Miss Ethel B. McMillan, 75, longtime city school  teacher of 31 NW 14, died early Saturday at St. Anthony hospital after an extended illness.

A native of Dover, KY, Miss McMillan received her elementary education there and was graduated from the Midway School for Girls at Midway, KY. After graduation she began her life long teaching career in her home state, teaching for one year in the mountain section of eastern Kentucky.

She came to Purcell in 1907 teaching there for two and one half years. In 1910 she joined the city school system, being assigned to the seventh grade at Culbertson.

A few years later she was appointed assistant principal at the old Lowell school on the east side of town. She later transferred to Culbertson school as principal in 1919, retaining that position until her retirement in 1947.

She was a member of St. Luke's Methodist church.

Surviving are a nephew, Robert Lear, a newspaper editor of Enid; and a cousin, Mrs. John D. Thomas, 700 NW 15.

Miss McMillan had made her home with Miss Martha J. Straight, a long time friend and companion for many years.

Services will be at 4pm Monday in St. Luke's Methodist church, with burial in the Dover, KY cemetery. Guardian funeral home handled local arrangements.

1879- 1954

Ethel Brewer McMillan was the daughter .of J. J. McMillan and Lucy Earnshaw McMillan, who made their home at Dover, Mason County. Kentucky where she was born on October 25, 1879. Her mother was a native of Yorkshire, England. Mr. McMillan owned and operated a coal yard and elevator in the small town of Dover, which was situated on the main line of the C. & 0. Railroad and on the Ohio River. He was a successful dealer shipping mostly by boat on the river. Ethel idolized her older brother, Earnshaw, who was the son of her father's first wife. He and her half-sister, Anna Mae, both died in their early twenties, un-married. Mr. McMillan's second wife, Ethel's mother, passed away at the birth of the second daughter when Ethel was five years old. She adored this little sister, Jennie, and later Jennie's son, Bob. was the joy of her life. Ethel graduated from the Midway Girls' School in Woodford County, Kentucky, with outstanding honors. Miss Lizzie Corbin, Principal of the Midway School, was the inspiration of Ethel's girlhood, and had a deep influence on her life. Miss McMillan's teaching career began in the country schools around Dover. She also taught one year in a mountain school in Eastern Kentucky. Her higher education included two summers at Teachers' College, Valparaiso, Indiana; two summers at the University of Colorado; a summer at Chicago University; a B.A. degree from the University of Oklahoma, and a M.E. degree from Columbia University, New York. During the summer of 1930, she traveled in Europe and, when not attending school, she traveled much in the United States, thus broadening her fine educational advantages. Ethel McMillan came to Purcell, Indian Territory, as a young teacher, in February, 1907, and was still serving as a pioneer teacher when Oklahoma became a state in November of the same year. During her two and one-half years at Purcell, she became vitally interested in Indian women and wrote about them. She also worked with many of the Indian teachers in the Indian schools, and admired them greatly for their sacrificial and missionary spirit.


She died on December 31, 1954, in Oklahoma City. The funeral services were conducted at the St. Luke's Methodist Church, by Dr. McFerren W. Stowe; the burial was at Dover, Kentucky. She is survived by her nephew, Robert Lear, and his wife, Sue, of Enid, Oklahoma; by a cousin, Mrs. J. D. Thomas, of Oklahoma City; and by her long time friend, Miss Martha Straight, with whom she had lived at 31 N.W. 14th Street, Oklahoma City, for many years. The Board of Education of the Oklahoma City Public Schools paid tribute to Miss McMillan's memory in a formal document of appreciation and sympathy which was sent to her nephew.

Ethel McMillan was a woman with keen insight, unusual perception and a remarkable gift of expression. Her description of the necessary characteristics for a pioneer teacher gives her own qualifications: "Patience under trial, judgment under stress, industry under fatigue and cheerful outlook under discouragement-all in such balance as to exemplify attainment which a people eager for a better life would desire, and so blended as to accomplish the acceptance of the teachings of the Master Teacher. "Yet who shall say she is gone? (2)

 (1)  Daily Oklahoman, The; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; January 18, 1932, pg 19

 (2)  OSU Electronic Publishing Center. Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol 33, p 262 "Necrology Ethel Brewer McMillan - Floy Campbell  July 27, 2009 http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v033/v033p262.pdf

Sources:  good faith fair use of sources stated above

Compiled, transcribed and submitted by Marti Graham, Oklahoma County, OKGenWeb Coordinator, July 2009. Information posted for educational purposes for viewers and researchers. The contributor is not related to nor researching any of the above.

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