Mildred Murphy Wallace's Obituary
Mildred Murphy Wallace passed away peacefully on Sunday, August 28, 2022 in Redwood City, California from complications related to pneumonia. Millie was a longtime resident of Northern Virginia, most recently at Falcon’s Landing retirement community in Potomac Falls, raising her family in Reston, Virginia where she lived beginning in 1968. Millie was born on January 18, 1932 and spent her early years in Moorestown, New Jersey, the second child of Thomas John and Mildred Sack Murphy. A 1950 graduate of Moorestown High School, she moved to New York City where she earned an Associates degree from The Katharine Gibbs School, eventually working for RCA where she met her future husband, Robert Thomas Wallace. Bob and Millie were married on December 26, 1959. Millie devoted the next 20 years to being a wife, homemaker and loving mother to her four sons. In the early 1980s, Millie re-entered the workforce, first as an Assistant to the President of the Wolf Trap Foundation, and then as Executive Assistant to Governor John Connally of Texas. She joined the Department of Transportation as a Special Assistant to the Secretary, the Hon. Elizabeth Dole, in 1983. She followed Mrs. Dole to the Department of Labor, retiring from government service in 1992. Of her time in government, Millie was most proud of her work on safety issues, including mandatory airbags and shoulder restraints in autos, and anti-drunk driving legislation, which combined to save hundreds of thousands of lives. In her active retirement, Millie learned to play the violin, travelled frequently to see, support and serve her family, and devoted herself to local causes. Family was always her greatest love and primary focus in life, and she made a lasting impact on her four children, nine grandchildren, and her many nieces and nephews. Millie was predeceased by her husband of 54 years Robert in 2014, and is survived by her sons, Jonathan of Reston, Virginia; Matthew of Stevenson Ranch, California; Joseph of Menlo Park, California; and Robert of Atherton, California, as well as her four daughters-in-law (Jacqueline, Alexandra, Leslie and Kathleen) and nine grandchildren (Christopher, Morgan, Sara, John, May, Robert, Lila, Henry, and Jane). A Requiem Mass will be held in her honor, at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church in Potomac Falls, Virginia on September 17, 2022 at 11 o’clock. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to St Jude Children’s Hospital.
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