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Mildred Greear
The community is remembering a creative and talented White County writer.
Mildred Greear passed away Sept. 25, a few weeks shy of her 101st birthday, according to her daughter, Teressa Holtzclaw. Greear was born in Mississippi, where she grew up. When Greear was 16 both of her parents died within six months of each other.
“She and her siblings from that point on raised each other. She was the next to the youngest of five children,” Holtzclaw said. “She was the first in the family to go to college and graduate from college.”
Greear met her husband, Philip, in Gulf Port, Mississippi. He was in the Air Force, and during the Korean War, the two of them lived in Japan.
“She always had a love of all things Japanese,” Holtzclaw said. “She was in Japan for several years.”
Greear first came to Helen as a young bride, and then returned to Helen 25 years ago, and she lived there until she passed away.”
During her life, Greear was involved in many things. She taught school in White County, Clarkesville and Floyd County, Holtzclaw said.
“In Floyd County, she taught the program for the gifted students for many years,” Holtzclaw said. “She was among the first, when first developed that program, was one of the first selected to teach it. She was a very, very gifted teacher. She taught, in the gifted program, she focused on the creative needs of students, but not art, creative as in writing, exploring different avenues of their educational opportunities. But what she taught mainly was language arts, writing, and creative writing. Creative writing was really her forte, encouraging children to write and know they could write and could write well.”
With a passion for creative writing, Greear became involved in poetry.
“I think it came naturally to her,” Holtzclaw said. “Where she grew up in Mississippi, they had an endowed high school and it made the library free to all students. I think she had some good teachers early on that introduced her to poetry. When she went to Ole Miss, I think she had some really good creative writing people in her midst.”
Greear had her poetry published in several literary publications, She went on to publish her own book of poetry, Moving Gone Dancing. She was a two-time winner of the Georgia Poetry Society Charles Dickson Chapbook competition.
With her poetry she met a lot of different people. Local author Emory Jones said when he told Greear about his book Distance Voices, she said she was going to write a poem, which she did.
“It was about the Indian mound, and she said now you have to write the book because it’ll hurt my feelings if you don’t,” Jones said.
In the book Distance Voices, Jones called Greear a fierce writer.
“But her potent words flow from a gentle heart … one where the ethos of the high Appalachians and the lowlands of Mississippi have fused into a matchless blend of distinctiveness,” Jones said in Distant Voices.
Ivy Rutzky met Greear through the Enthusiastic Adults Growing, Learning, Experience (E.A.G.L.E.) Program at Nacoochee United Methodist Church. She was taking the poetry workshop that Greear was teaching.
“She was a very strong person, but very, very generous and very kind with people new to poetry, and very encouraging,” Rutsky said. “In fact, it was because of Mildred that I published my book. So I owe all of that to her to kind of get me involved.”
Candice Dyer said she helped Greear with correspondence, readings, and filing work.
“Mildred leaves behind a bejeweled legacy of poetry, which is first-rate by any objective standard,” Dyer said.” Her collection, Moving Gone Dancing should be required reading in the schools. Many of us consider her the ‘poet laureate of Appalachia,’ picking up where her friend Byron Herbert Reece left off. Not only did she craft some masterpieces; she also could declaim them from memory, mesmerizing even the toughest crowd. Mildred was also a bold and reflexive humanitarian.”
June Krise described Greear as a progressive woman who wanted women to step out and be economically independent.
“She just was a unique individual and she would say, June don’t lose your voice, stand up and speak out, and encouraged other women to do the same. I really will miss her advice and council,” Krise said.
Besides her poetry, Greear also wrote a column for the White County News for many years, with former editor and publisher Billy Chism remembering her fondly. He met her in October 2007 when she came to the News office for an interview about her newly released book, Moving Gone Dancing.
“Right away, I knew she was a force of nature,” Chism said. “She wanted to know more about me, since the newspaper was important to her and her family. It was obvious Mildred had a love for White County. She also had a love of the natural world in all its beauty and wonder. She was an environmental activist and proud of it.”
Chism added that Greear had a fierce love for her family and always talked about her five children, Carol, Delbert, Missy (deceased), Margaret and Teressa. She also treated others as her own children.
“I felt that way, when she would give me a few words of praise or suggest an idea or invite me to her home for supper, which included homemade biscuits,” Chism said. “She wouldn’t put the biscuits in the oven until the last minute so they would be steaming hot.”
Greear’s son Delbert said his mother was loved and respected by her family.
“She definitely left a large impression on everybody around,” Delbert said. “She was a strong personality, for not just her family, the rest of the world too, the rest of the people she encountered around the way. She had a strong intellect...and a strong character, she was very forthright in expressing her opinions and making known her ideas.”
An obituary for Mildred Greear is on page 6A.