Mildred H. Head, 90, avid reader solved crosswords

Mildred Head could finish a crossword puzzle in one sitting.

It was a skill aided by a great vocabulary developed through voracious reading.

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Mildred Honea Head was a longtime pillar at Brookhaven United Methodist Church.

“Doing crossword puzzles and reading were the two things she enjoyed the most,” said her niece, Jeanne F. McLeod of Eatonton. “From the time I was a little girl, I can remember her working crossword puzzles. I do them, too, but I didn’t get into it until an older age.”

Mildred Honea Head, 90, of Greensboro, and formerly of Atlanta, died Friday from complications of leukemia at Willow Run Retirement Home in Greensboro. The funeral will be 1 p.m. Tuesday at Arlington Sunrise Chapel in Atlanta. McCommons Funeral Home of Greensboro is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Head graduated from Chamblee High School and studied briefly at Oglethorpe University. She spent 40 years with the Atlanta Gas Light Co., her niece said, and retired in the 1960s as an assistant branch manager at the Buckhead office.

Mrs. Head’s niece is her closest living relative. She never had any children, partly because she didn’t marry till she was in her 50s. Her late husband, James M. Head, died about 15 years ago. The fact that she married late in life was not a topic for discussion.

“We didn’t talk about that much,” her niece said. “It was a sore subject, so we wouldn’t get into it. My husband gave her away. Me, my children and my grandchildren are her family.”

A DeKalb County resident, Mrs. Head lived in Brookhaven, where she tended a garden and grew azaleas. Her niece moved her to the Greensboro retirement home when her health declined six years go. At Brookhaven United Methodist Church, where she’d been a member more than 70 years, Mrs. Head’s name was synonymous with volunteering. She delivered meals to shut-ins, among other things.

“She was a pillar of the church,” her niece said.