MIDLAND - Mildred Ford, 99, passed away Dec. 28, 2024. Graveside service was Jan. 14, 2025, at Midland County Fairview Cemetery, under the direction of Girdner Funeral Home in Abilene.
Mildred was born in July of 1925 to Bertha Cadd and Leslie Lee, in Schulenburg, Fayette County. The family moved to Ennis, where she attended elementary and junior high school, and was baptized. Later the family moved to Houston, where she attended high school, beauty school, and worked in a beauty shop. She later attended Sacramento City College and Odessa College and obtained her Registered Nurse license.
In 1973, she attended New Jersey College of Medicine where she received her Nurse Practitioner Certificate. She worked twenty-five years as Director of Nurses at Martin Hospital in Stanton. Mildred also worked as a midwife, where she delivered 434 babies in Midland, Martin, and Howard counties. Mildred was the first black female Registered Nurse in these areas, and was a trailblazer for black women, RN's and all women.
She is predeceased by her children Dana Ray Mann, and Regina Denise Cole.
Mildred is survived by her grandchildren, Ray Alexander Mann, Dana Charlanease Farris, Christopher Melvin Carr, and Trevor Cole. Also by daughter in law May Francis Carr, and 8 great grandchildren. To know her was a treat, and she will be missed by all who knew her.