Mildred "Millie" Elnora Cox Sanders, age 91, a resident of Elizabeth Care Center, Elizabeth, Wirt County, WV, died peacefully July 28, 2022.  She was born on the Mason Farm in Newark, WV, December 7, 1930, to Susan Ruth Mason Cox and Leonard Robert Cox, who died when Millie was four years old.

When Millie and her three first cousins, Eugene Lee Rhodes, Wyvonna Joan Mason and Charlene Lee Mace visited their grandparents' farm, they enjoyed playing together and remained very close.  She attended elementary school in Newark in Wirt County and junior high and part of her high school years in Parkersburg in Wood County.  Between her junior and senior year of high school, she moved with her mother Susan Ruth Noble and her stepfather Harold "Eph" Noble to California, graduating from Mountain View Union High School in 1948.

In 1950 she married John David Sanders whom she was married to for almost 65 years until his death in 2015.  In 1952 she graduated from San Jose State College (now San Jose University) with a Bachelor of Arts degree.  For many years she worked as a lab technician until becoming an elementary school teacher of bilingual students in English and Spanish.  She had two careers in 45 years. One year she was selected as "California Teacher of the Year."

In 1954 she and John welcomed a son David Lee who was talented in art and earned a college degree, dying in 1998. In retirement, Millie and John traveled extensively to several foreign countries until his death in 2015.  In 2017 she returned to West Virginia where she loved singing "The West Virginia Hills."

Millie was preceded in death by her parents, her stepfather, her son and husband.  She is survived by several cousins but only one surviving first cousin Wyvonna Mason Kinsey.  Per her wishes there will be no service and she will be buried in Cambria, California, next to her beloved husband John.