A Christian follower of Jesus all of her life, Mildred Elnora Brown Shaw, 93, lately of Covenant Place in Sumter County, died on 28 December 2011. As her son, I'll never forget the hugely illuminating spiritual experience that she had in the Lexington Medical Center ICU about a week before she died, HERE: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/neardeath.html#momma .
My stepdaughter, America Jill Drafts, helped me & her mother (Betty, my second wife) put together a video, 1930s Nursing In The Days Before Curative Medicine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3LgRjPoLCU&t=132s YouTube might change the URL. If search the title on YouTube or go to her high school class
(https://www.edmundshigh.com/alumni.html?x=info&c=35) and scroll to her name of Mildred Brown & click on it & scroll to the video.
She was born in the hospital at Camden (Dr. John Corbett) while at Aunt Zoe Rhame's during the time that her father was stationed with the National Guard in Greenville, leaving to serve in the critical, latter part of World War I in France when she was 6 weeks old. She was the second of eight children born to Mildred Lee Hall Brown and Robert Tillman Brown, Sr. She died peacefully and with her children at her side at 4:15 PM, room #304, on Dec. 28, 2011, at Tuomey Regional Medical Center. For marriage details, see Ervin's bio (photo of their 1st home on her memorial).
FAMILY PHOTOS: Momma's memorial cover page shows only a few of the many photos posted with this memorial. (1) Her photo page, click HERE; (2) her father "Poppoo's" photo page, click HERE, (3) her mother "Wuh's" photo page, click HERE; (4) her brother Bill's photo page, HERE & (5) her sister-in-law Linnette's photo page, HERE; (6) her nephew Robert's photos, HERE; (7) her brother Bobby's photo page, HERE and (8) her sister-in-law Net's photos, HERE; (9) her sister Alice's photos, HERE and (10) her brother-in-law Robert, HERE; (11) photo page of her sister "Bootee", HERE and (12) her brother-in-law "Bunk" J. N. Cain, HERE; (13) her sister Jane, HERE and (14) brother-in-law Jeff, HERE; (15) brother Murr and his wife Pat, HERE; (16) her brother Tom, HERE and (17) his wife Johnnie HERE; (18) her old Uncle Murr, HERE; (19) her grandmother, old MaMa, HERE; (20) 1929 pic of a Red Cross worker who lived with The Brown Family, Miss Edgar Rasnick (amongst Poppoo's photos...scroll down a good ways) and HERE; (21) Helen Montague James, one of her best friends; (22) Mildred's cousin's WWI stereoscopic viewer; (23) Uncle Jimmy Glenn's cotton broker rocking chair. (24) Mother & Father Brown's large Brown family, 1918 group photo. (25) Mother Brown's large Kolb family, 1905-1910 group photo and 1920-1925. (26) Four generations of Mildred. (27) Wuh's high school diploma, HERE. (28) Momma (Mildred) & 4 of her best friends in 1996 pic at Pawleys Island, HERE. (29) Daughter, Millie, on Elks Club swim team on Risto's memorial, HERE. (30) Twins group photo in her childrens' age group on Sara's memorial, HERE. (31) Her son's safety patrol, 6th grade, on Joe's memorial HERE. (32) 1945 Shaw-Brown group photo at Shaws Crossroads (among Bertha's photos), HERE. (33) Wuh's Concord, N. C. kin (among her Aunt Nonie Hall's photos), HERE. (34) Her maternal great grandmother HERE. (35) The four nurse sisters (among her own photos), HERE. (36) A group photo of her children's twin friends, HERE. [37] a group photo of, viewer's left to right, Momma & Dot Morgan's daughter & Cousin Alice Cantey, HERE. (38) A link to a 50th anniversary Cain group photo with Cain, Nettles, etc. (70+ people identified), HERE. (39) A link to photo on Aunt Jane Jeffress' memorial of the baptismal gown Wuh made while Poppoo was at war, HERE. (40) A link to famous S. C. silhouette artist's memorial (Carew Rice); a silhouette of Mildred is among the photos on his memorial.
She was named Mildred for her mother and her middle name, Elnora, as a combination of the first names of two of her mother's best friends: Eleanor Mason and Nora Peterson. The second born of 8 siblings, she was her father's tennis practice child and boat paddler when he fished locally. Raised in that militaristic family, she functioned like a first sergeant. Until she died, she functioned as the sibling who had to recruit support for, and then do, hard things within the extended family (such as take her father's car keys away in his old age). As described in her mother's memorial about the depression years, Mildred had the second "Big Christmas" and got a Bye-Lo doll (see photo of that type of doll).
Church: She was a lifelong member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter and an active participant and volunteer until 2010. She taught Sunday School during the growing up years of her children. Having an unshakable faith in God, a steady commitment to the Golden Rule of Jesus, she lived by the motto, "I am my brother's keeper." She leaves a love for family that is best reflected by the fact that all of her offspring, without exception, have followed into her example as committed believers in Jesus, the Christ.
Education and nursing: Mildred was educated in the public schools of Sumter. She was a high school cheerleader and played on the girls' hockey team. She wanted to join the Glee Club but was afraid of stage fright if she had to sing a solo; but she did join the Glee Club her senior year. She graduated in the Sumter High School Class of 1935. As a young girl, she sometimes stayed with her parents' friends, "Aunt" Tillie and "Uncle" John Mauer who rented a room in a boarding house across from the hospital, and Mildred began to want to be a nurse as she looked out of their bedroom window which faced the hospital & saw all of the nurses in their uniforms). Entering in 1935, she was a graduate of Tuomey Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1938 (see photo), "before the days of curative medicine" (see You Tube VIDEO, above . She was the first direct-kin nurse that I have ever known of on the Brown-Hall side of the family since Spanish-American war nurse, Anne "Annie" Ferguson. Annie was my great-grandmother Hall's (old MaMa) husband's step-sister-in-law; & stories of her well remembered by my mother.
She first met & dated Ervin within a year or two after her nursing graduation. They married on 28 June 1941 at the Brown Family home because Mildred's sister, Jane (a favorite of Ervin) was in the midst of having rheumatic fever about a year. Announcement was mailed out to family & friends afterward (see photos).
She was a nurse in several Sumter physician offices (beginning with Dr. Ralph Dunn) beginning full time in 1941 (for 6 years and then off & on thereafter) and in many areas of Tuomey Hospital over a span of about 50 years. Due to shortages of surgeons in World War II, the Tuomey Hospital Board (for the first time in its history and maybe the only time) granted her "first assistant" privileges as a surgical nurse assistant...first assistant status reserved only for physician surgeons...when she worked with certain surgeons (Dr. Dunn used her as such at Tuomey and in the Camden hospital). Following retirement, she was the first female serving as a Tuomey Hospital Board of Trustees elected member (1 July 1983-30 June 1988...see The Sumter Daily Item front page 17 June 1983 [ Priscilla Shaw when mayor & Collen Yates when City Councilwoman had both served from political office]). And, she later became the first nurse in the hospital's history to be officially designated "nurse emeritus". At times, she worked in the offices, also, of Dr. Wallis D. Cone, Dr. Jack Rhame (her cousin), and Dr. Murdoch Walker.
World War II: They initially moved to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Then they got transferred to Washington, D. C. where housing was scarce; and they lived in a family's attic for a short while. Within two weeks, orders came that they were being transferred to Montgomery. When they lived in Montgomery, Alabama, she became pregnant and came home by train to deliver her son at Tuomey Hospital. Then she returned to Montgomery. She specifically remembered a black local maid who especially loved the child (Ervin, Jr.), Candice Irquot.
A core belief was that any job worth doing was worth doing right, and she was always on the lookout for a better way to do things. Mildred Brown Shaw was a person of fairly few wants and a tower of strength in her family. She had reasoned, strong opinions and convictions, which were seldom, if ever, modified by the emotions of the moment. Until the day she died, she was the consummate nurse in her commitment to caring for others and desire that Sumter have excellent nurses and medical resources.
She and husband Ervin looked to church, extended family & neighbors, scouting, public schooling with extra-curricular activities, and Elks Club swimming pool and swimming team activities to round out child raising experiences. She was a Cub Scouts den mother (den #7) for her son's neighborhood friends (photo, HERE), and she did a year as Brownie Scout or Girl Scout leader for her daughter.
As with almost all adults in their generation, she and Ervin smoked tobacco cigarettes from their late teens (about 1935 for her); and she quit in 2003 (when nephew, Murr Brown turned 50). They both imbibed alcoholic beverages socially. When she decided to stop smoking, she took up the project of making a "hooked rug" so as to keep busy (she referred to it as her "frantic rug"). She later gave it to niece, Kim Brown; when Kim's home burned down, that rug was lost.
Mildred loved to read, to regularly but briefly visit friends who were ill or disabled, and cherished family occasions. Local male friends from high school days often called her "Brownie". Siblings called her either Mildred or "Mia". Growing up, Millie and I called her Momma...toward our high school days, we somehow went through Ma-moo to Moossie. She called me Ervin or Son and called Mildred, Sister. Later in life, her children and their extended families called her "MaMa," the name she eagerly chose in honor of her own maternal grandmother, "MaMa"...Mildred Shuford Murr Hall. Her favorite photos were "the four Brown sisters in nursing uniforms" and "four generations of Mildred." Until he died in 1993, Mrs. Shaw was married to Ervin Bartow Shaw, Sr. for 52 years.
I remember some of her long-time best friends: her earliest best friend (first grade onward) was "Snookie" Montague; and also, Iris Edens (an at-one-time neighbor and swimming team coach of her children), Mary Jane Harder (mother of her son's best friend), Sarah Fowler Parker (an at-one-time next door neighbor when we lived at 526 West Hampton Ave.), Dr. J. M. "Jack" Rhame (her general practitioner cousin), Dr. Charles A. "Pap" Probst (an outstanding local pediatrician), "Ta" Mahon, Mary Exum Crosland, and Nancye Sanders (she spelled her first name Nancye).
Black relations: Continuing to some extent the family and social custom of prior generations, we had black folks we were close to. The memories I have are from back in the racial segregation days. The customs were so very odd. Strangers came to the front door & knocked (no blacks to the front door). Friends, kin, and your black "family" came to the back door. Tuomey Hospital had separate wings for blacks and whites as well as a small separate area for "Turks". There were separate public water fountains, but your black family cook did your cooking (but ate in another room). At the height of WWII hard times (about when I was just over one and my sister was born), my grandmother's Clara came over and talked to Momma, "I'z come to he'p you raise these chilluns!" Momma: "Clara, we could certainly use some help but we haven't got any money to pay you." Clara: "I ain't said nothin' 'bout no pay, Miss Mildred." I think Clara sort of moved in for some uncertain length of time. Much later, Clara became terminally ill; and Wuh kept me and Sister while Momma nursed Clara until she died. When we lived at 526 West Hampton Ave., I remember we had a cook and baby sitter named Rosa (not the same as the black lady Aunt Betty Brown Cain used). Also, later, I never remember a family social function that did not include the presence and excellent help of Momma's late childhood black cook and good friend, Edith Cooper. If there was a wedding or funeral, family could always count on Edith coming over and "taking charge" of the kitchen and food put out for visitation (absolutely trustworthy). When Daddy became semi-invalid, Momma would only use black sitters, working mostly through her trusted black friend, Bettie Tindal (Quality Private Caregivers was her company). During Momma's last two years, she had me promise to only have Betty Tindal or a black person that Bettie Tindal hired or trusted for use as Momma's paid sitter. Late in Momma's last year, she threw an arterial embolus to her left leg and was rushed to Lexington Medical Center for emergency surgery by Ervin Jr.'s vascular surgery friend, Dr. Ron Myatich; Bettie's sitter group even covered Momma at that hospital until she returned home!
Cooking: Momma loved to help others. For years, she went by to change nephrostomy dressings on her older former next-door-neighbor friend, Mrs. Bernshouse. Mrs Bernshouse was famous in our family for her "chocolate desert roll" desert that she supplied Momma for family events, including any time Sis or Ervin came home from college. Sis & I used to love to lick the bowl & beaters from Momma's desert making when we were little. In later life, Momma was famous in the family for certain recipes ( HERE are some: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/recipfav.html).
Family Caregiving: Momma was a source of help and caregiving throughout the greater family, including her in-laws. After her father's car wreck, Poppoo started his downhill course. After he died, the question of who would "take care" of Wuh (her mother) and her Uncle Murr Hall became an issue. Momma and Daddy were willing to build an apartment for the two onto the Shaw home on Frank Clarke St. (they were brother & sister) provided that all siblings signed that they were in agreement...which would include the fact that the apartment costs to build would come out of the proceeds from sale of their old home place, #115 North Salem Ave.
Downhill: She started her downhill course with vertigo episodes two years before her death. Mildred's black friend's (Bettie Tindal) sitter service provided wonderful services those last two years...Mildred's expressly chosen sitter service. With her grand-daughter's (Amy Berg Roberts) living in the home, she enjoyed her two great-grandchildren by Amy & Geoff until her last six months when she fell and broke her right upper-mid femur (leg) in a fall in her bedroom at home. Her rehab at National Health was amazing to us and the staff as she tenaciously made her come-back. MaMa transferred to Covenant Place, and all went well. During one night, she had the dramatic onset of incredible left leg pain and was rushed to the Tuomey ER. Emergency embolectomy from that left femoral artery was performed at Lexington Medical Center by Dr. Ron Myatich. While recovering post-op, she had an event in which she experienced the Peace of God, sensing a love that was indescribable. After another ER visit later at Tuomey, she died peacefully while in Tuomey and in the presence of her son & his wife, Betty, and her daughter, Millie, and one of Bettie Tindal's sitters, Nikki Blackwell. The funeral service & visitation at Trinity & burial followed...all on New Years Eve afternoon so folks from out of town could get home before dark. We were amazed to see numerous cars stop (some even got out and bowed their heads) in respect as the unknown funeral procession drove by. This was the still-continuing residual of an old Southern custom.
She is survived by her son, Ervin Bartow Shaw Jr., M.D. (Betty Drafts Shaw); her daughter, "Millie" "Sister" Mildred Hall Shaw Berg (George); grandchildren, Jennifer Lee Shaw Kendrick (Paul C. Jr.), "Amy" Amanda Lee Berg Roberts (Geoff A.), David Ervin Shaw (Aubrey Fitzloff), and George Gerhardt Berg Jr. ("Chelly" Michelle Labordo); and great-grandchildren, Kaitlyn Hope Kendrick Shultz (William Adam), P. Connally Kendrick III, Christopher Allan Roberts, Elizabeth Anne Roberts, Milana Marie Berg and Naomi Giselle Berg. Her sixth-sibling sister, Jane Jeffress (Charles Howard "Jeff" Jr.) resides with extended family in Alexandria, La.; her seventh-sibling brother, Murr Hall Brown resides with family in Mayesville; and her sisters-in-law, "Net" Jeanette Klarpp Brown (Bobby) and Johnnie Husband Brown (Tom) reside in Sumter. Among her surviving first cousins at the time are Alice Cantey, Dr. Jack Rhame, and Dot Morgan of Sumter and W. Reid Patrick of Charleston.
She was preceded in death by brothers, Thomas Edward "Tom" Brown (1986), William Hall "Bill" Brown (2008), and R.T. "Bobby" Brown Jr. (2010); and sisters, Betty Cain (Mrs. John Nelson "Bunk" Cain, 2007) and Alice Beaty (Mrs. Robert Wesley Beaty Jr., 2009).
Sayings: My sister, Millie, and I remember,
(1) "If you can't say something nice to somebody, don't say anything at all!"
(2) "You'll get over it before you are married twice!" (a response if we complained about something that we thought was an injustice).
(3) "I'll bet you a dollar to a juice [Jew's] harp that..." (when she was commenting on something controversial and she suddenly had insight that she thought was dead certain correct).
(4) "Being a visitor is similar to fish: both begin to spoil in 3 days!"
(5) If mentioning that someone was too serious and up tight all the time, her summary statement was, "He's strung tight as a fiddler's bow!"
(6) Her father being very religious and dead serious with his routine mealtime prayer, Momma says that she and her siblings loved a cousin's threat to pray the following, "Lord make us able to eat what's on the table. If there's anymore in the pot, give it to us while it's hot!"
(7) A career nurse, when some friend or family was sick with diarrhea, we can remember Momma saying something like, "Yeah, he's got the hike'um poop'ums and the splatter dabs!"
OBITUARY:
SUMTER - Mildred Elnora Brown Shaw, 93, lately of Covenant Place in Sumter, was the second of eight children born to Mildred Lee Hall Brown and Robert Tillman Brown, Sr. on 25 March 1918 in Camden, S. C. while her father was serving in WWI in France. She died peacefully and with her children at her side 28 December at Tuomey Regional Medical Center in Sumter, S. C. She was a lifelong member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter and an active participant and volunteer until 2010. Having an unshakable faith in God, a steady commitment to The Golden Rule of Jesus, she lived by the motto, 'I am my brother's keeper'. She leaves a love for family that is best reflected by the fact that all of her offspring, without exception, have followed into her example as committed believers in Jesus, the Christ.
Mildred was educated in the public schools of Sumter, graduating in the Sumter High School class of 1935. She was a graduate of the Tuomey Hospital School of Nursing class of 1938, 'before the days of curative medicine'. She was a nurse in several Sumter physician offices (beginning with Dr. Ralph Dunn) and in many areas of Tuomey Hospital over a span of about 50 years. Due to shortages of surgeons in WWII, the Tuomey Hospital Board granted her 'first assistant' privileges when she worked with certain surgeons. Following retirement, she served as a Tuomey Hospital Board member. A core belief was that any job worth doing was worth doing right, and she was always on the lookout for a better way to do things. Mrs. Shaw was a person of fairly few wants and a tower of strength in her family. She had reasoned, strong opinions and convictions which were seldom if ever modified by the emotions of the moment. Until the day she died, she was the consummate nurse in her commitment to caring for others and desire that Sumter have excellent nurses and medical resources.
Mildred loved to read, to visit friends who were ill or disabled, and cherished family occasions. Her children and their extended families called her MaMa, the name she eagerly chose in honor of her own maternal grandmother, 'MaMa' (Mildred Shuford Murr Hall). Her favorite photos were 'the four Brown sisters in nursing uniforms' and 'four generations of Mildred'.
Until he died in 1993, Mrs. Shaw was married to Ervin Bartow Shaw for 52 years. She is survived by her son, Ervin Bartow Shaw, Jr., M. D. (Betty Drafts) and daughter, Mildred Hall Shaw Berg (George); grandchildren, Jennifer Lee Shaw Kendrick (Paul C., Jr.), Amanda Lee 'Amy' Berg Roberts (Geoff A.), David Ervin Shaw (Aubrey Fitzloff), and George Gerhardt Berg, Jr. (Michelle 'Chelly' Labordo); and great-grandchildren Kaitlyn Hope Kendrick Shultz (William Adam), P. Connally Kendrick, III, Christopher Allan Roberts, Elizabeth Anne Roberts, Milana Marie Berg, and Naomi Giselle Berg. Her sixth-sibling sister, Jane Jeffress (Charles Howard 'Jeff', Jr.) resides with extended family in Alexandria, Louisiana; her seventh-sibling brother, Murr Hall Brown resides with family in Mayesville; and her sisters-in-law, Jeanette 'Net' Klarpp Brown (Bobby) and Johnnie Husband Brown (Tom) reside in Sumter; and among her surviving first cousins are Alice Cantey, Dr. Jack Rhame, and Dot Morgan of Sumter and W. Reid Patrick of Charleston. She was preceded in death by brothers, Thomas Edward 'Tom' Brown (1986), William Hall 'Bill' Brown (2008), and R. T. 'Bobby' Brown, Jr. (2010); and sisters, Betty Cain (Mrs. John Nelson 'Bunk' Cain, 2007) and Alice Beaty (Mrs. Robert Wesley Beaty, Jr., 2009).
The family gives their profound thanks to her loyal and loving sitters, Bettie Tindal, Samantha Tindal, and Nikki Blackwell of Quality Private Caregivers.
Funeral services will be held at 11 A.M. Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 226 W. Liberty Street with Rev. Kevin Gorry officiating.
Burial will be in Sumter Cemetery, 700 West Oakland Avenue.
The family will receive friends from 10 to 11 A.M. Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church.
And the family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorials be sent to the churches or Christian organizations of your choice.
On-line condolences may be sent to www.sumterfunerals.com.
Elmore Hill McCreight Funeral Home & Crematory, 221 Broad Street, Sumter, is in charge of the arrangements (803) 775-9386.
Published by The State on Dec. 30, 2011.
My stepdaughter, America Jill Drafts, helped me & her mother (Betty, my second wife) put together a video, 1930s Nursing In The Days Before Curative Medicine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3LgRjPoLCU&t=132s YouTube might change the URL. If search the title on YouTube or go to her high school class
(https://www.edmundshigh.com/alumni.html?x=info&c=35) and scroll to her name of Mildred Brown & click on it & scroll to the video.
She was born in the hospital at Camden (Dr. John Corbett) while at Aunt Zoe Rhame's during the time that her father was stationed with the National Guard in Greenville, leaving to serve in the critical, latter part of World War I in France when she was 6 weeks old. She was the second of eight children born to Mildred Lee Hall Brown and Robert Tillman Brown, Sr. She died peacefully and with her children at her side at 4:15 PM, room #304, on Dec. 28, 2011, at Tuomey Regional Medical Center. For marriage details, see Ervin's bio (photo of their 1st home on her memorial).
FAMILY PHOTOS: Momma's memorial cover page shows only a few of the many photos posted with this memorial. (1) Her photo page, click HERE; (2) her father "Poppoo's" photo page, click HERE, (3) her mother "Wuh's" photo page, click HERE; (4) her brother Bill's photo page, HERE & (5) her sister-in-law Linnette's photo page, HERE; (6) her nephew Robert's photos, HERE; (7) her brother Bobby's photo page, HERE and (8) her sister-in-law Net's photos, HERE; (9) her sister Alice's photos, HERE and (10) her brother-in-law Robert, HERE; (11) photo page of her sister "Bootee", HERE and (12) her brother-in-law "Bunk" J. N. Cain, HERE; (13) her sister Jane, HERE and (14) brother-in-law Jeff, HERE; (15) brother Murr and his wife Pat, HERE; (16) her brother Tom, HERE and (17) his wife Johnnie HERE; (18) her old Uncle Murr, HERE; (19) her grandmother, old MaMa, HERE; (20) 1929 pic of a Red Cross worker who lived with The Brown Family, Miss Edgar Rasnick (amongst Poppoo's photos...scroll down a good ways) and HERE; (21) Helen Montague James, one of her best friends; (22) Mildred's cousin's WWI stereoscopic viewer; (23) Uncle Jimmy Glenn's cotton broker rocking chair. (24) Mother & Father Brown's large Brown family, 1918 group photo. (25) Mother Brown's large Kolb family, 1905-1910 group photo and 1920-1925. (26) Four generations of Mildred. (27) Wuh's high school diploma, HERE. (28) Momma (Mildred) & 4 of her best friends in 1996 pic at Pawleys Island, HERE. (29) Daughter, Millie, on Elks Club swim team on Risto's memorial, HERE. (30) Twins group photo in her childrens' age group on Sara's memorial, HERE. (31) Her son's safety patrol, 6th grade, on Joe's memorial HERE. (32) 1945 Shaw-Brown group photo at Shaws Crossroads (among Bertha's photos), HERE. (33) Wuh's Concord, N. C. kin (among her Aunt Nonie Hall's photos), HERE. (34) Her maternal great grandmother HERE. (35) The four nurse sisters (among her own photos), HERE. (36) A group photo of her children's twin friends, HERE. [37] a group photo of, viewer's left to right, Momma & Dot Morgan's daughter & Cousin Alice Cantey, HERE. (38) A link to a 50th anniversary Cain group photo with Cain, Nettles, etc. (70+ people identified), HERE. (39) A link to photo on Aunt Jane Jeffress' memorial of the baptismal gown Wuh made while Poppoo was at war, HERE. (40) A link to famous S. C. silhouette artist's memorial (Carew Rice); a silhouette of Mildred is among the photos on his memorial.
She was named Mildred for her mother and her middle name, Elnora, as a combination of the first names of two of her mother's best friends: Eleanor Mason and Nora Peterson. The second born of 8 siblings, she was her father's tennis practice child and boat paddler when he fished locally. Raised in that militaristic family, she functioned like a first sergeant. Until she died, she functioned as the sibling who had to recruit support for, and then do, hard things within the extended family (such as take her father's car keys away in his old age). As described in her mother's memorial about the depression years, Mildred had the second "Big Christmas" and got a Bye-Lo doll (see photo of that type of doll).
Church: She was a lifelong member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter and an active participant and volunteer until 2010. She taught Sunday School during the growing up years of her children. Having an unshakable faith in God, a steady commitment to the Golden Rule of Jesus, she lived by the motto, "I am my brother's keeper." She leaves a love for family that is best reflected by the fact that all of her offspring, without exception, have followed into her example as committed believers in Jesus, the Christ.
Education and nursing: Mildred was educated in the public schools of Sumter. She was a high school cheerleader and played on the girls' hockey team. She wanted to join the Glee Club but was afraid of stage fright if she had to sing a solo; but she did join the Glee Club her senior year. She graduated in the Sumter High School Class of 1935. As a young girl, she sometimes stayed with her parents' friends, "Aunt" Tillie and "Uncle" John Mauer who rented a room in a boarding house across from the hospital, and Mildred began to want to be a nurse as she looked out of their bedroom window which faced the hospital & saw all of the nurses in their uniforms). Entering in 1935, she was a graduate of Tuomey Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1938 (see photo), "before the days of curative medicine" (see You Tube VIDEO, above . She was the first direct-kin nurse that I have ever known of on the Brown-Hall side of the family since Spanish-American war nurse, Anne "Annie" Ferguson. Annie was my great-grandmother Hall's (old MaMa) husband's step-sister-in-law; & stories of her well remembered by my mother.
She first met & dated Ervin within a year or two after her nursing graduation. They married on 28 June 1941 at the Brown Family home because Mildred's sister, Jane (a favorite of Ervin) was in the midst of having rheumatic fever about a year. Announcement was mailed out to family & friends afterward (see photos).
She was a nurse in several Sumter physician offices (beginning with Dr. Ralph Dunn) beginning full time in 1941 (for 6 years and then off & on thereafter) and in many areas of Tuomey Hospital over a span of about 50 years. Due to shortages of surgeons in World War II, the Tuomey Hospital Board (for the first time in its history and maybe the only time) granted her "first assistant" privileges as a surgical nurse assistant...first assistant status reserved only for physician surgeons...when she worked with certain surgeons (Dr. Dunn used her as such at Tuomey and in the Camden hospital). Following retirement, she was the first female serving as a Tuomey Hospital Board of Trustees elected member (1 July 1983-30 June 1988...see The Sumter Daily Item front page 17 June 1983 [ Priscilla Shaw when mayor & Collen Yates when City Councilwoman had both served from political office]). And, she later became the first nurse in the hospital's history to be officially designated "nurse emeritus". At times, she worked in the offices, also, of Dr. Wallis D. Cone, Dr. Jack Rhame (her cousin), and Dr. Murdoch Walker.
World War II: They initially moved to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Then they got transferred to Washington, D. C. where housing was scarce; and they lived in a family's attic for a short while. Within two weeks, orders came that they were being transferred to Montgomery. When they lived in Montgomery, Alabama, she became pregnant and came home by train to deliver her son at Tuomey Hospital. Then she returned to Montgomery. She specifically remembered a black local maid who especially loved the child (Ervin, Jr.), Candice Irquot.
A core belief was that any job worth doing was worth doing right, and she was always on the lookout for a better way to do things. Mildred Brown Shaw was a person of fairly few wants and a tower of strength in her family. She had reasoned, strong opinions and convictions, which were seldom, if ever, modified by the emotions of the moment. Until the day she died, she was the consummate nurse in her commitment to caring for others and desire that Sumter have excellent nurses and medical resources.
She and husband Ervin looked to church, extended family & neighbors, scouting, public schooling with extra-curricular activities, and Elks Club swimming pool and swimming team activities to round out child raising experiences. She was a Cub Scouts den mother (den #7) for her son's neighborhood friends (photo, HERE), and she did a year as Brownie Scout or Girl Scout leader for her daughter.
As with almost all adults in their generation, she and Ervin smoked tobacco cigarettes from their late teens (about 1935 for her); and she quit in 2003 (when nephew, Murr Brown turned 50). They both imbibed alcoholic beverages socially. When she decided to stop smoking, she took up the project of making a "hooked rug" so as to keep busy (she referred to it as her "frantic rug"). She later gave it to niece, Kim Brown; when Kim's home burned down, that rug was lost.
Mildred loved to read, to regularly but briefly visit friends who were ill or disabled, and cherished family occasions. Local male friends from high school days often called her "Brownie". Siblings called her either Mildred or "Mia". Growing up, Millie and I called her Momma...toward our high school days, we somehow went through Ma-moo to Moossie. She called me Ervin or Son and called Mildred, Sister. Later in life, her children and their extended families called her "MaMa," the name she eagerly chose in honor of her own maternal grandmother, "MaMa"...Mildred Shuford Murr Hall. Her favorite photos were "the four Brown sisters in nursing uniforms" and "four generations of Mildred." Until he died in 1993, Mrs. Shaw was married to Ervin Bartow Shaw, Sr. for 52 years.
I remember some of her long-time best friends: her earliest best friend (first grade onward) was "Snookie" Montague; and also, Iris Edens (an at-one-time neighbor and swimming team coach of her children), Mary Jane Harder (mother of her son's best friend), Sarah Fowler Parker (an at-one-time next door neighbor when we lived at 526 West Hampton Ave.), Dr. J. M. "Jack" Rhame (her general practitioner cousin), Dr. Charles A. "Pap" Probst (an outstanding local pediatrician), "Ta" Mahon, Mary Exum Crosland, and Nancye Sanders (she spelled her first name Nancye).
Black relations: Continuing to some extent the family and social custom of prior generations, we had black folks we were close to. The memories I have are from back in the racial segregation days. The customs were so very odd. Strangers came to the front door & knocked (no blacks to the front door). Friends, kin, and your black "family" came to the back door. Tuomey Hospital had separate wings for blacks and whites as well as a small separate area for "Turks". There were separate public water fountains, but your black family cook did your cooking (but ate in another room). At the height of WWII hard times (about when I was just over one and my sister was born), my grandmother's Clara came over and talked to Momma, "I'z come to he'p you raise these chilluns!" Momma: "Clara, we could certainly use some help but we haven't got any money to pay you." Clara: "I ain't said nothin' 'bout no pay, Miss Mildred." I think Clara sort of moved in for some uncertain length of time. Much later, Clara became terminally ill; and Wuh kept me and Sister while Momma nursed Clara until she died. When we lived at 526 West Hampton Ave., I remember we had a cook and baby sitter named Rosa (not the same as the black lady Aunt Betty Brown Cain used). Also, later, I never remember a family social function that did not include the presence and excellent help of Momma's late childhood black cook and good friend, Edith Cooper. If there was a wedding or funeral, family could always count on Edith coming over and "taking charge" of the kitchen and food put out for visitation (absolutely trustworthy). When Daddy became semi-invalid, Momma would only use black sitters, working mostly through her trusted black friend, Bettie Tindal (Quality Private Caregivers was her company). During Momma's last two years, she had me promise to only have Betty Tindal or a black person that Bettie Tindal hired or trusted for use as Momma's paid sitter. Late in Momma's last year, she threw an arterial embolus to her left leg and was rushed to Lexington Medical Center for emergency surgery by Ervin Jr.'s vascular surgery friend, Dr. Ron Myatich; Bettie's sitter group even covered Momma at that hospital until she returned home!
Cooking: Momma loved to help others. For years, she went by to change nephrostomy dressings on her older former next-door-neighbor friend, Mrs. Bernshouse. Mrs Bernshouse was famous in our family for her "chocolate desert roll" desert that she supplied Momma for family events, including any time Sis or Ervin came home from college. Sis & I used to love to lick the bowl & beaters from Momma's desert making when we were little. In later life, Momma was famous in the family for certain recipes ( HERE are some: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/recipfav.html).
Family Caregiving: Momma was a source of help and caregiving throughout the greater family, including her in-laws. After her father's car wreck, Poppoo started his downhill course. After he died, the question of who would "take care" of Wuh (her mother) and her Uncle Murr Hall became an issue. Momma and Daddy were willing to build an apartment for the two onto the Shaw home on Frank Clarke St. (they were brother & sister) provided that all siblings signed that they were in agreement...which would include the fact that the apartment costs to build would come out of the proceeds from sale of their old home place, #115 North Salem Ave.
Downhill: She started her downhill course with vertigo episodes two years before her death. Mildred's black friend's (Bettie Tindal) sitter service provided wonderful services those last two years...Mildred's expressly chosen sitter service. With her grand-daughter's (Amy Berg Roberts) living in the home, she enjoyed her two great-grandchildren by Amy & Geoff until her last six months when she fell and broke her right upper-mid femur (leg) in a fall in her bedroom at home. Her rehab at National Health was amazing to us and the staff as she tenaciously made her come-back. MaMa transferred to Covenant Place, and all went well. During one night, she had the dramatic onset of incredible left leg pain and was rushed to the Tuomey ER. Emergency embolectomy from that left femoral artery was performed at Lexington Medical Center by Dr. Ron Myatich. While recovering post-op, she had an event in which she experienced the Peace of God, sensing a love that was indescribable. After another ER visit later at Tuomey, she died peacefully while in Tuomey and in the presence of her son & his wife, Betty, and her daughter, Millie, and one of Bettie Tindal's sitters, Nikki Blackwell. The funeral service & visitation at Trinity & burial followed...all on New Years Eve afternoon so folks from out of town could get home before dark. We were amazed to see numerous cars stop (some even got out and bowed their heads) in respect as the unknown funeral procession drove by. This was the still-continuing residual of an old Southern custom.
She is survived by her son, Ervin Bartow Shaw Jr., M.D. (Betty Drafts Shaw); her daughter, "Millie" "Sister" Mildred Hall Shaw Berg (George); grandchildren, Jennifer Lee Shaw Kendrick (Paul C. Jr.), "Amy" Amanda Lee Berg Roberts (Geoff A.), David Ervin Shaw (Aubrey Fitzloff), and George Gerhardt Berg Jr. ("Chelly" Michelle Labordo); and great-grandchildren, Kaitlyn Hope Kendrick Shultz (William Adam), P. Connally Kendrick III, Christopher Allan Roberts, Elizabeth Anne Roberts, Milana Marie Berg and Naomi Giselle Berg. Her sixth-sibling sister, Jane Jeffress (Charles Howard "Jeff" Jr.) resides with extended family in Alexandria, La.; her seventh-sibling brother, Murr Hall Brown resides with family in Mayesville; and her sisters-in-law, "Net" Jeanette Klarpp Brown (Bobby) and Johnnie Husband Brown (Tom) reside in Sumter. Among her surviving first cousins at the time are Alice Cantey, Dr. Jack Rhame, and Dot Morgan of Sumter and W. Reid Patrick of Charleston.
She was preceded in death by brothers, Thomas Edward "Tom" Brown (1986), William Hall "Bill" Brown (2008), and R.T. "Bobby" Brown Jr. (2010); and sisters, Betty Cain (Mrs. John Nelson "Bunk" Cain, 2007) and Alice Beaty (Mrs. Robert Wesley Beaty Jr., 2009).
Sayings: My sister, Millie, and I remember,
(1) "If you can't say something nice to somebody, don't say anything at all!"
(2) "You'll get over it before you are married twice!" (a response if we complained about something that we thought was an injustice).
(3) "I'll bet you a dollar to a juice [Jew's] harp that..." (when she was commenting on something controversial and she suddenly had insight that she thought was dead certain correct).
(4) "Being a visitor is similar to fish: both begin to spoil in 3 days!"
(5) If mentioning that someone was too serious and up tight all the time, her summary statement was, "He's strung tight as a fiddler's bow!"
(6) Her father being very religious and dead serious with his routine mealtime prayer, Momma says that she and her siblings loved a cousin's threat to pray the following, "Lord make us able to eat what's on the table. If there's anymore in the pot, give it to us while it's hot!"
(7) A career nurse, when some friend or family was sick with diarrhea, we can remember Momma saying something like, "Yeah, he's got the hike'um poop'ums and the splatter dabs!"
OBITUARY:
SUMTER - Mildred Elnora Brown Shaw, 93, lately of Covenant Place in Sumter, was the second of eight children born to Mildred Lee Hall Brown and Robert Tillman Brown, Sr. on 25 March 1918 in Camden, S. C. while her father was serving in WWI in France. She died peacefully and with her children at her side 28 December at Tuomey Regional Medical Center in Sumter, S. C. She was a lifelong member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter and an active participant and volunteer until 2010. Having an unshakable faith in God, a steady commitment to The Golden Rule of Jesus, she lived by the motto, 'I am my brother's keeper'. She leaves a love for family that is best reflected by the fact that all of her offspring, without exception, have followed into her example as committed believers in Jesus, the Christ.
Mildred was educated in the public schools of Sumter, graduating in the Sumter High School class of 1935. She was a graduate of the Tuomey Hospital School of Nursing class of 1938, 'before the days of curative medicine'. She was a nurse in several Sumter physician offices (beginning with Dr. Ralph Dunn) and in many areas of Tuomey Hospital over a span of about 50 years. Due to shortages of surgeons in WWII, the Tuomey Hospital Board granted her 'first assistant' privileges when she worked with certain surgeons. Following retirement, she served as a Tuomey Hospital Board member. A core belief was that any job worth doing was worth doing right, and she was always on the lookout for a better way to do things. Mrs. Shaw was a person of fairly few wants and a tower of strength in her family. She had reasoned, strong opinions and convictions which were seldom if ever modified by the emotions of the moment. Until the day she died, she was the consummate nurse in her commitment to caring for others and desire that Sumter have excellent nurses and medical resources.
Mildred loved to read, to visit friends who were ill or disabled, and cherished family occasions. Her children and their extended families called her MaMa, the name she eagerly chose in honor of her own maternal grandmother, 'MaMa' (Mildred Shuford Murr Hall). Her favorite photos were 'the four Brown sisters in nursing uniforms' and 'four generations of Mildred'.
Until he died in 1993, Mrs. Shaw was married to Ervin Bartow Shaw for 52 years. She is survived by her son, Ervin Bartow Shaw, Jr., M. D. (Betty Drafts) and daughter, Mildred Hall Shaw Berg (George); grandchildren, Jennifer Lee Shaw Kendrick (Paul C., Jr.), Amanda Lee 'Amy' Berg Roberts (Geoff A.), David Ervin Shaw (Aubrey Fitzloff), and George Gerhardt Berg, Jr. (Michelle 'Chelly' Labordo); and great-grandchildren Kaitlyn Hope Kendrick Shultz (William Adam), P. Connally Kendrick, III, Christopher Allan Roberts, Elizabeth Anne Roberts, Milana Marie Berg, and Naomi Giselle Berg. Her sixth-sibling sister, Jane Jeffress (Charles Howard 'Jeff', Jr.) resides with extended family in Alexandria, Louisiana; her seventh-sibling brother, Murr Hall Brown resides with family in Mayesville; and her sisters-in-law, Jeanette 'Net' Klarpp Brown (Bobby) and Johnnie Husband Brown (Tom) reside in Sumter; and among her surviving first cousins are Alice Cantey, Dr. Jack Rhame, and Dot Morgan of Sumter and W. Reid Patrick of Charleston. She was preceded in death by brothers, Thomas Edward 'Tom' Brown (1986), William Hall 'Bill' Brown (2008), and R. T. 'Bobby' Brown, Jr. (2010); and sisters, Betty Cain (Mrs. John Nelson 'Bunk' Cain, 2007) and Alice Beaty (Mrs. Robert Wesley Beaty, Jr., 2009).
The family gives their profound thanks to her loyal and loving sitters, Bettie Tindal, Samantha Tindal, and Nikki Blackwell of Quality Private Caregivers.
Funeral services will be held at 11 A.M. Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 226 W. Liberty Street with Rev. Kevin Gorry officiating.
Burial will be in Sumter Cemetery, 700 West Oakland Avenue.
The family will receive friends from 10 to 11 A.M. Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church.
And the family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorials be sent to the churches or Christian organizations of your choice.
On-line condolences may be sent to www.sumterfunerals.com.
Elmore Hill McCreight Funeral Home & Crematory, 221 Broad Street, Sumter, is in charge of the arrangements (803) 775-9386.
Published by The State on Dec. 30, 2011.
A Christian follower of Jesus all of her life, Mildred Elnora Brown Shaw, 93, lately of Covenant Place in Sumter County, died on 28 December 2011. As her son, I'll never forget the hugely illuminating spiritual experience that she had in the Lexington Medical Center ICU about a week before she died, HERE: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/neardeath.html#momma .
My stepdaughter, America Jill Drafts, helped me & her mother (Betty, my second wife) put together a video, 1930s Nursing In The Days Before Curative Medicine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3LgRjPoLCU&t=132s YouTube might change the URL. If search the title on YouTube or go to her high school class
(https://www.edmundshigh.com/alumni.html?x=info&c=35) and scroll to her name of Mildred Brown & click on it & scroll to the video.
She was born in the hospital at Camden (Dr. John Corbett) while at Aunt Zoe Rhame's during the time that her father was stationed with the National Guard in Greenville, leaving to serve in the critical, latter part of World War I in France when she was 6 weeks old. She was the second of eight children born to Mildred Lee Hall Brown and Robert Tillman Brown, Sr. She died peacefully and with her children at her side at 4:15 PM, room #304, on Dec. 28, 2011, at Tuomey Regional Medical Center. For marriage details, see Ervin's bio (photo of their 1st home on her memorial).
FAMILY PHOTOS: Momma's memorial cover page shows only a few of the many photos posted with this memorial. (1) Her photo page, click HERE; (2) her father "Poppoo's" photo page, click HERE, (3) her mother "Wuh's" photo page, click HERE; (4) her brother Bill's photo page, HERE & (5) her sister-in-law Linnette's photo page, HERE; (6) her nephew Robert's photos, HERE; (7) her brother Bobby's photo page, HERE and (8) her sister-in-law Net's photos, HERE; (9) her sister Alice's photos, HERE and (10) her brother-in-law Robert, HERE; (11) photo page of her sister "Bootee", HERE and (12) her brother-in-law "Bunk" J. N. Cain, HERE; (13) her sister Jane, HERE and (14) brother-in-law Jeff, HERE; (15) brother Murr and his wife Pat, HERE; (16) her brother Tom, HERE and (17) his wife Johnnie HERE; (18) her old Uncle Murr, HERE; (19) her grandmother, old MaMa, HERE; (20) 1929 pic of a Red Cross worker who lived with The Brown Family, Miss Edgar Rasnick (amongst Poppoo's photos...scroll down a good ways) and HERE; (21) Helen Montague James, one of her best friends; (22) Mildred's cousin's WWI stereoscopic viewer; (23) Uncle Jimmy Glenn's cotton broker rocking chair. (24) Mother & Father Brown's large Brown family, 1918 group photo. (25) Mother Brown's large Kolb family, 1905-1910 group photo and 1920-1925. (26) Four generations of Mildred. (27) Wuh's high school diploma, HERE. (28) Momma (Mildred) & 4 of her best friends in 1996 pic at Pawleys Island, HERE. (29) Daughter, Millie, on Elks Club swim team on Risto's memorial, HERE. (30) Twins group photo in her childrens' age group on Sara's memorial, HERE. (31) Her son's safety patrol, 6th grade, on Joe's memorial HERE. (32) 1945 Shaw-Brown group photo at Shaws Crossroads (among Bertha's photos), HERE. (33) Wuh's Concord, N. C. kin (among her Aunt Nonie Hall's photos), HERE. (34) Her maternal great grandmother HERE. (35) The four nurse sisters (among her own photos), HERE. (36) A group photo of her children's twin friends, HERE. [37] a group photo of, viewer's left to right, Momma & Dot Morgan's daughter & Cousin Alice Cantey, HERE. (38) A link to a 50th anniversary Cain group photo with Cain, Nettles, etc. (70+ people identified), HERE. (39) A link to photo on Aunt Jane Jeffress' memorial of the baptismal gown Wuh made while Poppoo was at war, HERE. (40) A link to famous S. C. silhouette artist's memorial (Carew Rice); a silhouette of Mildred is among the photos on his memorial.
She was named Mildred for her mother and her middle name, Elnora, as a combination of the first names of two of her mother's best friends: Eleanor Mason and Nora Peterson. The second born of 8 siblings, she was her father's tennis practice child and boat paddler when he fished locally. Raised in that militaristic family, she functioned like a first sergeant. Until she died, she functioned as the sibling who had to recruit support for, and then do, hard things within the extended family (such as take her father's car keys away in his old age). As described in her mother's memorial about the depression years, Mildred had the second "Big Christmas" and got a Bye-Lo doll (see photo of that type of doll).
Church: She was a lifelong member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter and an active participant and volunteer until 2010. She taught Sunday School during the growing up years of her children. Having an unshakable faith in God, a steady commitment to the Golden Rule of Jesus, she lived by the motto, "I am my brother's keeper." She leaves a love for family that is best reflected by the fact that all of her offspring, without exception, have followed into her example as committed believers in Jesus, the Christ.
Education and nursing: Mildred was educated in the public schools of Sumter. She was a high school cheerleader and played on the girls' hockey team. She wanted to join the Glee Club but was afraid of stage fright if she had to sing a solo; but she did join the Glee Club her senior year. She graduated in the Sumter High School Class of 1935. As a young girl, she sometimes stayed with her parents' friends, "Aunt" Tillie and "Uncle" John Mauer who rented a room in a boarding house across from the hospital, and Mildred began to want to be a nurse as she looked out of their bedroom window which faced the hospital & saw all of the nurses in their uniforms). Entering in 1935, she was a graduate of Tuomey Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1938 (see photo), "before the days of curative medicine" (see You Tube VIDEO, above . She was the first direct-kin nurse that I have ever known of on the Brown-Hall side of the family since Spanish-American war nurse, Anne "Annie" Ferguson. Annie was my great-grandmother Hall's (old MaMa) husband's step-sister-in-law; & stories of her well remembered by my mother.
She first met & dated Ervin within a year or two after her nursing graduation. They married on 28 June 1941 at the Brown Family home because Mildred's sister, Jane (a favorite of Ervin) was in the midst of having rheumatic fever about a year. Announcement was mailed out to family & friends afterward (see photos).
She was a nurse in several Sumter physician offices (beginning with Dr. Ralph Dunn) beginning full time in 1941 (for 6 years and then off & on thereafter) and in many areas of Tuomey Hospital over a span of about 50 years. Due to shortages of surgeons in World War II, the Tuomey Hospital Board (for the first time in its history and maybe the only time) granted her "first assistant" privileges as a surgical nurse assistant...first assistant status reserved only for physician surgeons...when she worked with certain surgeons (Dr. Dunn used her as such at Tuomey and in the Camden hospital). Following retirement, she was the first female serving as a Tuomey Hospital Board of Trustees elected member (1 July 1983-30 June 1988...see The Sumter Daily Item front page 17 June 1983 [ Priscilla Shaw when mayor & Collen Yates when City Councilwoman had both served from political office]). And, she later became the first nurse in the hospital's history to be officially designated "nurse emeritus". At times, she worked in the offices, also, of Dr. Wallis D. Cone, Dr. Jack Rhame (her cousin), and Dr. Murdoch Walker.
World War II: They initially moved to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Then they got transferred to Washington, D. C. where housing was scarce; and they lived in a family's attic for a short while. Within two weeks, orders came that they were being transferred to Montgomery. When they lived in Montgomery, Alabama, she became pregnant and came home by train to deliver her son at Tuomey Hospital. Then she returned to Montgomery. She specifically remembered a black local maid who especially loved the child (Ervin, Jr.), Candice Irquot.
A core belief was that any job worth doing was worth doing right, and she was always on the lookout for a better way to do things. Mildred Brown Shaw was a person of fairly few wants and a tower of strength in her family. She had reasoned, strong opinions and convictions, which were seldom, if ever, modified by the emotions of the moment. Until the day she died, she was the consummate nurse in her commitment to caring for others and desire that Sumter have excellent nurses and medical resources.
She and husband Ervin looked to church, extended family & neighbors, scouting, public schooling with extra-curricular activities, and Elks Club swimming pool and swimming team activities to round out child raising experiences. She was a Cub Scouts den mother (den #7) for her son's neighborhood friends (photo, HERE), and she did a year as Brownie Scout or Girl Scout leader for her daughter.
As with almost all adults in their generation, she and Ervin smoked tobacco cigarettes from their late teens (about 1935 for her); and she quit in 2003 (when nephew, Murr Brown turned 50). They both imbibed alcoholic beverages socially. When she decided to stop smoking, she took up the project of making a "hooked rug" so as to keep busy (she referred to it as her "frantic rug"). She later gave it to niece, Kim Brown; when Kim's home burned down, that rug was lost.
Mildred loved to read, to regularly but briefly visit friends who were ill or disabled, and cherished family occasions. Local male friends from high school days often called her "Brownie". Siblings called her either Mildred or "Mia". Growing up, Millie and I called her Momma...toward our high school days, we somehow went through Ma-moo to Moossie. She called me Ervin or Son and called Mildred, Sister. Later in life, her children and their extended families called her "MaMa," the name she eagerly chose in honor of her own maternal grandmother, "MaMa"...Mildred Shuford Murr Hall. Her favorite photos were "the four Brown sisters in nursing uniforms" and "four generations of Mildred." Until he died in 1993, Mrs. Shaw was married to Ervin Bartow Shaw, Sr. for 52 years.
I remember some of her long-time best friends: her earliest best friend (first grade onward) was "Snookie" Montague; and also, Iris Edens (an at-one-time neighbor and swimming team coach of her children), Mary Jane Harder (mother of her son's best friend), Sarah Fowler Parker (an at-one-time next door neighbor when we lived at 526 West Hampton Ave.), Dr. J. M. "Jack" Rhame (her general practitioner cousin), Dr. Charles A. "Pap" Probst (an outstanding local pediatrician), "Ta" Mahon, Mary Exum Crosland, and Nancye Sanders (she spelled her first name Nancye).
Black relations: Continuing to some extent the family and social custom of prior generations, we had black folks we were close to. The memories I have are from back in the racial segregation days. The customs were so very odd. Strangers came to the front door & knocked (no blacks to the front door). Friends, kin, and your black "family" came to the back door. Tuomey Hospital had separate wings for blacks and whites as well as a small separate area for "Turks". There were separate public water fountains, but your black family cook did your cooking (but ate in another room). At the height of WWII hard times (about when I was just over one and my sister was born), my grandmother's Clara came over and talked to Momma, "I'z come to he'p you raise these chilluns!" Momma: "Clara, we could certainly use some help but we haven't got any money to pay you." Clara: "I ain't said nothin' 'bout no pay, Miss Mildred." I think Clara sort of moved in for some uncertain length of time. Much later, Clara became terminally ill; and Wuh kept me and Sister while Momma nursed Clara until she died. When we lived at 526 West Hampton Ave., I remember we had a cook and baby sitter named Rosa (not the same as the black lady Aunt Betty Brown Cain used). Also, later, I never remember a family social function that did not include the presence and excellent help of Momma's late childhood black cook and good friend, Edith Cooper. If there was a wedding or funeral, family could always count on Edith coming over and "taking charge" of the kitchen and food put out for visitation (absolutely trustworthy). When Daddy became semi-invalid, Momma would only use black sitters, working mostly through her trusted black friend, Bettie Tindal (Quality Private Caregivers was her company). During Momma's last two years, she had me promise to only have Betty Tindal or a black person that Bettie Tindal hired or trusted for use as Momma's paid sitter. Late in Momma's last year, she threw an arterial embolus to her left leg and was rushed to Lexington Medical Center for emergency surgery by Ervin Jr.'s vascular surgery friend, Dr. Ron Myatich; Bettie's sitter group even covered Momma at that hospital until she returned home!
Cooking: Momma loved to help others. For years, she went by to change nephrostomy dressings on her older former next-door-neighbor friend, Mrs. Bernshouse. Mrs Bernshouse was famous in our family for her "chocolate desert roll" desert that she supplied Momma for family events, including any time Sis or Ervin came home from college. Sis & I used to love to lick the bowl & beaters from Momma's desert making when we were little. In later life, Momma was famous in the family for certain recipes ( HERE are some: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/recipfav.html).
Family Caregiving: Momma was a source of help and caregiving throughout the greater family, including her in-laws. After her father's car wreck, Poppoo started his downhill course. After he died, the question of who would "take care" of Wuh (her mother) and her Uncle Murr Hall became an issue. Momma and Daddy were willing to build an apartment for the two onto the Shaw home on Frank Clarke St. (they were brother & sister) provided that all siblings signed that they were in agreement...which would include the fact that the apartment costs to build would come out of the proceeds from sale of their old home place, #115 North Salem Ave.
Downhill: She started her downhill course with vertigo episodes two years before her death. Mildred's black friend's (Bettie Tindal) sitter service provided wonderful services those last two years...Mildred's expressly chosen sitter service. With her grand-daughter's (Amy Berg Roberts) living in the home, she enjoyed her two great-grandchildren by Amy & Geoff until her last six months when she fell and broke her right upper-mid femur (leg) in a fall in her bedroom at home. Her rehab at National Health was amazing to us and the staff as she tenaciously made her come-back. MaMa transferred to Covenant Place, and all went well. During one night, she had the dramatic onset of incredible left leg pain and was rushed to the Tuomey ER. Emergency embolectomy from that left femoral artery was performed at Lexington Medical Center by Dr. Ron Myatich. While recovering post-op, she had an event in which she experienced the Peace of God, sensing a love that was indescribable. After another ER visit later at Tuomey, she died peacefully while in Tuomey and in the presence of her son & his wife, Betty, and her daughter, Millie, and one of Bettie Tindal's sitters, Nikki Blackwell. The funeral service & visitation at Trinity & burial followed...all on New Years Eve afternoon so folks from out of town could get home before dark. We were amazed to see numerous cars stop (some even got out and bowed their heads) in respect as the unknown funeral procession drove by. This was the still-continuing residual of an old Southern custom.
She is survived by her son, Ervin Bartow Shaw Jr., M.D. (Betty Drafts Shaw); her daughter, "Millie" "Sister" Mildred Hall Shaw Berg (George); grandchildren, Jennifer Lee Shaw Kendrick (Paul C. Jr.), "Amy" Amanda Lee Berg Roberts (Geoff A.), David Ervin Shaw (Aubrey Fitzloff), and George Gerhardt Berg Jr. ("Chelly" Michelle Labordo); and great-grandchildren, Kaitlyn Hope Kendrick Shultz (William Adam), P. Connally Kendrick III, Christopher Allan Roberts, Elizabeth Anne Roberts, Milana Marie Berg and Naomi Giselle Berg. Her sixth-sibling sister, Jane Jeffress (Charles Howard "Jeff" Jr.) resides with extended family in Alexandria, La.; her seventh-sibling brother, Murr Hall Brown resides with family in Mayesville; and her sisters-in-law, "Net" Jeanette Klarpp Brown (Bobby) and Johnnie Husband Brown (Tom) reside in Sumter. Among her surviving first cousins at the time are Alice Cantey, Dr. Jack Rhame, and Dot Morgan of Sumter and W. Reid Patrick of Charleston.
She was preceded in death by brothers, Thomas Edward "Tom" Brown (1986), William Hall "Bill" Brown (2008), and R.T. "Bobby" Brown Jr. (2010); and sisters, Betty Cain (Mrs. John Nelson "Bunk" Cain, 2007) and Alice Beaty (Mrs. Robert Wesley Beaty Jr., 2009).
Sayings: My sister, Millie, and I remember,
(1) "If you can't say something nice to somebody, don't say anything at all!"
(2) "You'll get over it before you are married twice!" (a response if we complained about something that we thought was an injustice).
(3) "I'll bet you a dollar to a juice [Jew's] harp that..." (when she was commenting on something controversial and she suddenly had insight that she thought was dead certain correct).
(4) "Being a visitor is similar to fish: both begin to spoil in 3 days!"
(5) If mentioning that someone was too serious and up tight all the time, her summary statement was, "He's strung tight as a fiddler's bow!"
(6) Her father being very religious and dead serious with his routine mealtime prayer, Momma says that she and her siblings loved a cousin's threat to pray the following, "Lord make us able to eat what's on the table. If there's anymore in the pot, give it to us while it's hot!"
(7) A career nurse, when some friend or family was sick with diarrhea, we can remember Momma saying something like, "Yeah, he's got the hike'um poop'ums and the splatter dabs!"
OBITUARY:
SUMTER - Mildred Elnora Brown Shaw, 93, lately of Covenant Place in Sumter, was the second of eight children born to Mildred Lee Hall Brown and Robert Tillman Brown, Sr. on 25 March 1918 in Camden, S. C. while her father was serving in WWI in France. She died peacefully and with her children at her side 28 December at Tuomey Regional Medical Center in Sumter, S. C. She was a lifelong member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter and an active participant and volunteer until 2010. Having an unshakable faith in God, a steady commitment to The Golden Rule of Jesus, she lived by the motto, 'I am my brother's keeper'. She leaves a love for family that is best reflected by the fact that all of her offspring, without exception, have followed into her example as committed believers in Jesus, the Christ.
Mildred was educated in the public schools of Sumter, graduating in the Sumter High School class of 1935. She was a graduate of the Tuomey Hospital School of Nursing class of 1938, 'before the days of curative medicine'. She was a nurse in several Sumter physician offices (beginning with Dr. Ralph Dunn) and in many areas of Tuomey Hospital over a span of about 50 years. Due to shortages of surgeons in WWII, the Tuomey Hospital Board granted her 'first assistant' privileges when she worked with certain surgeons. Following retirement, she served as a Tuomey Hospital Board member. A core belief was that any job worth doing was worth doing right, and she was always on the lookout for a better way to do things. Mrs. Shaw was a person of fairly few wants and a tower of strength in her family. She had reasoned, strong opinions and convictions which were seldom if ever modified by the emotions of the moment. Until the day she died, she was the consummate nurse in her commitment to caring for others and desire that Sumter have excellent nurses and medical resources.
Mildred loved to read, to visit friends who were ill or disabled, and cherished family occasions. Her children and their extended families called her MaMa, the name she eagerly chose in honor of her own maternal grandmother, 'MaMa' (Mildred Shuford Murr Hall). Her favorite photos were 'the four Brown sisters in nursing uniforms' and 'four generations of Mildred'.
Until he died in 1993, Mrs. Shaw was married to Ervin Bartow Shaw for 52 years. She is survived by her son, Ervin Bartow Shaw, Jr., M. D. (Betty Drafts) and daughter, Mildred Hall Shaw Berg (George); grandchildren, Jennifer Lee Shaw Kendrick (Paul C., Jr.), Amanda Lee 'Amy' Berg Roberts (Geoff A.), David Ervin Shaw (Aubrey Fitzloff), and George Gerhardt Berg, Jr. (Michelle 'Chelly' Labordo); and great-grandchildren Kaitlyn Hope Kendrick Shultz (William Adam), P. Connally Kendrick, III, Christopher Allan Roberts, Elizabeth Anne Roberts, Milana Marie Berg, and Naomi Giselle Berg. Her sixth-sibling sister, Jane Jeffress (Charles Howard 'Jeff', Jr.) resides with extended family in Alexandria, Louisiana; her seventh-sibling brother, Murr Hall Brown resides with family in Mayesville; and her sisters-in-law, Jeanette 'Net' Klarpp Brown (Bobby) and Johnnie Husband Brown (Tom) reside in Sumter; and among her surviving first cousins are Alice Cantey, Dr. Jack Rhame, and Dot Morgan of Sumter and W. Reid Patrick of Charleston. She was preceded in death by brothers, Thomas Edward 'Tom' Brown (1986), William Hall 'Bill' Brown (2008), and R. T. 'Bobby' Brown, Jr. (2010); and sisters, Betty Cain (Mrs. John Nelson 'Bunk' Cain, 2007) and Alice Beaty (Mrs. Robert Wesley Beaty, Jr., 2009).
The family gives their profound thanks to her loyal and loving sitters, Bettie Tindal, Samantha Tindal, and Nikki Blackwell of Quality Private Caregivers.
Funeral services will be held at 11 A.M. Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 226 W. Liberty Street with Rev. Kevin Gorry officiating.
Burial will be in Sumter Cemetery, 700 West Oakland Avenue.
The family will receive friends from 10 to 11 A.M. Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church.
And the family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorials be sent to the churches or Christian organizations of your choice.
On-line condolences may be sent to www.sumterfunerals.com.
Elmore Hill McCreight Funeral Home & Crematory, 221 Broad Street, Sumter, is in charge of the arrangements (803) 775-9386.
Published by The State on Dec. 30, 2011.
My stepdaughter, America Jill Drafts, helped me & her mother (Betty, my second wife) put together a video, 1930s Nursing In The Days Before Curative Medicine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3LgRjPoLCU&t=132s YouTube might change the URL. If search the title on YouTube or go to her high school class
(https://www.edmundshigh.com/alumni.html?x=info&c=35) and scroll to her name of Mildred Brown & click on it & scroll to the video.
She was born in the hospital at Camden (Dr. John Corbett) while at Aunt Zoe Rhame's during the time that her father was stationed with the National Guard in Greenville, leaving to serve in the critical, latter part of World War I in France when she was 6 weeks old. She was the second of eight children born to Mildred Lee Hall Brown and Robert Tillman Brown, Sr. She died peacefully and with her children at her side at 4:15 PM, room #304, on Dec. 28, 2011, at Tuomey Regional Medical Center. For marriage details, see Ervin's bio (photo of their 1st home on her memorial).
FAMILY PHOTOS: Momma's memorial cover page shows only a few of the many photos posted with this memorial. (1) Her photo page, click HERE; (2) her father "Poppoo's" photo page, click HERE, (3) her mother "Wuh's" photo page, click HERE; (4) her brother Bill's photo page, HERE & (5) her sister-in-law Linnette's photo page, HERE; (6) her nephew Robert's photos, HERE; (7) her brother Bobby's photo page, HERE and (8) her sister-in-law Net's photos, HERE; (9) her sister Alice's photos, HERE and (10) her brother-in-law Robert, HERE; (11) photo page of her sister "Bootee", HERE and (12) her brother-in-law "Bunk" J. N. Cain, HERE; (13) her sister Jane, HERE and (14) brother-in-law Jeff, HERE; (15) brother Murr and his wife Pat, HERE; (16) her brother Tom, HERE and (17) his wife Johnnie HERE; (18) her old Uncle Murr, HERE; (19) her grandmother, old MaMa, HERE; (20) 1929 pic of a Red Cross worker who lived with The Brown Family, Miss Edgar Rasnick (amongst Poppoo's photos...scroll down a good ways) and HERE; (21) Helen Montague James, one of her best friends; (22) Mildred's cousin's WWI stereoscopic viewer; (23) Uncle Jimmy Glenn's cotton broker rocking chair. (24) Mother & Father Brown's large Brown family, 1918 group photo. (25) Mother Brown's large Kolb family, 1905-1910 group photo and 1920-1925. (26) Four generations of Mildred. (27) Wuh's high school diploma, HERE. (28) Momma (Mildred) & 4 of her best friends in 1996 pic at Pawleys Island, HERE. (29) Daughter, Millie, on Elks Club swim team on Risto's memorial, HERE. (30) Twins group photo in her childrens' age group on Sara's memorial, HERE. (31) Her son's safety patrol, 6th grade, on Joe's memorial HERE. (32) 1945 Shaw-Brown group photo at Shaws Crossroads (among Bertha's photos), HERE. (33) Wuh's Concord, N. C. kin (among her Aunt Nonie Hall's photos), HERE. (34) Her maternal great grandmother HERE. (35) The four nurse sisters (among her own photos), HERE. (36) A group photo of her children's twin friends, HERE. [37] a group photo of, viewer's left to right, Momma & Dot Morgan's daughter & Cousin Alice Cantey, HERE. (38) A link to a 50th anniversary Cain group photo with Cain, Nettles, etc. (70+ people identified), HERE. (39) A link to photo on Aunt Jane Jeffress' memorial of the baptismal gown Wuh made while Poppoo was at war, HERE. (40) A link to famous S. C. silhouette artist's memorial (Carew Rice); a silhouette of Mildred is among the photos on his memorial.
She was named Mildred for her mother and her middle name, Elnora, as a combination of the first names of two of her mother's best friends: Eleanor Mason and Nora Peterson. The second born of 8 siblings, she was her father's tennis practice child and boat paddler when he fished locally. Raised in that militaristic family, she functioned like a first sergeant. Until she died, she functioned as the sibling who had to recruit support for, and then do, hard things within the extended family (such as take her father's car keys away in his old age). As described in her mother's memorial about the depression years, Mildred had the second "Big Christmas" and got a Bye-Lo doll (see photo of that type of doll).
Church: She was a lifelong member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter and an active participant and volunteer until 2010. She taught Sunday School during the growing up years of her children. Having an unshakable faith in God, a steady commitment to the Golden Rule of Jesus, she lived by the motto, "I am my brother's keeper." She leaves a love for family that is best reflected by the fact that all of her offspring, without exception, have followed into her example as committed believers in Jesus, the Christ.
Education and nursing: Mildred was educated in the public schools of Sumter. She was a high school cheerleader and played on the girls' hockey team. She wanted to join the Glee Club but was afraid of stage fright if she had to sing a solo; but she did join the Glee Club her senior year. She graduated in the Sumter High School Class of 1935. As a young girl, she sometimes stayed with her parents' friends, "Aunt" Tillie and "Uncle" John Mauer who rented a room in a boarding house across from the hospital, and Mildred began to want to be a nurse as she looked out of their bedroom window which faced the hospital & saw all of the nurses in their uniforms). Entering in 1935, she was a graduate of Tuomey Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1938 (see photo), "before the days of curative medicine" (see You Tube VIDEO, above . She was the first direct-kin nurse that I have ever known of on the Brown-Hall side of the family since Spanish-American war nurse, Anne "Annie" Ferguson. Annie was my great-grandmother Hall's (old MaMa) husband's step-sister-in-law; & stories of her well remembered by my mother.
She first met & dated Ervin within a year or two after her nursing graduation. They married on 28 June 1941 at the Brown Family home because Mildred's sister, Jane (a favorite of Ervin) was in the midst of having rheumatic fever about a year. Announcement was mailed out to family & friends afterward (see photos).
She was a nurse in several Sumter physician offices (beginning with Dr. Ralph Dunn) beginning full time in 1941 (for 6 years and then off & on thereafter) and in many areas of Tuomey Hospital over a span of about 50 years. Due to shortages of surgeons in World War II, the Tuomey Hospital Board (for the first time in its history and maybe the only time) granted her "first assistant" privileges as a surgical nurse assistant...first assistant status reserved only for physician surgeons...when she worked with certain surgeons (Dr. Dunn used her as such at Tuomey and in the Camden hospital). Following retirement, she was the first female serving as a Tuomey Hospital Board of Trustees elected member (1 July 1983-30 June 1988...see The Sumter Daily Item front page 17 June 1983 [ Priscilla Shaw when mayor & Collen Yates when City Councilwoman had both served from political office]). And, she later became the first nurse in the hospital's history to be officially designated "nurse emeritus". At times, she worked in the offices, also, of Dr. Wallis D. Cone, Dr. Jack Rhame (her cousin), and Dr. Murdoch Walker.
World War II: They initially moved to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Then they got transferred to Washington, D. C. where housing was scarce; and they lived in a family's attic for a short while. Within two weeks, orders came that they were being transferred to Montgomery. When they lived in Montgomery, Alabama, she became pregnant and came home by train to deliver her son at Tuomey Hospital. Then she returned to Montgomery. She specifically remembered a black local maid who especially loved the child (Ervin, Jr.), Candice Irquot.
A core belief was that any job worth doing was worth doing right, and she was always on the lookout for a better way to do things. Mildred Brown Shaw was a person of fairly few wants and a tower of strength in her family. She had reasoned, strong opinions and convictions, which were seldom, if ever, modified by the emotions of the moment. Until the day she died, she was the consummate nurse in her commitment to caring for others and desire that Sumter have excellent nurses and medical resources.
She and husband Ervin looked to church, extended family & neighbors, scouting, public schooling with extra-curricular activities, and Elks Club swimming pool and swimming team activities to round out child raising experiences. She was a Cub Scouts den mother (den #7) for her son's neighborhood friends (photo, HERE), and she did a year as Brownie Scout or Girl Scout leader for her daughter.
As with almost all adults in their generation, she and Ervin smoked tobacco cigarettes from their late teens (about 1935 for her); and she quit in 2003 (when nephew, Murr Brown turned 50). They both imbibed alcoholic beverages socially. When she decided to stop smoking, she took up the project of making a "hooked rug" so as to keep busy (she referred to it as her "frantic rug"). She later gave it to niece, Kim Brown; when Kim's home burned down, that rug was lost.
Mildred loved to read, to regularly but briefly visit friends who were ill or disabled, and cherished family occasions. Local male friends from high school days often called her "Brownie". Siblings called her either Mildred or "Mia". Growing up, Millie and I called her Momma...toward our high school days, we somehow went through Ma-moo to Moossie. She called me Ervin or Son and called Mildred, Sister. Later in life, her children and their extended families called her "MaMa," the name she eagerly chose in honor of her own maternal grandmother, "MaMa"...Mildred Shuford Murr Hall. Her favorite photos were "the four Brown sisters in nursing uniforms" and "four generations of Mildred." Until he died in 1993, Mrs. Shaw was married to Ervin Bartow Shaw, Sr. for 52 years.
I remember some of her long-time best friends: her earliest best friend (first grade onward) was "Snookie" Montague; and also, Iris Edens (an at-one-time neighbor and swimming team coach of her children), Mary Jane Harder (mother of her son's best friend), Sarah Fowler Parker (an at-one-time next door neighbor when we lived at 526 West Hampton Ave.), Dr. J. M. "Jack" Rhame (her general practitioner cousin), Dr. Charles A. "Pap" Probst (an outstanding local pediatrician), "Ta" Mahon, Mary Exum Crosland, and Nancye Sanders (she spelled her first name Nancye).
Black relations: Continuing to some extent the family and social custom of prior generations, we had black folks we were close to. The memories I have are from back in the racial segregation days. The customs were so very odd. Strangers came to the front door & knocked (no blacks to the front door). Friends, kin, and your black "family" came to the back door. Tuomey Hospital had separate wings for blacks and whites as well as a small separate area for "Turks". There were separate public water fountains, but your black family cook did your cooking (but ate in another room). At the height of WWII hard times (about when I was just over one and my sister was born), my grandmother's Clara came over and talked to Momma, "I'z come to he'p you raise these chilluns!" Momma: "Clara, we could certainly use some help but we haven't got any money to pay you." Clara: "I ain't said nothin' 'bout no pay, Miss Mildred." I think Clara sort of moved in for some uncertain length of time. Much later, Clara became terminally ill; and Wuh kept me and Sister while Momma nursed Clara until she died. When we lived at 526 West Hampton Ave., I remember we had a cook and baby sitter named Rosa (not the same as the black lady Aunt Betty Brown Cain used). Also, later, I never remember a family social function that did not include the presence and excellent help of Momma's late childhood black cook and good friend, Edith Cooper. If there was a wedding or funeral, family could always count on Edith coming over and "taking charge" of the kitchen and food put out for visitation (absolutely trustworthy). When Daddy became semi-invalid, Momma would only use black sitters, working mostly through her trusted black friend, Bettie Tindal (Quality Private Caregivers was her company). During Momma's last two years, she had me promise to only have Betty Tindal or a black person that Bettie Tindal hired or trusted for use as Momma's paid sitter. Late in Momma's last year, she threw an arterial embolus to her left leg and was rushed to Lexington Medical Center for emergency surgery by Ervin Jr.'s vascular surgery friend, Dr. Ron Myatich; Bettie's sitter group even covered Momma at that hospital until she returned home!
Cooking: Momma loved to help others. For years, she went by to change nephrostomy dressings on her older former next-door-neighbor friend, Mrs. Bernshouse. Mrs Bernshouse was famous in our family for her "chocolate desert roll" desert that she supplied Momma for family events, including any time Sis or Ervin came home from college. Sis & I used to love to lick the bowl & beaters from Momma's desert making when we were little. In later life, Momma was famous in the family for certain recipes ( HERE are some: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/recipfav.html).
Family Caregiving: Momma was a source of help and caregiving throughout the greater family, including her in-laws. After her father's car wreck, Poppoo started his downhill course. After he died, the question of who would "take care" of Wuh (her mother) and her Uncle Murr Hall became an issue. Momma and Daddy were willing to build an apartment for the two onto the Shaw home on Frank Clarke St. (they were brother & sister) provided that all siblings signed that they were in agreement...which would include the fact that the apartment costs to build would come out of the proceeds from sale of their old home place, #115 North Salem Ave.
Downhill: She started her downhill course with vertigo episodes two years before her death. Mildred's black friend's (Bettie Tindal) sitter service provided wonderful services those last two years...Mildred's expressly chosen sitter service. With her grand-daughter's (Amy Berg Roberts) living in the home, she enjoyed her two great-grandchildren by Amy & Geoff until her last six months when she fell and broke her right upper-mid femur (leg) in a fall in her bedroom at home. Her rehab at National Health was amazing to us and the staff as she tenaciously made her come-back. MaMa transferred to Covenant Place, and all went well. During one night, she had the dramatic onset of incredible left leg pain and was rushed to the Tuomey ER. Emergency embolectomy from that left femoral artery was performed at Lexington Medical Center by Dr. Ron Myatich. While recovering post-op, she had an event in which she experienced the Peace of God, sensing a love that was indescribable. After another ER visit later at Tuomey, she died peacefully while in Tuomey and in the presence of her son & his wife, Betty, and her daughter, Millie, and one of Bettie Tindal's sitters, Nikki Blackwell. The funeral service & visitation at Trinity & burial followed...all on New Years Eve afternoon so folks from out of town could get home before dark. We were amazed to see numerous cars stop (some even got out and bowed their heads) in respect as the unknown funeral procession drove by. This was the still-continuing residual of an old Southern custom.
She is survived by her son, Ervin Bartow Shaw Jr., M.D. (Betty Drafts Shaw); her daughter, "Millie" "Sister" Mildred Hall Shaw Berg (George); grandchildren, Jennifer Lee Shaw Kendrick (Paul C. Jr.), "Amy" Amanda Lee Berg Roberts (Geoff A.), David Ervin Shaw (Aubrey Fitzloff), and George Gerhardt Berg Jr. ("Chelly" Michelle Labordo); and great-grandchildren, Kaitlyn Hope Kendrick Shultz (William Adam), P. Connally Kendrick III, Christopher Allan Roberts, Elizabeth Anne Roberts, Milana Marie Berg and Naomi Giselle Berg. Her sixth-sibling sister, Jane Jeffress (Charles Howard "Jeff" Jr.) resides with extended family in Alexandria, La.; her seventh-sibling brother, Murr Hall Brown resides with family in Mayesville; and her sisters-in-law, "Net" Jeanette Klarpp Brown (Bobby) and Johnnie Husband Brown (Tom) reside in Sumter. Among her surviving first cousins at the time are Alice Cantey, Dr. Jack Rhame, and Dot Morgan of Sumter and W. Reid Patrick of Charleston.
She was preceded in death by brothers, Thomas Edward "Tom" Brown (1986), William Hall "Bill" Brown (2008), and R.T. "Bobby" Brown Jr. (2010); and sisters, Betty Cain (Mrs. John Nelson "Bunk" Cain, 2007) and Alice Beaty (Mrs. Robert Wesley Beaty Jr., 2009).
Sayings: My sister, Millie, and I remember,
(1) "If you can't say something nice to somebody, don't say anything at all!"
(2) "You'll get over it before you are married twice!" (a response if we complained about something that we thought was an injustice).
(3) "I'll bet you a dollar to a juice [Jew's] harp that..." (when she was commenting on something controversial and she suddenly had insight that she thought was dead certain correct).
(4) "Being a visitor is similar to fish: both begin to spoil in 3 days!"
(5) If mentioning that someone was too serious and up tight all the time, her summary statement was, "He's strung tight as a fiddler's bow!"
(6) Her father being very religious and dead serious with his routine mealtime prayer, Momma says that she and her siblings loved a cousin's threat to pray the following, "Lord make us able to eat what's on the table. If there's anymore in the pot, give it to us while it's hot!"
(7) A career nurse, when some friend or family was sick with diarrhea, we can remember Momma saying something like, "Yeah, he's got the hike'um poop'ums and the splatter dabs!"
OBITUARY:
SUMTER - Mildred Elnora Brown Shaw, 93, lately of Covenant Place in Sumter, was the second of eight children born to Mildred Lee Hall Brown and Robert Tillman Brown, Sr. on 25 March 1918 in Camden, S. C. while her father was serving in WWI in France. She died peacefully and with her children at her side 28 December at Tuomey Regional Medical Center in Sumter, S. C. She was a lifelong member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter and an active participant and volunteer until 2010. Having an unshakable faith in God, a steady commitment to The Golden Rule of Jesus, she lived by the motto, 'I am my brother's keeper'. She leaves a love for family that is best reflected by the fact that all of her offspring, without exception, have followed into her example as committed believers in Jesus, the Christ.
Mildred was educated in the public schools of Sumter, graduating in the Sumter High School class of 1935. She was a graduate of the Tuomey Hospital School of Nursing class of 1938, 'before the days of curative medicine'. She was a nurse in several Sumter physician offices (beginning with Dr. Ralph Dunn) and in many areas of Tuomey Hospital over a span of about 50 years. Due to shortages of surgeons in WWII, the Tuomey Hospital Board granted her 'first assistant' privileges when she worked with certain surgeons. Following retirement, she served as a Tuomey Hospital Board member. A core belief was that any job worth doing was worth doing right, and she was always on the lookout for a better way to do things. Mrs. Shaw was a person of fairly few wants and a tower of strength in her family. She had reasoned, strong opinions and convictions which were seldom if ever modified by the emotions of the moment. Until the day she died, she was the consummate nurse in her commitment to caring for others and desire that Sumter have excellent nurses and medical resources.
Mildred loved to read, to visit friends who were ill or disabled, and cherished family occasions. Her children and their extended families called her MaMa, the name she eagerly chose in honor of her own maternal grandmother, 'MaMa' (Mildred Shuford Murr Hall). Her favorite photos were 'the four Brown sisters in nursing uniforms' and 'four generations of Mildred'.
Until he died in 1993, Mrs. Shaw was married to Ervin Bartow Shaw for 52 years. She is survived by her son, Ervin Bartow Shaw, Jr., M. D. (Betty Drafts) and daughter, Mildred Hall Shaw Berg (George); grandchildren, Jennifer Lee Shaw Kendrick (Paul C., Jr.), Amanda Lee 'Amy' Berg Roberts (Geoff A.), David Ervin Shaw (Aubrey Fitzloff), and George Gerhardt Berg, Jr. (Michelle 'Chelly' Labordo); and great-grandchildren Kaitlyn Hope Kendrick Shultz (William Adam), P. Connally Kendrick, III, Christopher Allan Roberts, Elizabeth Anne Roberts, Milana Marie Berg, and Naomi Giselle Berg. Her sixth-sibling sister, Jane Jeffress (Charles Howard 'Jeff', Jr.) resides with extended family in Alexandria, Louisiana; her seventh-sibling brother, Murr Hall Brown resides with family in Mayesville; and her sisters-in-law, Jeanette 'Net' Klarpp Brown (Bobby) and Johnnie Husband Brown (Tom) reside in Sumter; and among her surviving first cousins are Alice Cantey, Dr. Jack Rhame, and Dot Morgan of Sumter and W. Reid Patrick of Charleston. She was preceded in death by brothers, Thomas Edward 'Tom' Brown (1986), William Hall 'Bill' Brown (2008), and R. T. 'Bobby' Brown, Jr. (2010); and sisters, Betty Cain (Mrs. John Nelson 'Bunk' Cain, 2007) and Alice Beaty (Mrs. Robert Wesley Beaty, Jr., 2009).
The family gives their profound thanks to her loyal and loving sitters, Bettie Tindal, Samantha Tindal, and Nikki Blackwell of Quality Private Caregivers.
Funeral services will be held at 11 A.M. Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 226 W. Liberty Street with Rev. Kevin Gorry officiating.
Burial will be in Sumter Cemetery, 700 West Oakland Avenue.
The family will receive friends from 10 to 11 A.M. Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church.
And the family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorials be sent to the churches or Christian organizations of your choice.
On-line condolences may be sent to www.sumterfunerals.com.
Elmore Hill McCreight Funeral Home & Crematory, 221 Broad Street, Sumter, is in charge of the arrangements (803) 775-9386.
Published by The State on Dec. 30, 2011.
Inscription
MILDRED BROWN
WIFE OF
ERVIN BARTOW SHAW
MAR. 25, 1918-DEC.28, 2011
Gravesite Details
In excellent condition.
Family Members
Siblings
