Person Page 4,773

Obituary -- Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register from Feb. 20 to Feb. 21, 2020; (www.legacy.com)

Beau Berend Mills

"Brave as a Bear"

Our sweet Beau Bear was taken from this earth, suddenly and unexpectedly, to join his Heavenly Father in the evening of February 17th, 2020.

Beau Berend Mills was born on May 31, 2018 in Visalia, California, to Alicia Ann Mills and Beau Bradley Mills. He was the perfect completion to their family.

Soon after Beau was born, we started our new adventure in Granbury, Texas and started our dream, Red Laces Cattle Co., which soon became Beau Bear's favorite playground.

Our sweet Beau Bear was the most joyful, energetic and loving boy. He was the ray of sunshine on the ranch. His smile and laugh were the best part of our day. Beau Bear would greet the bulls every morning with "Hi, Buuulz." He was Daddy's favorite ranch hand and took great pride in filling grain buckets for feeding. He loved tractor rides with daddy, snuggles with mommy and horsey rides from his favorite ranch dog, Tess.

Beau Bear was loved and doted on by his three older siblings: Kensie, James and Hudson.

"Hear my cry, oh God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings." -Psalm 61:1-4

A celebration of life for our beautiful boy will be held at StoneWater Church, Granbury Campus at 11am on Saturday February 22, 2020. We would ask in lieu of flowers, a donation to be made in Beau's name to the Mills home church, StoneWater's renovation project at

https://stonewaterchurch.com/give/Select 'give online' and use the drop-down menu to flip to 'Vision offering 2020'.

StoneWater Church 911 E Hwy 377 Suite 4 Granbury, Texas 76048.

Marriage announcement -- The Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, Tennessee; Saturday, 15 APR 1916, p.7 (Newspapers.com):

Gray -- Murr

The marriage of Hubert H. Gray and Miss Alva Murr took place in the Arlington hotel in Johnson City, Monday, April 10th, in the presence of a few friends. Elder P. D. Reed, of Limestone was the officiating minister. Although the wedding had been expected yet the time and place was a surprise to their many friends.

The bride is a daughter f M. S. Murr of near Telford. The groom is the oldest son of W. D. A. Gray, and engaged in the mercantile business under the firm name of W. D. Gray & Sons, having a store on the old stage road at Oakland.

Mr. and Mrs. Gray came from the best families in Washington county, and both have a wide circle of relatives and friends who wish for them a happy and prosperous journey through life. They returned on train No. 8 to Telford and went to the Gray home where a delicious supper was served.

Marriage announcement -- The Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, Tennessee; Saturday, 15 APR 1916, p.7 (Newspapers.com):

Gray -- Murr

The marriage of Hubert H. Gray and Miss Alva Murr took place in the Arlington hotel in Johnson City, Monday, April 10th, in the presence of a few friends. Elder P. D. Reed, of Limestone was the officiating minister. Although the wedding had been expected yet the time and place was a surprise to their many friends.

The bride is a daughter f M. S. Murr of near Telford. The groom is the oldest son of W. D. A. Gray, and engaged in the mercantile business under the firm name of W. D. Gray & Sons, having a store on the old stage road at Oakland.

Mr. and Mrs. Gray came from the best families in Washington county, and both have a wide circle of relatives and friends who wish for them a happy and prosperous journey through life. They returned on train No. 8 to Telford and went to the Gray home where a delicious supper was served.

Engagement announcement -- Johnson City Press, Johnson City, Tennessee; Sunday, 21 NOV 1954, p.13 (Newspapers.com):

Joyce McMurtry Engaged To Jonesboro Man, Don Squibb

HARROGATE -- Dr. and Mrs. R. Gerald McMurtry of Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, announce the engagement of their daughter, Joyce Ellen, to Donald S. Squibb, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Hal Squibb of Jonesboro.

Miss McMurtry is a sophomore at Lincoln Memorial University and a member of Delta Theta Sigma sorority. The prospective bridegroom is a junior at Lincoln Memorial, was president of his class in his sophomore year, and is a member of Sigma Pi Beta fraternity.

NOTE: After Joyce died in 1998, Don remarried to Barbara Anne Summers (1943-2013) in 2001.

Obituary -- (Findagrave.com):

Beloved father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, cousin, colleague and friend Don Squibb, age 86, of Jonesborough, passed away Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at the Johnson City Medical Center.

Devoted son of the late Hal and Maude Sherfey Squibb, Don grew up on the family farm in Sulphur Springs with his older brother Bill and younger sisters Kaye and Faye. A farm boy at heart, Don possessed many other gifts. The gift of a loving family, the gift of storytelling, the gift of laughter, the gift of a beautiful voice, and the gift to blaze a baseball from the mound or at bat.

Don was modest about his God-given talents, but embraced them with perfect pitch, from his early days singing songs in church services and Sulphur Springs High School talent shows to his college days on baseball scholarship at Lincoln Memorial University, where he earned a degree in business, and was later inducted into the LMU baseball hall of fame. It was at LMU that Don met Joyce Ellen McMurtury, the future mother of his children and the love of his life.

Early in their marriage, Don was drafted by the Cardinals and they set off for Alabama to pursue his professional baseball pitching career, until injury made other plans.

Settling back in Tennessee, Don began a career as an insurance agent with Oldham Associates in Johnson City. Then in the early 1970s, the cattle were lowing and the farm boy listened. Don and Joyce bought the Hunt house at auction right across from the family farm, where he began raising cattle and tobacco with the help of his sons, Brad and David, who affectionately called him “George Foreman” for his determination to make them as farm boy as his beloved nephew

Johnny Squibb.

Still the cattle kept lowing and Don heeded the call again. He landed the part of Curly in a Johnson City Community Theater production of Oklahoma! Then the roles kept rolling in, as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Fredrik in A Little Night Music, Harold Hill in The Music Man, and too many other musicals to mention, until Don was firmly established as the Community Theater’s leading man.

A member of Kiwanis and other clubs, and a popular and highly regarded man, at the turn of the decade Don was encouraged to seek public office, and so he ran and won his seat as Washington County Circuit Court Clerk in 1982, a position he held, unopposed election after unopposed election, for 20 successful years.

When Joyce passed away in 1998, Don found love again. He married Barbara Summers of Johnson City and they shared life, family, the farm, and cruised the world together, until Barbara’s passing in 2013. Don found peace in his long-time passion for collecting multitudes of interesting things, including an eye-popping collection of toy clowns. Maybe it was the Frederik from A Little Night Music in him. “But where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns. Don’t bother they’re here.”

Forever a favorite wedding and funeral soloist, throughout his later years, Don’s love of music and theater thrived through his role as a prominent player in The Jonesborough Repertory Theater, managing the box office and performing in countless musicals, including the annual fan favorite USO Show, with his equally talented daughter Sharon, right until the beautiful end.

Left to cherish his memory are his daughter, Sharon Squibb, two sons, Brad Squibb and David Squibb, daughter-in-law Bonnie Squibb, grandsons Blake and Brady Squibb, and wife Nicole Squibb, great grandsons Connor Squibb and Gage Woods and great granddaughter Kensi Squibb, and sisters Kaye Atwood and Faye Squibb, sister-in-law Alma Lee Squibb, nephews Johnny Squibb and Mark Squibb, nieces Ramona Bird, Paula Maupin, Paulette Winkle, and Sarah Squibb, as well as the extended Squibb and McMurtry clans.

Due to the Covid-19, there will not be a receiving of friends, but there will be a viewing, and guests may sign a register book at Dillow-Taylor Funeral Home 9:00 AM -4:00 PM Tuesday, July 7, 2020. The family will have a private graveside ceremony.

In lieu of flowers the family request donations in Don’s memory to the Jonesborough Repertory Theater, P.O. Box 585, Jonesborough, TN 37659.

Engagement announcement -- Johnson City Press, Johnson City, Tennessee; Sunday, 21 NOV 1954, p.13 (Newspapers.com):

Joyce McMurtry Engaged To Jonesboro Man, Don Squibb

HARROGATE -- Dr. and Mrs. R. Gerald McMurtry of Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, announce the engagement of their daughter, Joyce Ellen, to Donald S. Squibb, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Hal Squibb of Jonesboro.

Miss McMurtry is a sophomore at Lincoln Memorial University and a member of Delta Theta Sigma sorority. The prospective bridegroom is a junior at Lincoln Memorial, was president of his class in his sophomore year, and is a member of Sigma Pi Beta fraternity.

NOTE: After Joyce died in 1998, Don remarried to Barbara Anne Summers (1943-2013) in 2001.

Obituary -- Johnson City Press, Johnson City, Tennessee; Monday, 27 JUL 1998, p.2 (Newspapers.com):

MRS. JOYCE M. SQUIBB

Mrs. Joyce McMurtry Squibb, 62, 144 Squibb Circle, Jonesborough, died Sunday, July 26, 1998, at her home after a lengthy illness.

Mrs. Squibb was an Elizabethtown, Ky. native and a daughter of Florence Koberly McMurtry, Fort Wayne, Ind., and the late R. Gerald McMurtry.

She taught English to advanced placement students at Science Hill High School before retiring from the Johnson City school system after 33 years of service.

Mrs. Squibb founded the Humanities Seminar at Rocky Mount while at Constitution Junior High School.

She co-edited A Southern Appalachian Reader, which is used as a textbook for Appalachian literature.

Mrs. Squibb was a member of Watauga Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Survivors, in addition to her mother, include her husband, Don Squibb; one daughter, Sharon Squibb, of the home; two sons, Brad Squibb, Oak Ridge, and David Squibb, Boston; one brother, Stephen McMurtry, Covington, Ky.; three sisters, Susan Rakaseder, New Canaan, Conn., Linda Fung, Cobb, Calif., and Jam McMurtry, Fort Wayne; and two grandchildren.

Dillow-Taylor, Jonesborough (753-0514).