Mildred "Millie" Collier Brown

Mildred “Millie” Collier Brown, 67, of Kennesaw died Sunday, November 15, 2009. Service will be 4:00 p.m. Saturday at Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home and Crematory in Marietta with Rev. Brian Holland officiating. Millie Melzer (Mildred Anne) Collier Brown was born in Pontiac, MI, on August 11, 1942. When she was six months old her family moved to Lapeer, MI, where she lived on a farm with her mother and father and brother, Mel. Soon she was joined by her little sister, Margaret Alice. One of her first memories she said was standing in the back seat of a car looking over her mother’s shoulder at her new baby sister. Millie was then 2 years old. The family moved back to Pontiac when Millie was 5 years old. Millie was a precocious child and skipped a grade graduating from Pontiac Central High School at age 16. She left Pontiac to work at THQ in Chicago at age 18, working for each THQ in the US and National Headquarters in Manhattan and then Verona, New Jersey. While in Chicago she met, fell in love with and married Major Philip E. Collier. Together they moved to San Francisco, New Jersey and then Atlanta when Phil retired from The Salvation Army National Headquarters. They had one son, Philip Anthony Collier. Millie’s last employment with The Salvation Army was as Missing Person’s Director for the Southern Territory. She loved this work and many people helped by the Missing Person’s office wrote to say they appreciated the way she handled their searches, was always kind on the telephone and how they felt reassured that The Salvation Army was doing all it could to help them locate missing relatives. “Your concern for detail and compassion for helping others are greatly appreciated” wrote one client. There was little turn over with employees in the Missing Persons office with her as the director since the employees loved working with Millie and appreciated her style of managing the office. Millie retired from The Salvation Army after 37 years of service when the Army discontinued its Missing Persons services in 2001. Millie loved music and was a member of the Pontiac Symphony Orchestra for two years while in high school. She played second violin. She also played alto horn in Army bands including the Pontiac Corps Band, The Chicago Belmont Band and the San Francisco Citadel Band. She broke the sex barrier and was one of two women allowed to serve in the San Francisco Band in the early 1970’s. She and her sister, Margie, sang duets at the Corps in Pontiac, at divisional events and occasionally on the radio. She sang first soprano in a trio in Chicago that won first place in a Territorial Music Contest. She loved to cook, loved nature and animals, had a dry sense of humor and often laughed at life and herself. After 24 years of marriage to Phil and his death in 1993 she met Morris G. Brown and they married on January 5, 1995. With this marriage Millie gained two stepdaughters, Carmen Ham and Kimberly Holland. Together Morris and Millie have five grandchildren, Sky and River Collier, and Jacob, Joshua and Jessica Ham. Millie is survived by her husband, son and sister, Margaret A. Curnow, and brother-in-law, James Curnow her grandchildren and several nieces and nephews-all of whom she loved very dearly. www.mayeswarddobbins.com