Angelyn Stokes McMillan

1939 - 2021

Angelyn Stokes McMillan
December 22, 1939 - December 25, 2021
Raleigh, North Carolina - Angelyn (Angie) Stokes McMillan died December 25, 2021 of complications from Parkinson's disease. She was 82 years old. A Witness to the Resurrection celebrating Angie's life and faith will be held in the Sanctuary, White Memorial Presbyterian Church, Oberlin Road at Colonial Road, Raleigh, Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 2:00 PM. Visitation with the family will follow the service.
Angie was born in Greensboro, the daughter of Mary Ruby Wright Stokes, a nurse, and Pinkney Broughton Stokes, Assistant Manager at J. W. Scott and Company. She grew up in Greensboro and graduated from Greensboro Senior High School. She attended Agnes Scott College. In 1960, she transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill, where she met her future husband, John Burchfield McMillan. They were married in 1964. At UNC she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and served on the Pan-Hellenic Council. After graduation with a degree in psychology, Angie worked for 7 years with the Department of Social Services in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Orange County and Wake County. She then distinguished herself as a valued leader and employee in N.C. State Government for 30 years.
After her husband graduated from law school at UNC-CH in 1967, Angie and John moved to Raleigh, where John joined the law practice of Manning, Fulton & Skinner; both became deeply involved in the activities of the city and of state government. As a volunteer for the N.C. Mental Health Association, Angie chaired its State Affairs Committee; as an employee of the Division of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services in the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, she participated in the total rewriting of North Carolina's mental health laws. In addition, as Director of Government Relations, Angie served in an important leadership position in the division for many years as the liaison between the division and the N.C. General Assembly, County Commissioners, and Congress. In recognition of her volunteer service on behalf of the mentally ill, Angie received the Outstanding Service Award from the National Association for Mental Health. When Angie retired from state government in 1998, she was recognized with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, awarded by the Governor, "to honor persons who have a proven record of service to the State of North Carolina." For the next six years she was the Director of Government Relations for the North Carolina Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, an organization she and John had supported for many years.
Angie loved North Carolina's natural beauty, particularly its western mountains. She and John enjoyed camping in the mountains with their dogs and friends and collecting furniture, pottery, and crafts made by the people who lived there. In 1973 John and Angie traveled to East Africa for the first time; they were hooked, returning 16 times—sometimes with friends and family, and twice to work with Earthwatch on studies of hyena behavior. Angie made a solo trip to Cameroon to study potters, hunger, and nutrition. Despite significant physical difficulties presented by Parkinson's disease, four of those trips were made after her illness made travel and camping difficult.
As a close friend said, "Angie was a person of 'essential goodness'; her moral compass and social conscience were extraordinary. She loved books, violets, clouds, walking in the woods, a blazing fire, and she treasured time with Broughton's family in Florida, and John's family scattered all over."
The family wishes to express their gratitude to Agnes Orioro, who provided loving care for Angie for more than 10 years, and to the staff of Val's Place for the care they offered to Angie over the past 3 years.
Angie is survived by her brother Broughton Stokes and his wife, Elizabeth Sheppard, sisters-in-law Julia McMillan and Mary McMillan, and brother-in-law, Robert McMillan. Angie and John had no children of their own, but they took joy in participating in the lives of their nieces and nephews and their children, including Kenneth Stokes, Erin Piazza, Monica Duke, Edith Dietz, Robert Dietz, Elihu Dietz, and four great nieces and nephews. Angie's husband, John Burchfield McMillan, died in 2019.
The family suggests memorial gifts to The North Carolina Nature Conservancy, 334 Blackwell Street, Suite 300, Durham, NC 27701 or the McMillan Exhibit, Friends of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, PO Box 26928. Raleigh, NC 27611, or a cause of your choice.