Mildred L Young

Mildred L. Young, 98, of New Castle and formerly of Florida, passed away peacefully on the morning of Saturday, March 18, 2023. She was born and raised in Horse Branch, Kentucky on January 15, 1925 and died March 18, 2023. This makes her 98 + years “Young” at the time of her passing. She was preceded in death by her parents, Ivan Arnold and Mary Catherine Arnold and was the youngest of her three siblings, Ruby Mae (Arnold) Renfrow, Sheldon Arnold, and Milford Arnold, also preceding her in death. She graduated from High School in Horse Branch and then moved to Louisville to find work while living with her sister and brother in law. While in Louisville she met or rather re-met Murray Young who was from the same area that she had grown up in, in Kentucky. They married in June of 1946 as he re-enlisted in the Air Force. Their first post as a married couple was in Destin, FL. Their travels while in the military service, took them all over the country and the world from Destin, FL to Mineral Wells, TX to Sacramento, CA then to the Philippines and then Tacoma, WA; Istanbul, Turkey; and finally, to Bunker Hill, IN where Murray retired from the Air Force after 22 years of service. After the military retirement, they settled on the eastside of Indianapolis for the next twenty or so years to be near Murray’s mother who was in ill health. Murray had a subsequent 20-year career after his military retirement, while in Indianapolis, and when he retired from that position the two of them started snow birding in Panama City, FL. After three years of just visiting Panama City over the winter months, they bought a house and proceeded to live in Panama City for the next 20 years. They both made many friends while in the military, but after retirement they both became very involved in their local Eastern Star chapter and made many, many great friends through that organization. The both had a deep commitment to community service and Eastern Star provided them with that opportunity and as well as a rich family of friends. Their joint adventures and love affair ended in 2008 after 62 years of marriage when Murray passed away, but Mildred continued to be very active with Eastern Star and lived in Florida until Hurricane Michael shut down the city and the region in the fall of 2018. She moved to Indiana to live with her daughter and son-in-law at that time and only moved back to her condo in Florida for just a few months until Covid hit in March of 2020. She then moved permanently to central Indiana and lived with Vance and Kate for her remaining years. Mildred was an excellent cook and in particular a fantastic baker. She would be the first to tell you that she didn’t make fancy things, but what she made was from the heart and always from scratch. Her day to day cooking specialized in things like Sunday fried chicken or pot roast with carrots and potatoes, the proverbial pot of beans on Thursday nights, and biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast. In the winter 2015-2016 season alone, she baked 23 pies just for the immediate family and that was in addition to all of the cookies and cakes that she baked. She always knew what ‘your’ favorite sweet treats were and prepared it at every opportunity that she could. Vance maintains that her “Love Language” was baking and that she communicated her love frequently and in many delicious ways. She loved flowers and gardening and had the proverbial “green thumb”. When she was able, she had a huge garden and grew acres of beautiful fresh vegetables and canned or froze them every year. When she no longer had acres of land to plant, she surrounded herself with all kinds of flowers and indoor plants and even still grew tomatoes in pots every year. She loved to plant seeds and watch things grow and was forever saving seeds from her favorite tomato or pepper or apple so that she could grow it next season. Mildred spent many hours feeding and watching the birds and wildlife. It wasn’t unusual to hear her call the birds “pigs with wings” because they consumed the food so quickly and she would joke that she couldn’t get anything done around the house because of all of the running from window to window to watch all of the birds and deer and turkeys and rabbits and butterflies. She developed a passion for coloring with color pencils in the last several years and became very adept at shading and blending as well. She filled many adult coloring books with her creations and she would color sometimes until her hands cramped and she couldn’t color anymore. She didn’t post on Facebook very much, but she looked at it every day and loved seeing all of your pictures and adventures. Frequently, she was much more on top of the social news than anyone else in the house. She spent hours reading cookbooks and doing searches on her iPad and iPhone to find new recipes and loved to try them out. She had a passion for reading and would read so long sometimes that she would have to stand up and put the book on the back of the loveseat because she was too tired to hold it any longer. She loved listening to country music and even stayed current with new artists. She loved working jigsaw puzzles and would stay up late at night after everyone else went to bed because she was going to “just get one more piece” before she went to bed. She enjoyed playing Yahtzee with the family and playing cards and luck ran her way most of time. Many, many hours were spent playing Gin Rummy and Kings in the Corner after dinner or before bedtime every day. She loved to try new things and loved sushi in her 90’s! She helped Vance sift rock for the pizza oven cement, she sewed with spruce root on his birch bark canoe, and she learned to make pinch pots from him and she absolutely loved making them. She sewed curtains and tablecloths for the cabin in Canada and curtains for the new camper trailer. But more than anything that has been listed, she loved Murray R. Young with all of her heart and soul and she loved their lifelong adventure together. She will be very, very happy that their remains are residing side by side for the rest of time. Funeral arrangements will be private for the family. You may send the family a personal condolence at www.sprolesfamilycares.com. The Sproles family and staff are honored to serve the family of Mildred Young.

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Mildred L Young

January 15, 1925 - March 18, 2023