Mildred Childe Lee

According to a number of sources, Mildred was a rather plain-looking young woman who was a bit plump and had a wonderful, cheerful personality. Her father adored her, and she adored him.

She never married, traveled extensively, and loved flowers and animals.

Mildred Childe Lee - Brief Biography

Mildred ("Milly," "Precious Life") was the baby of the family and was named after Robert E. Lee's sister Mildred (Lee) Childe. She was at home most of the time until she went away to boarding school at Winchester, Virginia in autumn of 1860. The youngest child, she was a bit spoiled and willful. Her father once complained that she always wanted something. Yet, if able, he gave her everything she wanted. She had some difficulties with her mother in the spring of 1861, for making a fuss over a bonnet at a time when the Union was breaking apart, her home was in danger, and her father's career in jeopardy. But she was a bright spirit and a lively cheerful person. She had brown hair and rather plain features. She was not pretty and had a tendency to plumpness but her father thought she brought light into a room when she entered it, and she often did surprising things that delighted him.

Like Agnes she was very fond of her pet chickens and the family cats. She took music lessons but evidently did not practice very hard. She loved the flower garden and she had her own individual plot which she planted with the help of Harry Washington Gray, one of the slave children on the estate. Mildred, too, read novel, religious books, and enjoyed singing hymns. She was very close to her father after the war and was quite lonely when he died. Of the other children, she was closest to Rob, her childhood companion. Mildred never married although she longed for companionship. She traveled widely in the 1870's and 1880's, but did not seem to enjoy it much.

On March 26, 1905, Mildred died in New Orleans and was interred in Lexington with other members of her family. The room with which she was most closely associated was the girls' bedroom where she kept her things and had play tea parties for her dolls, Jenny Lind and Angelina.

Sources

  Arlington House Online @ 

• http://www.nps.gov/archive/arho/tour/history/bios/mildredlee.html

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• 'Mildred Childe Lee1
• 'F, #321906, b. 1846, d. 1905
• Last Edited=3 Dec 2008
• Consanguinity Index=0.0%
• ' Mildred Childe Lee was born in 1846.1 She was the daughter of General Robert Edward Lee and Mary Anna Randolph Custis.1 She died in 1905, unmarried.1
• Citations
• 1.[S130] Wikipedia, online http;//www.wikipedia.org. Hereinafter cited as Wikipedia.
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p32191.htm#i321906
• _________________

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Birth: Feb. 10, 1845 Arlington Arlington County Virginia, USA Death: Mar. 27, 1905 New Orleans Orleans Parish Louisiana, USA

Mildred was the youngest child of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his wife, Mary Anna Custis Lee. She was a great favorite of the family, nicknamed "Precious Life" and, although she was rather plain and tending towards plumpness, she had a vital and captivating spirit. General Lee always used to say that she brought light into any room she entered. Mildred was very close to her father and when he died, she seemed to lose any purpose in her life. She traveled extensively but found little joy in it. She died in New Orleans, LA and was brought back to join her other family members in the crypt at the Lee Chapel and Museum.

Family links:

Parents:

 Robert Edward Lee (1807 - 1870)

 Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee (1808 - 1873)

Siblings:

 George Washington Custis Lee (1832 - 1913)*

 Mary Custis Lee (1835 - 1918)*

 William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (1837 - 1891)*

 Anne Carter Lee (1839 - 1862)**

 Anne Carter Lee (1839 - 1862)*

 Eleanor Agnes Lee (1841 - 1873)*

 Robert Edward Lee (1843 - 1914)*

 Mildred Childe Lee (1845 - 1905)

*Calculated relationship

• *Half-sibling

Burial: Lee Chapel Museum Lexington Lexington City Virginia, USA

Created by: Kathleen Record added: Nov 14, 2003 Find A Grave Memorial# 8087028

Mildred Childe Lee (Milly, "Precious Life"); 1846–1905; unmarried