Mildred Creighton, a retired teacher and librarian who passed on her love for words to many Knott County students, was the first of six children of Orlando and Nettie Combs Davidson.  She was born Dec. 20, 1913, at Carrie.

Mildred attended the neighborhood school until fifth grade, then transferred to stay at Hindman Settlement School, where she graduated in 1932.

With the assistance of a couple teaching at Hindman, Mildred was accepted to Madison College, a Seventh-Day Adventist school, where young people could work to pay for their education.  She often worked eight-hour days for only 10 cents an hour.                                     

Mildred.  began teaching in a one room school in Florence, Mississippi.  The next year, she returned to Knott County and taught at Cordia. Three years later she was hired to organize a special education  program for handicapped and disabled children.                              

Mildred married John Landry Creighton (Lan) in 1940. During World War II, they lived in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, where Lan worked  building submarine chasers.  A year of teaching Florida followed, before their return to Kentucky.

Mildred's last 13 years in the Knott School System were in the work she loved most--school libraries.  She retired in 1977, but has been  active volunteering in various projects in Knott County.  Lan and Mildred had four children, Carol Ann; John Landry, Jr., who died at an early age of meningitis; Michael David; and Jane Evelyn.

Corbett Mullins
May 7, 2003