Isabel Mills

1938 - 2025

Isabel Gray Mills, age 87 of Clinton, Mississippi, passed away on Thursday, October 23, 2025, after a brief illness. A loving wife, devoted mother, and cherished grandmother, Isabel was a lifelong Episcopalian who dedicated years of service to Episcopal churches in the Diocese of Mississippi and to Camp Bratton-Green, the Diocesan camp.

Born on February 4, 1938, in Columbus, Mississippi, to the late Bishop Duncan Montgomery Gray, Sr. and Isabel McCrady Gray, Isabel graduated in 1956 from Murrah High School in Jackson and attended Mississippi State College for Women (now MUW), and then completing her B.A. in Elementary Education at Millsaps College.

Isabel had a lengthy career as a teacher, serving public schools in both Mississippi and North Carolina. Upon her retirement, she helped establish the Earth Lab at Gray Center and was an educator at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, where she shared stories and handled snakes with joy. The natural world was sacred to her; she loved showing children – her own and all others – the wonders of nature and its creatures, from rooting out fragrant sassafras to finding salamanders on walks in the woods. In later life, when the effects of age kept her from her climbs and her hikes, Isabel could still be found outside: watching her beloved Atlanta Braves on television from her bird-filled deck.

Isabel is survived by her loving husband, Thomas (Tommy) Vernon Lee Mills, with whom she shared 14 wonderful years and several adventurous (and mis-adventurous) dogs. She also is survived by her former husband, Ralph Kelly, the father of her children. Her legacy and memory live on through them: Martha McCrady Kelly Patton (Perry) of Arvada, Colo.; Sara Patrick Kelly Schroeder (John) of Ellicott City, Md.; and Peter Gray Kelly (Kimberly) of Marietta, Ga. She also was a proud grandmother to five grandchildren: Anna Catherine Patton of Annapolis, Md.; Jessica Isabel Schroeder and John Patrick Schroeder of Richmond, Va.; and Patrick Fisher Kelly and Selia Tucker Kelly of Marietta, Ga.

Isabel is survived, too, by her sister, Mary Ormond Gray Caldwell, of Brevard, N.C. She was an adoring "Aunt Izzy" to many nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and great-nephews. She was pre-deceased by her parents; her brother, Bishop Duncan Montgomery Gray, Jr.; and an infant daughter, Isabel Kelly.

Services will be held at The Episcopal Church of the Creator in Clinton, Miss., on Saturday, Nov. 1. Visitation with the family will be at 10:00 a.m. and the Eucharist at 11:00 a.m. A graveside service and interment will follow at the Gray Center Cemetery at Camp Bratton-Green in Canton, Miss. Isabel's grandchildren will serve as pallbearers.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations honoring Isabel's legacy be made to Camp Bratton-Green or the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.



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