This isn’t an ordinary obituary, but the love story of a lifetime between Clint Ollen Millsaps and Verla Margaret Davis Millsaps.
Clint was born on Sunday, May 10, 1931, in his parents’ home in Northeastern Alexander County, N.C. He was the nineth of fourteen children born to the late Edward A. Millsaps and Pearlie Elizabeth Parker Millsaps. Clint attended Stony Point School. Between 1952 and 1954, Clint served honorably in the U.S. Army as a stevedore in Greenland and Korea. Margaret’s sister Jane had faithfully written to her neighborhood friend during the two years he was in service, giving Margaret insight into what a nice guy Clint was.
Margaret was born on Thursday, May 19, 1938, in the Alexander County home of her parents, Jesse Lee Davis and Mary Angeline Looper Davis. She was their third of four children and their last surviving child. She was in one of the smallest classes at Hiddenite School. Their Class of 1956 remained close throughout their adult life. As a Beta Club member, Margaret would go on to make a fine example of an intelligent student making a good life without a college education.
Back in Alexander County, after his military service, Clint and a group of friends were at the Sears Theater in Taylorsville when door prizes were given out during intermission. Margaret Davis won a set of knives. Her date would not go up on the stage to get them, but Clint did not miss the opportunity to endear himself to Margaret and went up on the stage to get the knives for her. From that time on, it was pretty much Clint and Margaret. They were married on June 28, 1958, by and at the home of Rev. Grady White. They began housekeeping at his parents’ original home until their new home was built on the northwest corner of the Dogcross intersection of what is now called Sharpe Mill Road and Berea Church Quincy Road, where over the years Clint would earn the affectionate title, “The Mayor of Dogcross.”
Clint and Margaret attended Fairview Baptist Church until a schism of differing doctrine arose. Along with several other families in the church, Clint and Margaret left to charter a new Church, Berea Baptist Church. Clint’s father donated a parcel of land for the church, parsonage and cemetery. They were active in the church until Clint’s health battle with Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia no longer allowed him to, but for decades he served as sexton.
Each time Clint and Margaret’s family grew, their love grew exponentially. As their children, Jeffrey and Janet, in-laws, Judy and Buddy, and later their grandchildren, Jessica, Thomas and Victoria, and even great-granddaughter, Jasmine, the Love in their household expanded. They reared their children in church, giving them a firm foundation in the Lord.
For a time, Clint, Margaret and her sister, Ann, worked at the new Broyhill Furniture Factory between Hiddenite and Taylorsville. Clint left furniture work for the Alexander County School’s Maintenance Department until his retirement in 1996. At that time, his supervisor wrote him a letter of great appreciation for being an exemplary employee, fearing he would be too emotional to be able to tell Clint face to face. Margaret would spend almost forty years at Broyhill and intended to retire with forty years, but when Clint needed her, she stopped working, just short of forty years, to take care of Clint for the next twenty years. Clint was never in the hospital without her by his side except during Covid, when she and Jeffery sat in the car in the hospital parking lot. Her exemplary care of Clint began at 4 a.m. and continued throughout the day. She planted the garden, he broke the green beans and shucked and silked the corn as she prepared to can or freeze food for her family’s multiple households. Her upholstery sewing experience made sewing at home a breeze. Margaret made numerous quilts for family members with a secret stitched into each quilt, just as she had a secret ingredient in her food storage and great cooking: her Love.
Clint was ever ready with a quick pair of hands to help family or friends. Even in his retirement, and despite his long battle with Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, Clint did not rest. He took his walker to get to his wheelchair, to get to his golf cart, or to get to the lawn mower to mow grass until he was in his 80s or he would get to his golf cart to use the weed eater, or trim trees or hoe in the garden as far as his hoe could reach from the golf cart, as he and Margaret continued to garden until Clint was in his late 80s. Clint would get up at 4 a.m. to read his Bible every day. In between their birth and death dates, Clint and Margaret lived the life of true followers of Christ. Any time he was asked what he liked to read, he would answer, “The Bible.” When Clint did have to stay inside, they enjoyed watching Gunsmoke. With the advent of the Day Spring Church and School opening across the way, Margaret decided to remodel the front of the house because Clint so enjoyed watching and listening to the children play from the windows. One of their highlights each Christmas was when those same children would come over to sing Christmas carols for them.
Surrounded by Margaret and their family at the Gordon Hospice House in Iredell County, N,C. Clint slipped peacefully from Earth’s grasp, with the setting of the sun on Friday, January 17, 2025, at 5 p.m.
Having been with Clint around the clock since he had left home, in the hospital and at Gordon Hospice House, Margaret had seemed very frail, so Jeffery and Janet took her to the Emergency Room to be checked out. Failing to get her oxygen stats increased, Margaret commented, “I’ve never felt like this” and “I can hear him calling me” before she closed her eyes at 10 p.m. on Friday, January 17, 2025, and followed her beloved husband of 66 years into heaven.
In addition to his parents, Clint was preceded in death by five brothers and six sisters.
In addition to her parents, Margaret was preceded in death by one brother and two sisters.
Clint and Margaret are survived by one son, Jeffery Wade Millsaps and wife Judy Johnson Millsaps of Hiddenite; one daughter, Janet Millsaps Alexander and husband Lewis Quinton “Buddy” Alexander of Stony Point; three grandchildren, Jessica Millsaps Sable and husband Jeremy of Hiddenite, and Thomas Alexander and Victoria Alexander, both of Stony Point; one great-granddaughter, Jasmine Sable of Hiddenite; Clint’s brother, Edward Millsaps Jr. and wife Gail of Hiddenite; Clint’s sister, Helen Gant and husband Max of Taylorsville; and numerous generations of nieces and nephews, neighbors, friends and church family who felt the love that they bestowed.
The family will receive friends at Berea Baptist Church in Hiddenite on Friday, January 24, 2025, from 1 until 2:45 p.m. The funeral will be conducted by Rev. Sheridan Stanton and Rev. Rickey Mitchell. Burials will follow in the church cemetery. Pall Bearers will include Thomas Alexander, Victoria Alexander, Jeremy Sable, Barry Millsaps, Shawn Reed, Michael McLain, Andrew McLain, Myles McLain, Darrell McLelland, Alex Fox, Timmy Wyley and Shane Wyley. Honorary Pall Bearers will include E.B. “Junie” Cranford, Susan Mitchell, and Wells Cranford.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to Berea Baptist Church, 350 Berea Church Quincy Road, Hiddenite, NC 28636; Gideons International, P.O. Box 517, Taylorsville, NC 28681; or Gordon Hospice House, 264 Simonton Road, Statesville, NC 28625.
So ends this earthly love story of Clint and Margaret Davis Millsaps. But the love they shared with others will transcend through generations.
Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Alexander Funeral and Cremation Service.