Eleanor Frances Mills Bresee's Obituary
Eleanor Frances Mills Bresee was born to Orren Mills and Alice Breazeale Mills in the living room of the family farm home on September 19th, 1933 in Bois D’ Arc, Missouri. She was raised as a farm girl working the land and animals nearly every day for the first 19 years of her life. Eleanor met her husband, Duane when they were in high school. They married October 10, 1952 when he was in the Navy in Florida. They were both 19 years old. Their kids liked to say that their mother ran off to Florida to marry a sailor! After Duane finished serving in the Navy the couple moved to Tulsa, OK where they lived from 1955 until the present. Eleanor liked to say she had one vice – and it was traveling! She came by it honestly when in her childhood her father went to work for the Frisco Railroad. This allowed their modest farm family to travel the country far and wide. After marrying, Eleanor became a world traveler and saw every state in the United States, nine Canadian provinces, and nearly 50 countries. She prided herself in coming such a long way since her years as a Missouri farm girl! Eleanor had a successful career selling real estate with Century 21 and Gordona Duca Realty while Duane worked at American Airlines for 38 years. She attended Broken Arrow Church of Christ where she taught Second Grade Bible Class for decades. The many children who walked through her doors through the years loved and cherished Eleanor. They continued to return for her warm hugs many years after leaving her class. Often times, Eleanor would speak to the children through tears of deep love for her precious, young brothers and sisters in Christ. Eleanor’s co-teachers can’t imagine the many hundreds of lives she impacted over the years, including their own. Preceded in death by her parents, Orren and Alice as well as a brother, Daniel Mills; Eleanor is survived by two sisters, Eva Mills Smith of Tyler, TX and Aldine Mills Hilton of Springfield, MO; brother, Stephen Mills of Kansas City, MO; husband Duane of the home; three children and their spouses – Dale Bresee and Tammy, Broken Arrow, OK; Carol Bresee Sallee and Phil, Bixby, OK; Dianne Davis and Richard Welch, Broken Arrow, OK; nine grandchildren, five greatgrandchildren, and two more great-grandchildren who will arrive in 2015. Thank you for joining us today to celebrate Eleanor’s well-lived life.
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