When it comes to icons of style in the Golden Isles Mildred Huie Wilcox. Friends from near and far gathered recently to celebrate the 95th birthday of the elegant patron of the arts, affectionately known to most as Ms. Millie. We were honored to be among the invited guests.
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The daughter of Mildred Nix Huie, a renowned local artist, Millie was born in Albany, Georgia and attended college in Bristol, Virginia. She returned to Georgia to major in English Literature at the University of Georgia, and following her graduation, moved to New York City in 1950. In the Big Apple, Millie worked in Estonian couturier Madame Eleanora Garnett’s Fashion House, selecting fabrics for the designer’s creations. As she developed her eye for art and fashion, she also began traveling abroad and modeling the fashions as well, and thus began her lifelong career in aesthetics.
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In 1966, Millie returned to St. Simons Island, where her mother and friends Stella Morton, Selma Shelander, and Marja Albright, had established The Left Bank Art Gallery. Robert Wilcox, a hotelier who had been raised in France and the man who became Millie’s husband, entered her life at this auspicious time. Although Mildred had been managing the Left Bank gallery, she found this left her no time for painting and her other artistic endeavors. She happily turned the reins of Left Bank over to Mille and Robert. With Robert’s French connections, they began establishing relationships with French artists and expanded The Left Bank Art Gallery from a showcase for local artists to a home for national and international artists, with an emphasis on French Impressionism. Even leading metropolitan galleries would be envious of the collections displayed and sold at Left Bank and the roster of phenomenally talented artists they developed over the years.
Following her mother’s death in 2000, Millie opened the Mildred Huie Mediterranean House Plantation Museum in her honor. Left Bank Art Gallery closed in 2014, and the Plantation Museum property is now a protected greenspace property of the St. Simons Land Trust, but Millie’s contributions to our community haven’t ceased. In 2011, the College of Coastal Georgia dedicated the Huie-Wilcox Gallery on campus in honor of “The Two Mildreds – Mother & Daughter – Artists, Advocates, Teachers, Community Leaders & Citizens of the World.” The gallery at The Ritz Theatre in Historic Downtown Brunswick is named in Millie’s honor as well. Those of us who have been part of Millie’s orbit in the past near-century consider ourselves lucky to know her and were thrilled to honor this genteel grande dame on her special day. Happy, Happy Birthday to a woman who makes our community and our world a more beautiful place.
