Cantey Bryan Mills

Cantey Bryan Mills died June 29, 2023, in Atlanta after battling cancer. She was 81. Cantey was born in 1941 as the first of four children to the late Dr. Phillips Respess Bryan and late Mary Smith Bryan at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. After her father returned from serving in World War II, the family settled in Lynchburg, Va. As a child and young woman, she enjoyed spending summers in Reynolds, Ga., with the family of her late grandparents, Dr Sydney H. and Louise P. Bryan; late uncle and late aunt, Sydney and Martha Bryan; and many dear cousins. She was graduated from E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg in 1959 was a 1963 graduate of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga. She and her late husband, Dr. John B. Mills III, were a classic Agnes Scott-Georgia Tech pair-up. They married in her hometown of Lynchburg and the new couple spent a year at Kings College, Cambridge University, England, where he completed a postdoctoral fellowship and she worked as a biochemistry lab technician, before returning to settle in Atlanta. Cantey worked as a paralegal and finished her career as an executive assistant for the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at Emory University. She was a member of Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church and during her long life she enjoyed serving in the Junior League of Atlanta and volunteering for Friends of Fernbank which helped raise funds to establish the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, John B. Mills IV and Jill C. Mills; daughter, Susan Jewell; granddaughters, Brooke D. Mills, Sydney N. Mills, and Caroline P. Jewell; brother and sister-in-law, Dr. Philips Respess Bryan Jr. and Anita Bryan; sister, Mary (MayMay) Gay and brother-in-law Garland Gay; sister, Lucy Ballard; five nieces; and many grand-nephews and grand-nieces. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m., July 18, at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church, 1660 N. Decatur Road NE, Atlanta, Ga., 30307. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Agnes Scott College, which may be made online at https://give.agnesscott.edu.