Charles Reed Kirkpatrick of Beaumont; granddaughters, Amanda Yates Bradford and her husband Kevin of Arlington, Bethany Kirkpatrick of Beaumont; greatgranddaughter, Natalie Bradford of Arlington; and her greatgrandson, Connor Reed Bradford of Arlington; her life-long friend, Mildred P. Hall, “the other Mildred”; many students she so happily taught; as well as three nieces; and two nephews.
Her funeral service will be 11:00 a.m. Thursday, January 14, 2010, at First United Methodist Church with burial to follow at Magnolia Cemetery under the direction of Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin, Beaumont. A gathering of her family and friends will be from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 13, 2010, at Broussard’s.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Tyrrell Historical Library, P.O. Box 3827, Beaumont, Texas 77704; First United Methodist Church, 701 Calder, Beaumont, Texas 77701; or to Charlsie Berly Fund of Texas Gulf Historical Society, P.O. Box 1621, Beaumont, Texas 77704.
