Dec. 31, 2013: Mildred P. (Milly) Marshall died peacefully in her apartment at Essex Meadows on December 19.

She was born June 5, 1921, in Memphis, the youngest of the three Puryear girls, belles of Memphis society. Her father, a prominent attorney, died when she was eight, and she was raised through the Depression years by her mother.

Graduating from the Hutchison School in Memphis, she went to Vassar College on a scholarship, graduating in 1942 with an economics major. She went to Washington during World War II to work as assistant to the rubber director in the Office of Price Administration.

A year later in Washington she married a handsome Navy lieutenant, Bob Marshall (Princeton '40), who would remain the focus of her life for the next 64 years. Milly and Bob moved to Bronxville in 1950 and were pillars of the community for more than 50 years.

Milly taught Sunday school at Christ Church, was on the board of the Bronxville Junior League, and helped her three children, Bob Jr., Sara, and Nancy, with their homework while, herself, studying at Union Theological Seminary, where she also served on the board.

Inspired by a lecture at Union that challenged the audience to improve city schools, Milly rounded up a half-dozen mothers to take suburban students to Harlem every Wednesday afternoon to a tutoring program that had just been started. With Milly providing crucial early leadership, the East Harlem Tutorial Program has grown from an organization with a $30,000 budget when she started to a $10 million enterprise today.

Drawing on her experience caring for her older sister, Narnie, as she died, Milly became a board member of Concern for Dying, an early proponent of living wills. Later in life, Milly pioneered again, as one of the first to obtain a master's in health advocacy from Sarah Lawrence College.

She helped organize Jansen Memorial Hospice in Tuckahoe and became an active volunteer for the Cancer Support Team in Rye. Milly was a member of Nondescript, Little Forum, and the Field Club in Bronxville, the Cosmopolitan Club in New York, and the Ausable Club.

Never one to flaunt her accomplishments or intelligence, Milly was known and cherished by all for her Southern graciousness, sparkling humor, and sincere empathy for everyone she met. To her dying day, she never complained or said a mean word. Everything and everyone was "the best," " the most fun," "the nicest," "the most delicious."

She loved people, and they loved her.

The family will host a memorial service at Christ Church Bronxville on January 25, 2014. Memorial gifts may be sent to East Harlem Tutorial Program, 2050 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10029.