Mildred Noce Melody

Mildred Wilson Noce went by the name of Toni. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Southwestern College in Memphis at 19 with a degree in Biology. I'm not sure what sorority she was in there. She then enrolled in post graduate studies at a school in Boston MIT ? She met Philip Melody while she was visiting her parents at Camp Edwards, where her father was the CO. She married him at 20.

Toni left school and spent the remaining war years living with her grandmother Emily Kate Wilson, at her home in Woods Hole on Cape Cod, while she worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. I was told that she assisted in the development of sonar waves. For her work, she was awarded a pin with a large E for assisting with the war effort.

During that time, she taught herself to sew, cook, and knit. Together the new couple had decided on having six children. Her goal was to "spread the good genes." and these new skills would serve her proposed family. She was a avid seamstress and knitter, making most all of her family's clothing and most of their sweaters. Gardening was a passion as well and she loved her lilies, herbs, and annual vegetable garden. Composting was important, long before it ever became fashionable and I recall the yearly trips to collect salt marsh hay for the garden. Cooking was never her forte, however healthy economical food was a strong point. So she steeped herself in the work of Adele Davis who prescribed brewers yeast, wheat germ, food combining and black strap molasses, among other things.

At the war's end, her first child, Diana, was born in DC (Ft. Meyers) and they were transfered to Germany. The new family lived there for 4 years (during the hardships of the Berlin Airlift) and children Susan and Daniel were born there. The family returned to DC ( Ft. Meyers) where Nancy (now Elivia) was born. The last Army Post she had to live on was in San Antonio, Texas, where David was born. While her husband was stationed in Korea, during that war, she moved her five children to her parents farm in rural Virginia. She became involved in the children's education as there was just a two-room school house for them. She also took up sketching.

Upon her husband's return from Korea, she got the first home of her own in suburban Virginia. It was here that her last child, Catherine was born. She suffered postpartum depression after this birth and I just recall that Dad cooked us meals from cans. For the next six years, her husband, Philip was able to transfer to 3 local posts while the family stayed in the same home. In those years, Philip was away much of the time on national and international assignments and then going to night school to gain a second Masters Degree. Toni managed the family, primarily by herself. Her dream was to return to Cape Cod to live full time and eventually retire. She and Philip purchased a summer rental in West Dennis on the Cape and for four summers, the family vacationed there.

In 1960, her husband was given command of Boston Army Base. A large rambling home with seven bedrooms was purchased in the Village of Barnstable on the Cape. The commute to Boston was 72 miles, too long to do daily, so her husband came home on weekends while she managed the family. In 1964, her husband retired from the Army and took up the position of Professor and Dean of Students at a Community College in Worcester. This meant he continued to return home only on weekends.

She was a goal-directed, cerebral, and introverted woman with a razor sharp mind. Her passion was economizing and thrift as well as encouraging the educational development of her children. I remember being taken to dumpster dive for candle wax at the local candle factory and going to the fabric and knitting mills and factory outlets with her. She was a financial wizard. Toni saved enough money on her husband's military salary with six children, to send every child to college, to send the last three children to elite boarding schools, and to fund study abroad.

In 1966 she began work on a degree in Library Science, possibly anticipating becoming a librarian as her children left home. Her faith was her anchor and she was guided in her spiritual life by the tenets of the episcopal church. As kids we went to which ever church was closest and then the Episcopal church. She became president of the woman's guild at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Barnstable. There is a Mildred Melody Memorial Library in this church. She loved to read and the house was filled with bookcases, besides each child having a bookcase in their room.

In May of 1968, she began treatment for a lung tumor. A few months later she developed and was treated for a brain tumor. Ultimately, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The family was told that it was in remission when she died unexpectedly on December 18th, just 2 weeks after her 47th birthday. Her children's ages at that time were 10, 13, 16, 18, 20, and 22. She is buried in Lothrop Cemetery in Barnstable, MA.