Maude Millwood liked to do things the old fashioned way. For years her Marietta home was not equipped with a dishwasher or a clothes dryer. Technically she never bought either, but a dryer did finally make its way into her house.
“She liked to hang clothes out on the line,” said Cathy Millwood Justus, a daughter who lives in Kennesaw. “And when it rained she hung the clothes in the basement.”
Only after she was unable to do her own laundry, was there was a dryer installed in her home.
“We had to buy one a couple of years ago when we started doing her laundry,” said Jerry Millwood, a son who lives in Blue Ridge. “I can tell you she did not want one, she didn’t think she needed one.”
In the last month Maude Kent Millwood became ill and eventually contracted pneumonia, her daughter said. She died Thursday at Wellstar Tranquility Hospice. She was 90.
A funeral service is planned for 2 p.m. Monday in the chapel of West Cobb Funeral Home and Crematory, which is also in charge of arrangements. Burial at Kennesaw Memorial Park will immediately follow the service.
A native of Cobb County, Mrs. Millwood grew up on her parent’s farm. When she married Benjamin J. Millwood, who she’d known in her youth, the couple moved into a house on his parents’ property. They lived there until his parents died and then they bought their own farmland in Cobb County, where they lived together until Mr. Millwood died in 2003.
Mrs. Millwood worked as a beautician in the mid 40s at Louise's beauty parlor. Mrs. Justus said she often sported new hairstyles, compliments of her mother.
“I’ve had about every kind of permanent there is,” she said with a laugh. “She was always doing something with my hair.”
In the late 50s she transitioned into working in the lunchrooms at Banberry and Lockheed elementary schools, her children said.
At home, Mrs. Millwood was an expert seamstress and made clothes for the whole family.
“One of my favorite dresses when I was a little girl was a green and purple dress,” Mrs. Justus said. “It just swirled around me. I loved it.”
Mrs. Millwood spent a lot of time working in the church. She taught Sunday school to children at Austin Avenue Baptist Church for years, her daughter said. She also looked forward to fixing a dish for fellowship suppers at the church.
Mr. Millwood said his mother understood how to use her talents to provide for her family. She didn’t think money should be spent on unnecessary things, like a dishwasher and a clothes dryer.
“Those were lean times,” he said. “She knew you just couldn’t go to the store and get whatever you wanted, you worked with what you had.”
Mrs. Millwood is also survived by three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
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