Remarks by Joanne Pierson at our October 30, 2024 meeting:
Millie Mack Danielson, our beautiful, beloved Millie, passed from our world three weeks ago today in her home with her family at her side at the age of 101 years young!
I want to thank Millie’s children for sharing their mother with us all especially as she was nearing the end of her life: her twins – Lisa, who lives down the street from her mom, and Mike, from Arcadia, California (Millie was very proud when he joined Rotary), and, her youngest son, Chris, from LaGrange, Indiana. She had those children with the love of her life, the wonderful Lee Danielson, whom she married in 1950.
It’s impossible to get to the depth of 101 years of living in 5 minutes. So, some highlights of Millie’s service:
It’s no wonder that Millie eventually found her way to Rotary. From a young age, she exemplified Service Above Self. Born in Detroit on February 8, 1923, she went on to study education at Michigan Normal College (now EMU) and became an art teacher in Detroit. And, despite the fear of polio at that time, Millie signed on to teach at two summer camps that were designed for polio survivors, and then to think that decades later she joined an organization that is ‘this close’ to eradicating polio. When Lee was called into active duty during the Korean War, Millie went with him to California, where, as Downs wrote, “She was probably one of the most overqualified craft-cart volunteers in the Ocean Side Military Hospital.”
Millie and Lee, who was also a member of our club, found themselves back in Ann Arbor when Lee began his PhD. Here in Ann Arbor, Millie served on several boards, including the Michigan Theater, Performance Network, UM Museum of Art, and the Musical Society. A member of the Faculty Women’s Drama group, she not only read plays, but wrote and produced two plays. Her active community service work led to an invitation to join our club in 1995. She served on our Social Committee and was a long-time member of the Program Committee. And she was our Club’s first female Emeritus Member.
Millie was a member of First Presbyterian Church, where she sang in the choir, and her memorial service will be held there on Sunday, November 24th at 1:30 pm.
You can’t talk about Millie without talking about her talent as a fiber artist, and I feel blessed to have two of her pieces in our home. A visit to her home revealed eight looms; going into her basement was like walking into a fiber shop. She was a long-time member of the local Hand Weavers Guild and the Michigan League of Hand Weavers. Her work was regularly displayed at the annual Guild Exhibit show at the Power Center. One of her pieces, originally commissioned for Ann Arbor’s Zion Lutheran Church, was gifted to a sister-church in Bethlehem. When she was around 90, she decided that it was time to take all of the clothing she’d made and get it “Out of the Closet.” Some of us had the pleasure of being her models. Every year, she donated one of her pieces to our GPO auction to raise money to “Help Kids Succeed.”
For me, Millie lived her life the way life should be lived. Embracing what life has to give us every day – at 99 she went to Portugal with her family; at 101, she had a goal to finish a weaving for her grandson, Alex. If you brought her flowers, she made you feel like you’d brought her the entire field. And when you talked with her, she was right there with you – present. The last time we all had her with us was at this year’s GPO, 23 days before she passed, where the Grand Dame held court – and I hope that you were lucky enough to have spoken with her that day and to have felt her joy and love.
So last week, you all had a moment of silence for Millie, and I’m glad of that, because for me, a moment of silence doesn’t quite capture her joie de vivre. So, please, raise whatever glass you might have, and, if I may make a toast – to Millie, and her Millie-ness, and may we all remember to live our lives the Millie Way.
