Mildred Ponder Burns passed away on February 28, 2016 from natural causes at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center. She was 96 years old. Mildred Garrett was born February 2, 1920 to Walter and Lillian Garrett in Marlin, Texas and had an older sister, Francis. Mildred’s upbringing was on her parent’s cotton farm where she rode a horse to and from school during the Great Depression Era. She always enjoyed reminiscing and telling stories from the family farm and the life lessons learned in farm labor.
After graduating high school in Marlin, she and her sister moved to north Texas to pursue jobs after a failed crop on the family farm. She loved being a working woman and loved the glamour and fashion of Dallas, TX. She was a fiercely independent and strong woman who worked during WW II, witnessed the JFK assassination, and severely disliked crooked politicians. She learned how to operate a comptometer, a forerunner to the electronic adding machine (the comptometer is on display in the Dallas History Museum) and excelled in accounting with the companies she was employed by. She was a lifelong avid Dallas Cowboys fan and faithfully watched their games each week, win or lose.
She married Howard Ponder in 1942 and had her son Donald, whom she loved dearly. Her first husband passed away in 1977 and she remarried to a man she had known 47 years earlier as a childhood sweetheart. She married Bill Burns in 1983 and they shared 7 years together before his death.
Loved by God and her family, Mildred was a Christian and a member of The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson for over 50 years. She moved to Austin in 2005 to be closer to her son and resided at the Conservatory at Wells Branch for the past 10 years.
She is survived by her loving son, Donald Ponder and wife, Cindy of Round Rock, Texas; grandchildren, David Ponder and wife, Amanda of Houston, Texas and Alicia Ponder Foxworth and husband, Wade of Austin, Texas; great-grandchildren, Bradley Wood and Madeleine and Jeremiah Ponder; niece, Susan Anderson of New York; nephew, Craig Anderson of Dallas, Texas; step-grandchildren and great-grandchildren who have loved and treasure their time with her as well; and is also loving survived by her step-granddaughter, Dana Burns of San Francisco, California who grew up with Mildred and Bill Burns as her surrogate parents and loves Mildred as a mother.
Mildred was preceded in death by her parents, sister, and her first and second husbands.
Mildred will be missed by all of us and we treasure the memories we have.
A memorial service was held at the Conservatory at Wells Branch in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, March 3, 2016, at 3:00 p.m.
A funeral service will be held at 4:00 p.m., Saturday, March 5, 2016, at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Chapel in Allen, Texas, returning our Dallas 'gal' back home. Interment will follow at Ridgeview Memorial Park in Allen. The family will receive friends during a visitation prior to the service at 2:00 p.m. at the funeral home.