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It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Doris Jeannette Mills White on May 21, 2022. Doris was born, married, and died in Decatur County, Georgia on family land she called Love Acres Farm, so named after her maternal great uncle, Arthur Love Slade.

Born March 19,1943, she was the only child of Julia Lambert Mills of Decatur County, Georgia and Leon Burnett Mills of Lacoochee, Florida and was preceded in death by four paternal siblings, Leon Mills (infant) of Hinson, Florida; James “Jim” Carter of Jacksonville, Florida; Max Carter of Deland, Florida; and Mary Bohannon of Pasco, Florida. She was 79 at the time of her passing.

Doris graduated Attapulgus High School as a College Prep-Honor Graduate in 1961, where she was also a member of the Beta Club, Future Homemakers of America (FHA), and 4-H Club. She then went on to earn a Secretarial with Accounting Diploma from Perry Business College in Perry, Georgia, in 1965 and also completed a Liberty Home Bible Institute Correspondence Course.

In the spring of 1960, on April 10, Doris married Dewey Delloyd White of Decatur County. Her loving husband of 62 years, Dewey cherished the ground she walked on and was her primary caregiver to the end. Fate brought them together as early as the third grade when Dewey first laid eyes on Doris. He asked his father, “Do you see that little red headed girl? I am going to marry her.” And with a twinkle in his eye, he would later recount that he chased her until “she caught him.”

Doris White could boast of a varied work life, first in banking, also as a legal secretary, and then in Insurance, Securities and Real Estate. In 2004, at age 61, she was the first appointed Chief Election Official in Decatur County, a position she held for eleven years before retirement in July of 2015. She was a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants/Richard Warren Colony of Tallahassee, Florida; Woodmen Life (formerly known as Woodmen of the World), Chapter 580, Cairo, Georgia; and was a member of Attapulgus Baptist Church.  Volunteering was a part of her life; she was a Sunday School teacher, Vacation Bible School volunteer and helped with events at Bainbridge Health Care before her health declined. She also contributed her time to student events at Bainbridge Christian Academy where her daughters attended, as well as being involved in the Seat Belt Awareness drives during the 80s. She was a past president of the Bainbridge Lioness Club and, in 1987, when women were first granted membership, she joined the Bainbridge Lions Club where she eventually became the first female president. When the Decatur County Lions Club was formed, Doris and her husband were charter members.

Doris had many interests and hobbies. She was an expert seamstress, often staying up late on Easter Eve to finish matching dresses for her daughters to wear to church the next morning. Her granddaughter, Savannah, inherited this gift for sewing and with it has won many 4-H awards. Doris was also an avid reader.  She dismissed the myth of having a green thumb and called it a “dirty thumb” because that is what it took to have beautiful flowers.  She loved tending to her roses, daffodils, and greybeards and was always happy to be out in the garden. She loved canning, researching genealogy, crocheting, restoring antique furniture back to its original beauty, and candy making at Christmas. Her Martha Washington candy and peanut butter balls were renowned, and you could count yourself lucky if you were ever on the receiving end of a batch of those!

Doris doted on her three grandchildren, whom they called “Grandmother,” often driving them to school and using that special car time to teach them Bible verses and to play Bible trivia. And even though, in her words, “cursive writing may have fallen out of fashion” in school curricula, she was adamant that her grandchildren would be fluent in writing cursive and went so far as to make tracing letters in cursive handwriting books a fun activity. Of course, this was often followed up with a sweet treat as a reward which usually spoiled their suppers, but that is exactly what grandmothers are supposed to do!

If there was one motto that Doris White adhered to, it was “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” so she always had something for her family to do even up until the very end. She was a true visionary and had more projects in the works at one time than a crew of fifty could keep up with! Doris said she was going to live to be 127 and her husband said, “..and I will have to outlive her to finish my honey-do list.”

Doris was feisty and stubborn, but equally sweet and giving, traits she passed on to both daughters. The apples did not fall far from her tree. Doris White is survived by her adoring husband, Dewey; her two daughters and their husbands (whom she considered sons), Dorislynn White-Padgett and her husband, Michael, of Decatur County, Georgia, Danielle White Barrett and her husband, Bruce, of Fallbrook, California; her three much loved grandchildren, Joshua Allen Barrett of Temecula, California, Wesley Adam Barrett of Fallbrook, California and Savannah Caroline Padgett of Winter Garden, Florida; and by an extended family of cousins, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, and those close friends considered family. You know who you are.

Visitors may sign the guest register online at www.iveyfuneral.com.

A Celebration of Life will be held at Ivey Funeral Home on May 28, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. with the Reverend Chris Humphries officiating and with Darrin White, Kodi White, Clifford Padgett, Eddie Erving, Randy Erving, and Chris Wilson as Honorary Pallbearers. The family will receive friends immediately following the service. A family graveside service will be held at Piedmont Cemetery in Calvary, Georgia where she will be laid to rest beside her mother.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Georgia 4-H Foundation, 306 Hoke Smith Annex, Athens, GA 30602 https://georgia4hfoundation.org or to Kindred Hospice Foundation, 3350 Riverwood Parkway SE, Suite 1400, Atlanta, GA 30339 https://kindredhospice.com.