Promoted to Glory: Major Audrey Mills
Major Audrey Mills was Promoted to Glory on May 13, 2024, from her home in New Bern, NC, at the age of 101.
Audrey Lee Simpson was born on March 27, 1923, to Alfred & Bethane Simpson. As a young child, she attended Sunday School at the New Bern Temple Baptist Church in the morning and The Salvation Army in the afternoon. When the Army moved their Sunday School to mornings, her mother said she had to choose between the two and be faithful to that one. Thank God, she chose The Salvation Army! It was at the New Bern Corps that she was converted and later heard God’s call to Salvation Army officership.
She graduated in 1940 from New Bern High School and that Fall entered the Training College as a member of the Steadfast session of cadets. She was commissioned in the Spring of 1941 and appointed to assist in Goldsboro, NC.
On April 14, 1942, Lieutenant Audrey married Captain Graham Mills. Together, Captains Graham and Audrey Mills served as corps officers in Henderson, NC; Gaffney, SC; and Fayetteville, Gastonia, Hickory, Rocky Mount, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem, NC. Their last appointment as active officers was Utica, NY.
In 1981, they retired to New Bern. Audrey and Graham had been married almost 65 years when he was Promoted to Glory on February 4, 2007. In her retirement, Major Audrey was a Sunday School teacher, Sunbeam leader, songster, bandsman, and occasionally, a preacher!
Throughout her life, she was a faithful soldier, powerful prayer warrior, and always sought to encourage people to know Jesus and grow in their walk with Him. Even many years after retiring, she still had a hunger to learn more about God’s Word and to draw closer to the Savior she followed.
Major Audrey Mills is survived by her three children, Robert Mills, Major Virginia (Richard) Watts, and Major Linda (Doug) Jones—along with ten wonderful grandchildren and 22 outstanding great-grandchildren.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at the Cotton Funeral Home in New Bern on May 21, 2024. Interment will follow at the Cedar Grove Extension Cemetery.