For six decades, Mildred Burns McIntosh and Moore Regional Hospital were good neighbors. From her home across the street from the emergency department, she watched a small community hospital grow into one of the top-rated health care facilities in the country, growth made possible through the commitment and generosity of generations of good neighbors. And like good neighbors, Mildred and Moore Regional were there for each other in times of need.
Hattie Mildred Burns was born outside Dunn, North Carolina. After graduating from Campbell Junior College, she moved to Pinehurst in 1939 where she ran the Postal Telegraph Office. Throughout the village, she was affectionately known as "Miss Mildred" and "Aunt Mildred" by the children who flocked to her home.
In 1943, she went to work for Pinehurst Country Club, and a year later, became secretary to Richard Tufts, president of Pinehurst, Inc., and a long-time supporter of the hospital who served on the Board of Trustees until 1961. "I think we became good friends," Mildred said of their forty-year association. "He was always interesting to work for; he was involved in so many activities beyond Pinehurst."
Mildred left PCC's General Office in 1965, although she continued as Mr. Tufts' personal secretary for another 15 years, to become Secretary of the Tournament Bureau for the resort, arranging tournaments at all the major courses in the U.S. and around the globe. Few people in the world had as much success at planning and handling golf tournaments. "She was on a first-name basis with many celebrities that most of us have only seen on television," noted Norman A. Wiggins, President of Campbell University.
The year 1968 was Mildred's Annus Horribilis. On March 31, Gene McDonald, her husband of 24 years, was injured in an auto accident in Dunn. He was transferred to Moore Memorial Hospital where he died from his injuries two months later. Then, on July 14, Mildred received more devastating news. While out for a Sunday drive, five members of her family-her oldest brother and sister, her youngest brother, her sister-in-law and her aunt, were all killed in a car accident. Mildred's youngest brother, Wesley Merritt Burns, Jr., remembered "how tough Mildred was from day one. She was such a strong person, others would have collapsed, but she handled the grief well."
Mildred, widowed at 51, had little time to grieve. She unexpectedly was put in charge of organizing Pinehurst's first Lawn Bowls Tournaments. Her "natural determination" helped her get through those difficult months. The next year, PCC Golf Capital News announced Mildred's promotion to Secretary of Pinehurst Country Club.
Mildred retired two years after the Tufts family sold the resort in 1970, but she continued her involvement with golf as Executive Secretary of the 200 Club, an association of gentlemen senior golfers, and the Three-Score-And-Ten Club.
When Richard Tufts decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of an archives funded by the Tufts Foundation, Mildred's forty-year connection to the community put her in a perfect position to collect historical materials, as she had when she worked for him. "No one other than members of the Tufts family knew more about the history of Pinehurst and certainly no one worked harder at acquiring and preserving material," a volunteer said. With Mildred as curator, the Archives Wing of the Givens Memorial Library opened in 1976. It became Mildred's "great love."
Mildred had a knack for locating mementos of Pinehurst history. "She would get what she wanted, or she would wear you down," friend and neighbor Bill McKenzie recalled. One of the items she was most proud of was an original Tufts soda fountain, the "golden egg that laid Pinehurst." In large part due to Mildred's efforts, the Tufts Archives became known as "one of Pinehurst's most overlooked jewels" and the "most complete and best organized of any archive in the country."
After the death from cancer of her second husband, Duncan McIntosh, 68-year-old Mildred had no intention of slowing down. Although she retired from the Tufts Archives in 1983, she continued to volunteer there. In the eighties, she spent several years helping to develop the museum at Malcolm Blue Farm and worked to revive the Pinehurst Lawn Bowls Club. In recognition of her efforts, Mildred was inducted into the Pinehurst Lawn Bowls Club Hall of Fame in 1990.
At age 78, Mildred discovered she had an aortic valve murmur. In May 1996, she had heart surgery at Moore Regional Hospital, which had become one of the top cardiac centers in the country. Determined not to be a burden to anyone-healthy or otherwise, Mildred demanded to be released early, and asked a nurse to wheel her to the Emergency Department so she could walk across the street to her home.
After moving here in 1997, Mildred's brother Merritt experienced congestive heart failure and was also cared for at MRH, where he had heart bypass surgery and eleven stints. "The best thing I ever did was to move down here," he said. "I appreciate FirstHealth. I wish I had a million dollars to give them."
Beginning in 2003, Mildred became increasingly frail, and her health started to fail after several falls in her home resulting in broken hips. After her second surgery in 2005, members of Mildred's church, like Rebecca Ainsley, formed Mildred's care team. Even though Mildred had lived across the street from the hospital for decades, she never became a volunteer or regular donor. "But Mildred was ready to reach out and touch the hospital," Rebecca recalled. "She was fascinated by the proposed hospitality house as part of the Foundation of FirstHealth's Stepping Stones Campaign. She was always asking what we had planned, and what was going on with the hospital building."
At 88, Mildred Burns McIntosh simply "wore out." She passed away on October 13, 2005.
Throughout her life, Mildred's astute financial investments allowed her to become a "woman of independent means." As a result, she was able to recognize what was most important to her: family, faith, and community. She made bequests to dozens of family members and friends; to Campbell University; the Presbyterian Home for the Aged in Lynchburg, Virginia; and to FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital.
"She was determined to be a good Christian," Rebecca said. "She knew her responsibility to the community. Both Mildred and her brother received good treatment and care from the hospital. With her bequest she acknowledged that fact."
"She was a real, true humanitarian," neighbor Bill McKenzie said of Mildred, "but she would never want to be called a philanthropist. She had too much Scottish blood."
To learn more about planned giving opportunities such as bequests and other tools to develop your legacy through The Foundation of FirstHealth, please call our office at (910) 695-7500.
