Milly Hawthorne Sale was recently awarded the Junior League Sustainer of the Year Award. This coveted award has been given since 1971, the first recipient being Helen Funderburk Garret. Every year, this award is given to a sustaining member who has used her talents and resources to improve the social and economic conditions of those around her, and who personifies The Junior League mission and vision. A graduate of Homer High School, Sale received her bachelor’s degree in English/education and her master’s degree in guidance/counseling. She is a former teacher and counselor for Caddo Parish Schools and was named Caddo Parish Junior High Educator of the year in 1967. The proud mother of Kathryn Sale Sedberry and Margaret Sale Elberson and the loving grandmother (a.k.a. “Mill”) to William, Henry, Mary and Kathryn. Sale is honored to have been named the 2015 Junior League’s Sustainer of the Year.
Q: How did you feel when you found out you were the Sustainer of the Year?
Sale: I was surprised, honored, humbled and very happy when I was told I was the League’s ‘Sustainer of the Year!’
Q. How long have you been involved with the Junior league?
Sale: I have been a member of the League for 44 years. During my active years, I served as public relations chairman, audiometric survey head volunteer, recording secretary, vice president, and in 1980-81, I served as president.
Q. What is your favorite part of being involved with the Junior league?
Sale: My favorite part of being involved with this organization has been the friendships made both with members and with people in the community I’ve met through placements and projects such as the Red River Revel.
Q. What do you hope to accomplish now that you’ve won the Sustainer of the Year award?
Sale: I hope to continue to work to fulfill the last sentence of our Junior League prayer, which reads, ‘And more than all, we pray, that through the years, we will remember there are always new frontiers.’
Q. What does a typical day in the life look like for you?
Sale: My husband and I ‘wake up our brains’ by doing the USA and the Yahoo puzzles online most mornings. I enjoy reading and am a member of three book clubs. Some of the recent books I’ve read include: ‘Duel with the Devil,’ All the Light We Cannot See,’ ‘Jerusalem,’ ‘The Goldfinch,’ ‘The Sense of an Ending’ and ‘Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage.’ I am a member of
Hypatia, a study club, founded in 1894; also, I belong to a stock syndicate ‘Mutual Fun.’ As a grandmother, I am ‘on call’ to sit with children in Suzuki classes at Centenary or drive carpool for tennis, dance, etc. lessons. We enjoy travel, and last year we went to Italy, Switzerland and Germany and then with our family to Gulf Shores, Ala., and Breckenridge, Colo.
Q. Tell me about your charity and volunteer work.
Sale: I’ve been a member at Broadmoor Baptist Church since 1961 and have taught Sunday school to children and teenagers for years. I’ve also served on the Chancellor’s Advisory Board, LSU-Shreveport, and the boards of Rutherford House, The Glen Retirement Center, Demoiselle Club, Cotillion Club and Pioneer Heritage Center’s ‘Authors in April.’ And, I’m a member of the Centenary Muses and a sustainer of the Shreveport Garden and Study Club.
Q. How do you balance your personal life with your charity/ volunteer life?
Sale: Each day, I am reminded that change is unstoppable and that time is ‘going missing!’ I always try to do the things that I least enjoy (or rather, the hardest tasks) first, so that I will be done with them. I make lots of lists, and love checking things off! My husband has been very supportive in my community activities and projects. He likes to cook and has been a real trooper!
Q. What would you say to encourage women in the area to get involved with good causes?
Sale: I really believe that the busiest people accomplish the most! I realize how hard it is today for young women to juggle their waking hours among home, children, job, church and community. However, to paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, ‘No man can help another without helping himself.’
