Mildred Ford

Mildred Alida Ford, 89, died Wednesday, June 1, 2011, at her North Little Rock home. She was preceded in death by her husband, Benjamin Dale Ford, and her brother Walter Russ Ethridge of Conway. Born in Conway on August 14, 1921, to Hinkle West and Myrtle Naylor Ethridge, she graduated in 1940 with honors from Hendrix College, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in applied piano. She taught public school music in Keiser before her marriage in 1941. During World War II she taught music in the Warren and Conway public schools and at Hendrix College. She also pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan, participating in master classes led by Austrian concert pianist Artur Schnabel. Following the war she and her husband settled in Texas where they were music educators. They were graduate students at North Texas State University and the University of Northern Colorado. In 1955 they purchased a retail music business in Paris, Texas. They subsequently bought Bean Music Company, an established Little Rock firm specializing in band and orchestral instruments, music and repairs. Over the next thirty years they operated the business together, expanding to five additional locations. During that time Mrs. Ford was piano accompanist for many Little Rock area band students performing in solo and ensemble contests. After retiring in 1993, she was secretary of the Little Rock Wind Symphony board and belonged to the Little Rock Musical Coterie. She also taught a class in music education at UALR. A member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Mrs. Ford was organist-choir director in the 1960s. In 1982 the Rev. Lawson Anderson, then rector, appointed her as the congregation’s first female senior warden, an office she held again in the 1990s. She assumed other lay leadership roles, notably in adult Christian formation and pastoral care. For over twenty years she facilitated a closely-knit women’s group for theological study and reflection. She was a past board member and treasurer of St. Francis House in Little Rock. Mrs. Ford is survived by two daughters, Carolyn A. Ford of Fayetteville, Mary Jane Hodges and husband Drew of North Little Rock; two granddaughters and their husbands, Lisa and Doug Spurlin of Tucson, Aaron and Greg Dutton of Independence, Missouri; three great-grandchildren, Sarah, Caroline, and Benjamin Spurlin of Tucson; three nieces, Martha Ethridge of Conway, Betty Graham of Williamsburg, Virginia, Holly Madsen of Washington, D.C.; one nephew, Mark Ford of Olathe, Kansas; and numerous other family and friends. Funeral will be Monday, June 6, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, North Little Rock. The Rt. Rev. Larry Benfield, Bishop of Arkansas, will celebrate, assisted by the Rev. Denis Baum, Interim Rector of St. Luke’s. The Rev. Lowell Grisham, Rector of St Paul’s Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, will deliver the homily. Interment of ashes will be 3:00 p.m. Monday at Oak Grove Cemetery in Conway. The family will receive friends from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Sunday, June 5, in the chapel at St. Luke’s. Memorials may be made to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 4106 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock, AR 72116. The family expresses gratitude to the clergy and congregation of St. Luke’s, the staffs of Hospice Homecare and Home Instead Senior Care, and to several private caregivers. Arrangements by North Little Rock Funeral Home, 1921 Main, 758-1170. Online obituary and guest registry at www.nlrfh.com.

Mildred Ford

June 1, 1922 - June 1, 2011