Mildred Gray Anderson

Funeral is 2 p.m. Friday at Hawkins Funeral Home Chapel with burial at Oakwood Cemetery in Jacksboro. Jimmy Swetnam officiating. Family will receive friends 6-8 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.

Pallbearers: Deborah Anderson, J.D. Anderson, Jr., Tim Sanders, Jeremy Anderson, John Anderson, Marty Anderson, Tommy Anderson, David Anderson, Trent Anderson.

Mildred was the daughter of the late John Elbert Gray and Janie Hensley Gray of Jacksboro. She married the love of her life, James Leroy "Dear" Anderson, November 1, 1934 at Waurika, Oklahoma. They celebrated 64 years of marriage before Dear died in November 1998. Mildred and James Anderson lived in Paradise where the first three of their seven children, Shirley Lee, James Donald and Kenneth Roy, were born. A daughter and son, Mildred Jane and Stanley Gray, were born in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Dear worked for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad. Two more sons, Stuart Neal and Tommy Wayne, were born after the Andersons returned to Texas.

In 1947, they bought the old McGinnis farm on County Road 1810, where they raised corn, cotton, peanuts, chickens, pigs and cows over the next fifty years. In addition, Dear worked for Gifford-Hill.

Mildred was a homemaker and gifted. She sewed clothing, reupholstered furniture, quilted and produced delicate counted-cross-stitch items. Several of her original paintings, including one of the old farm house and the railroad, hang in her house. She was an active member of Chico First Baptist Church until later years in life.

Growing up near Wizard Wells, she attended schools at Peach Orchard and Vineyard. Mildred was one of eight sisters and four brothers. She is survived only by her sister, Izella Gray Boyd, of Bowie. Preceding her in death were Thelma, Dock, Beatrice, J.E., Dena, Iris, Virginia, Jess, Ted, and Wilma Jean. Sister Thelma died in 2012 at age 105 in Kentucky.

In addition to her husband, Mildred was preceded in death by her first daughter, Shug, in 2005 and middle son, Stanley of Brownwood in September.

Survivors include daughter and son-in-law, Jane and Freman Hollingsworth of Carrollton; sons and daughters-in-laws, James D. and Marjorie Anderson of Joplin, Kenneth R. and Sally Anderson of Mesquite, Stuart N. and Tammy Anderson of Commerce, and T. Wayne and Nancy Anderson of Arlington; daughter-in-law, May Anderson of Fort Worth; 23 grandchildren; dozens of great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren; caregivers, Kathy Turner and Lynn Coyle; other family members and a host of friends.

Hawkins Funeral Home, Bridgeport, Texas, 940-683-2211

Scripture to be read:

1 Cor 15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

From Mama Gray's funeral, her mother who died in 1984,

John 14:1-7 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself: that where I am there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto them, We know not whither thou goest: and how can we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give unto you. Let not your heat be troubled, neither let it be afraid.