OSCAR AWARDS
For many years the Mills Home Alumni Association presented an award in the homecoming business meeting to the oldest alumnus, alumna or retired staff person present. Since it turned out that the same person won that award year after year, the Alumni Council decided to drop it. In 2009 the Council presented a “Special Oscar Award” to Oscar Sowers because of his faithfulness in returning for homecoming year after year yet never being recognized as the oldest alumnus present. In presenting that award, the Alumni Council acknowledged Oscar’s having served on the Alumni Council as well as having offered tremendous support to the Council when he was not a Council member.
So began the history of the Mills Home Alumni Association Oscar Award. Obviously, it takes its name from the first recipient, Oscar Sowers.
The Oscar Award has since been bestowed in sincere appreciation for dedication to the Mills Home Alumni Association:
2009 Oscar Sowers
2010 Martha Hunt Pridgen
2011 Lib Smathers Johnson
2012 (8 recipients):
Danny Brown – husband of alumna Jane Helms Brown
Lynn Garner – Area Director in the Mills Home area of BCH
Bob Johnson – husband of alumna Lib Smathers Johnson
Judy Knight – wife of alumnus Pete Knight
Grady Patton – husband of alumna Flora Hicks Patton
Linda Rochelle – wife of alumnus Jimmy Rochelle
Randy Stewart – Pastor/Chaplain of Mills Home Baptist Church
John Wagner – husband of alumna Gail Cannon Wagner
2013 Wallace Maultsby
2014 Harry Walls
2015 Flora Hicks Patton
2016 Kaye Trantham Mills
2017 (2 recipients): Jeanie Helms Cooper, Posthumous Award & Jimmy Rochelle
2018 Pete Knight
2019 Jane Helms Brown
2020- None due to cancellation of homecoming (COVID)
2021 Joe Knight & Faye Yarborough Ridge
2022 (2 recipients): Rusty Bunker & Diane Stewart, Posthumous Award
2023 Mark Wilkerson – husband of alumna Cecelia Townsend Wilkerson
2024 Lisa Carter Lancaster & husband, Ron Lancaster
2025 Cecelia Townsend Wilkerson
2026 (2 recipients): Kevin Lynch & Jackie Elliott Walker
Before the establishment of the Oscar Awards, several alumni and former staff had been honored for the service to the Alumni Association and/or to the Mills Home campus.
Frank Bailey – Circa 1970’s, for his service as Alumni Columnist, preserver of Mills Home historical data and memorabilia, and promoter of the Museum idea
Paul Edinger – Circa early 1970’s, for his many years of work on Mills Home Campus and his dedication as Sunday School Superintendent in the Mills Home Baptist Church
Charlie Hawkins – Circa 1970, for 26 years as treasurer (his plaque is in the Mitchell)
Lib Smathers Johnson – Circa 1984, for accumulation of memorabilia and work at the Mitchell Museum (her plaque is in the Mitchell)
Thurston & Helen Bowman – Circa 1992, for his long term as Treasurer of BCH and their dedication to the Sunday School Department of the Mills Home Baptist Church
Estelle Crouch – Circa 1992, Mills Home houseparent for more than 30 years, worker at Simmons for a brief time, housemother of Hutchinson for many years, and “substitute houseparent”
Bill & Louise Sisk – Circa 1992, for their dedicated service as workers on the Mills Home
campus
Joyce Hart – 1993, 17 years on the council serving as secretary and treasurer
Oscar Winners
MILLS HOME
Alumni Association
© 2023 Mills Home Alumni Association, Inc.