Lillie Ruth Laster Mims

On May 22, 2024, Lillie Ruth Laster Mims, our beloved matriarch, departed this life peacefully at home. She was born May 24, 1927, in Rutledge, GA, to the late Mary Brown Laster and Robert Laster. She was the youngest of five girls. She loved her family immensely and sacrificed to give them the best.

Lillie was educated in the Atlanta school system. As a teen, she unselfishly went to night school to earn her high school diploma to work and care for her mother. She furthered her education at Spencerian Business School in Newburgh, NY, and received cosmetology training.

She met and married the love of her life, SGT (Ret) Menzo Mims, Sr., in Atlanta, and they were married on August 6, 1949, until his passing on February 19, 1995.

While her husband was deployed overseas, she was employed at the then-West Point Hospital. She gained employment as a nursing assistant at St. Luke’s Hospital in Newburgh, NY, secured long-term employment, and retired from NYS Letchworth Village in Theills, NY.

Lillie was an avid community volunteer. She was a Highland Falls school class parent and a Parent-Teacher Association officer. She was the President of the American Legion Auxiliary #633 for several terms. She was a member of the Highlanders Seniors Club, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and she was the first African-American voted to serve on the Highland Falls-Ft. Montgomery school board and served for seven years. She served on the Village of Highland Falls Republican Committee, filling her husband’s seat.

She began her membership at St. John AME Zion Church in Highland Falls, NY in 1952. For more than 52 years, she was a dutiful member. She served faithfully in the following capacities:

Church Mother, Church treasurer, Usher Board vice president, Women’s Day chairperson, and Member of the senior choir and founder of the Junior choir.

Lillie birthed five children but played an integral part in raising her nephews, Henry Laster, Robert Jones, and Wille Gordon, who all predeceased her in death.

She was also predeceased in death by her beloved husband Menzo, Sr., her son Menzo Jr., her daughter Cathy Jean, and her sisters Verda Mae Grant, Voncile Gordon, Elise Laster Carrie Laster.

She leaves to cherish her memory her daughters Ann Molina, Yolanda (Matt) Johnson, and Yvette (Marc) Oaddams; grandchildren Laneisha Joy, Gilberto III, Keith Jr. (Alissa), Menzo III, Michelle, Brittani Jean, Mitchell, and Malik; a special great-granddaughter, Erica Lynn Ruth; God-daughter Tammie Brown and special niece and nephew Tracey and Tony Jones. Along with a multitude of nieces, nephews and a large network of special “adopted family and friends”.

Lillie Ruth’s Words of Wisdom

· “It’s a long road that don’t have an end.”

· “ Somebody has to lose.”- Her sports reference

· “ Lord, How can I bless someone today.”

· Favorite Bible scripture and political statement: “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” Matthew 25:40.