Mills Allen Riddick V went home to be with the LORD on December 8, 2022, at the age of 92. He was born on July 26, 1930, in Suffolk, Virginia to his parents, Mills Allen Riddick IV and Margaret Corbitt Riddick.
After growing up in Suffolk, Virginia and spending many summers in Sunbury, North Carolina, he attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute (now known as Virginia Tech) where he excelled in his military training and proudly served on the trial court as trial counsel. After graduating in 1952, he was commissioned in the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant and was assigned to serve his first tour of duty in Korea during the Korean War. While enroute to Seattle, where he would depart for Korea, he met his first wife, Bonnie Jean Jarrett (deceased in 1983) who was the airline Flight Attendant on the United Airlines flight that departed from Denver, where he was visiting his sister, Mary Anne, who was residing there at the time.
Upon returning from his tour in Korea, Mills and Bonnie Jean were married on December 31, 1954, in the Presidio where Mills was stationed as an aide to the general. Their daughter, Krista Lynn, was born there in 1956 and their son, Mills Allen Riddick VI, was born at Fort Meade Maryland the following year in 1957. Mills spent the next several years serving in the United States Army in several different capacities. Of special note was his tour in the Middle East as a UN observer and later as an instructor at the Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth Kansas where he taught many officers during his tenure. After a second tour in Korea in 1970-71, Mills served his last year in the military at the Naval Training Center in Orlando, Florida where he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1972.
Mills went on to earn a master’s degree at Rollins College and worked in the Orange County School system as Director of Classified Personnel. He retired from the school system after ten years’ service when his first wife, Bonnie Jean, became ill and later passed away. In 1986, Mills moved to Mount Dora FL, where he later met his current wife, Mary E. Murphy, whom he later married in 1991. While retired, Mills became very active in his church and enjoyed teaching Sunday School and the lessons that he developed. He loved his faith, his family and his country and proudly wore his veteran’s cap which displayed his various honors and passions. He loved to tell stories of his many interesting life experiences, and everyone he met, both young and old, would be captivated and entertained by the many colorful stories that he told.
Mills is survived by his wife, Mary E. Riddick; his two children, Krista Riddick Rogers (Thom) and Mills Allen Riddick VI (Alicia); his stepdaughter, Della Lago (Bob); his three grandchildren, Amanda Jarrett Rogers, Mills Austin Riddick, and Chase Allen Riddick; and his sister, Mary Anne Cesario (Sal).
Gathering with Viewing
DEC 13. 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (ET)
Steverson, Hamlin & Hilbish Chapel
226 E. Burleigh Boulevard
Tavares, FL 32778
