Carl Eugene Mills

© The Bakersfield Californian

Thursday, 4 August 2005

Submitted by: Sandi Carter

Carl Eugene Mills
October 7, 1924 July 30, 2005

Graveside services will be held on Saturday, Augugust 6, 2005, at 11 p.m., at Greenlawn Cemetery (3700 River Blvd.) for Carl Eugene Mills, 80, of Bakersfield, who died July 30 in Lancaster, CA, following a brief illness. Pastor Milt Cole of RiverLakes Baptist Church of Bakersfield will officiate.

Carl was born October 17, 1924 in Pitcher, Oklahoma, the oldest of six children born to Causmer and Mammie Mills.

He moved with his family to California at the age of 9.

He was a veteran of World War II, serving with the Army Air Corps in the Pacific Campaign.

Following the war, Carl returned to Bakersfield and after a short stint as a carpenters apprentice, Carl went to work for Douglas Oil Company, where he worked for 10 years, rising to the position of Superintendent of Trucking Operations. While working at Douglas, Oil, Carl attended Bakersfield Junior College, where he met his future bride, Mary Ann Merta. They were married in 1950. In 1957, he and his brother, Ross Mills, opened a pheasant hunting club southwest of Bakersfield, where the Quailwood residential housing development currently is located.

The Mills Brothers Hunting Club remained in that location until urban development necessitated relocation to the Kern Lake Area farther south of town. At that time, Carl bought his brothers interest in the club and assumed sole ownership, renaming it, simply, Mills Shooting Preserve.

Carl was a pioneer figure in the local hunting community, was featured in articles in several outdoors and hunting magazines, and appeared on several television programs, including ABCs The American Sportsman, where he and longtime friend, actor Robert Fuller, hunted wild turkeys with host Curt Gowdy. Mills Shooting Preserve was frequented by many well-known hunting enthusiasts from the world of entertainment and music, most notably actors: Robert Fuller (Laramie, Emergency), Dale Robertson (Tales of Wells Fargo) and Edgar Buchanan (Petticoat Junction), and singer/songwriter Glenn Campbell, to name just a few.

After 18 years in the Kern Lake location, Carl moved the club to its present location near Buttonwillow, where it remains the longest active hunting club in Southern California. Carl remained active in the operation of the club until shortly before his death, and took great pride in his work on guns, gaining the love and respect of everyone who knew him.

Carl is preceded in death by his parents, brothers, Ross Mills and Clinton Mills, and sister, Dolores (Mills) Heath.

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary Ann (Merta) Mills; brothers Clyde Mills and Henry Hank Mills, both of Bakersfield; son and daughter-in-law, Keith and Charlotte Mills of Bakersfield; son, Glen Mills and grandsons, Colin Mills and Cameron Mills, all of Lancaster; granddaughter and grandson-in-law, Shawna and Rick Sorci, and great-grandchildren Trenten and Amelia Sorci, all of Bakersfield; as well as friends too numerous to mention.

Those wishing to send flowers may direct them to Greenlawn Mortuary, 3700 River Blvd., Bakersfield, Calif. 93306.

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