Mildred Huie
Mrs. Huie was a remarkable woman. She was an American impressionist artist, sculptor, avid historian, and writer. Born in Augusta, Mrs. Huie spent much of her childhood at her family’s home in Savannah, and was one of Juliet Gordon Low’s first Girl Guide Troops (now known as the Girl Scouts of United States of America). The Mildred Huie Mediterranean House Plantation Museum on St. Simons Island houses a permanent display of Huie’s works, including the parlor dolls for which she is so well known.
One day in 1965, Huie gathered three of her friends, Stella Morton, Selma Shelander, and Marja Albright, also artists, in the living room of her East Beach home to discuss the need for an outlet to sell their art. The result of that gathering was the formation of The Left Bank Art Gallery. Mildred initially ran the gallery, but soon discovered that managing the business left her no time to paint. Fortunately, Mildred’s daughter, Mildred Huie Wilcox, and her husband, Robert, were willing to step in and take the reins.
Mildred’s daughter, Mildred Huie Wilcox, affectionately known to most as Millie, is no less remarkable than her mother. Born in Albany, Georgia, Millie attended college in Bristol, Virginia, then returned to Georgia to major in English Literature at the University of Georgia. After graduating from UGA, Millie moved to New York City in 1950 and began working in Estonian couturier Madame Eleanora Garnett’s Fashion House, where she selected fabrics for the designer’s creations, thus developing her eye for art and fashion and beginning a lifelong career in aesthetics. She then traveled to Rome and began modeling the fashions as well.
Millie returned to St. Simons Island in 1966. It was then that she met and later married her husband, Robert Wilcox, a hotelier who had been raised in France. His connections there were invaluable to establishing relationships with French artists. Millie and Robert would travel to France several times a year to meet with artists and select works from their ateliers. They began expanding The Left Bank Art Gallery from a showcase for local artists to a home for national and international artists, with an emphasis on French Impressionism. The roster of artists that they developed over the years created high quality collections of which even the leading metropolitan galleries would be envious.
