Obituary

Robert Maurice Mills, 78, publisher and editor of the Harvey County Independent, died Friday, July 4, 2008 at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Missouri.

The son of Maurice Gillespie Mills and Marie Anderson Mills, he was born in Carrollton, Missouri Augut 11, 1929. He grew up in Kansas City, Mo. graduating from Central High School there. When the Korean War began, he joined the Coast Guard and was stationed in Bermuda as radioman with a search and rescue unit. He achieved the rank of Second Class Petty Officer.

Upon his discharge, he attended the University of Missouri at Kansas City. After working several years in the Federal Court System, he began his career in Newspaper work with the Kansas City Star as a reporter, covering mainly Kansas City, Kansas, poliitics. He worked there for 12 years before he and his wife began their careers as newspaper owners.

He married Eleanor Martin in Kansas City, Kansas March 13, 1971. They moved to Halstead in 1974 after buying the Halstead Independent. During the next two years, they purchased the Burrton Graphic and the Sedgwick Pantagraph and later combined the three weekly papers into the Harvey County Independent.

Immediate survivors: wife, Eleanor; daughter, Kay Ann Mills and husband, Andy Hosmer, Springfield; two sisters, Mary Jean Downing, Emporia and Elaine Swank, Liberty, Missouri; 3 granddaughters.

A memorial service was held July 11 at Kaufman Funeral Home, Halstead, with inurnment in the Halstead Cemetery.