Mildred Witcher had an old school work ethic, with a new school philosophy. She didn’t always follow the social norms of her day, but did what she felt was best for her family.
“She really believed women should have their own money,” said Christine Buchanan, a daughter who lives in Champaign, Ill. “She didn’t think a woman should be dependent on a man for money, or anything for that matter.”
Mrs. Buchanan said her mother didn’t have a problem with men, or relationships, but she didn’t want her daughters to grow up thinking if they had to have a man to be successful.
“For her day, that was radical thinking,” her daughter said. “And she really believed that, and lived that way all of her life.”
Mildred Louise Williams Sparks Witcher, of Atlanta, died suddenly May 21, after experiencing a brief period of shortness of breath while at a doctor’s visit. She was 92. A funeral was held Friday, and her body was buried at Kennedy Memorial Gardens. Murray Brothers Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
A native of Atlanta, Mrs. Witcher was more a doer than a talker, her children said. When her first marriage ended in divorce, she was 26 and had three young children. But she didn’t hang her head or look for a new husband, her daughter said. She got a job that would support the family, and raised her three children on her own. And even though she didn’t finish high school, she preached education to her children.
“I wish every female could have met her,” Mrs. Buchanan said. “She had a strength about herself and she was courageous. Very courageous.”
Mrs. Witcher did eventually get married again, in 1956 to Freddie Witcher, but she still held fast to her belief that she didn’t want to be solely dependent upon her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Witcher were married for 40 years when he died in 1996.
“Even then I believe she still kept her own bank accounts,” her daughter said, with a light laugh.
Because Mrs. Witcher believed in having her own money, she always kept a job. The idea of retirement didn’t really appeal to the energetic woman, said her daughter-in-law.
“She didn’t care a lot about redecorating and all of that that folks do when they retire,” said Gloria J. Sparks, of Atlanta. “She’d rather be out doing something helpful and she kept working because she wanted to help whoever needed help. “
Mrs. Witcher spent 28 working at the Federal Reserve, she working her way up from an elevator operator to being in charge of the executive dining room, said her son, John H. Sparks, Jr., of Atlanta. After she retired in 1972, she spent 15 years as a crossing guard, and then she worked for Avon for 14 years, before finally calling it quits, in her early 80’s.
“With so many grands and great-grands, I think this was her way of making a little money so she could help all of the kids,” Mr. Sparks said. “But she believed in working and staying busy, and boy did she.”
Mrs. Witcher is also survived by another daughter, Miriam Aaron Briley of Atlanta; eight grandchildren; 11 great grandchildren; and 18 great-great grandchildren.
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