Elizabeth Case Mills

Elizabeth Case Mills died in her sleep of natural causes on December 30, 2020. She was 89, and a resident of Ponte Vedra, Florida.

Her husband of 64 years, Willis N. Mills, Jr., predeceased her by nineteen days.

Mrs. Mills, known to all as “Betsy,” was born in Plainfield, New Jersey on December 7, 1931 to James H. Case, Jr. and Elizabeth Wylie Case. She was the granddaughter of James Herbert Case, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Rev. Dr. Dwight Witherspoon Wylie, Minister of the Central Presbyterian Church of New York.

She graduated from the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1949, and received her B.A. degree in Art History from Vassar College in 1953. While at Vassar, she also studied at the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands.

Mrs. Mills worked as Assistant Curator at Princeton University’s Art Museum after college, where she met her husband, who was pursuing his graduate degree in architecture at Princeton University’s Architecture School.

They were married in 1956, in Annandale-On-Hudson, New York, at the Episcopal Chapel of Bard College, where her father served as President.

Mr. and Mrs. Mills lived in Wilton, Connecticut, in Chatham, Massachusetts and in Ponte Vedra, Florida. She worked for many years as an interior designer, specializing in commercial office interiors at SMS Architects in New Canaan, Connecticut.

She and her husband enjoyed travel, golf, sailing, art and politics.

Mrs. Mills maintained a strong interest in music throughout her life. She played classical piano pieces and sang in various choral groups, including the Fairfield County Chorale. In her later years, she became an avid bridge player, and loved the intellectual challenge and social interplay of that pursuit.

Mrs. Mills is survived by a sister, Penelope C. Davis, of Ponte Vedra, Florida, and the Mills’s four children: Nathaniel Mills of Coventry, Connecticut; Jonathan B. Mills of Greenwich, Connecticut; Elizabeth Mills Bedell of Charlotte, Vermont; and David W. Mills of Stamford, Connecticut. She is also survived by ten grandchildren.

Due to COVID-19 constraints, the family plans to have a Memorial Service in 2021.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Alzheimer’s Association, or to a charity of your choice.