Mildred Weatherford Collings

Mildred Weatherford Collings passed this life on Sunday, April 17, 2011, eighty-eight years after entering it in a small South Louisiana sawmill town that has since disappeared.

Early in her life she accepted the invitation of dashing young Robert Louis Collings to join him in the challenges of starting a life together as the wife of a school teacher. She soon supported his efforts to become an attorney by working and raising a family during the war years of the 1940's, moving her family to Lake Charles so he could begin his practice there in 1948, where they remained for essentially the rest of her life.

She raised two children there: Peggy Naomi Harrison, now of Houston, TX and Robert William Collings of Lake Charles; as well as participating in the life of her six grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her loving husband of over 60 years, Robert L. Collings.

A woman of considerable energy and stamina, she decided when she was in her early forties that with her children grown and gone she would go back to school and get a college degree. The tenacity and diligence that she brought to everything n life caused her schoolwork at McNeese to be quickly notice by the faculty and later reconfirmed when she graduated with highest honors.

She taught elementary school at first, but went back to get her masters degree in Library Science, and returned to the Lake Charles schools where she contentedly continued her work as a Librarian until she retried years later.

She enjoyed immensely being a part of Lake Charles, not only in its schools, but with the "sewing clubs", church groups and social gatherings of her wife collection of friends. Most knew her as a warm, intelligent, tolerant and interested friend with a soft sense of humor whose principal concern was generally the welfare of others. Her family knew her as a loyal and untiring supporter, always interested in listening to their accomplishments and problems, working to subtly motivate them to make the best decisions and rarely pushing her own views forward. She always had a certain down to earth dignity about her that made her very approachable, yet a person many looked to in creating a model for their own life. She will be sorely missed.

Visitation will be on Tuesday in Johnson Funeral Home from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM. A private graveside service will be held at Consolata Cemetery. Rev. Charlie Langford will officiate.