Douglas Lees photo
Mildred Gulick Riddell, MFH of the Old Dominion Hounds (VA) from 1982 to 1992, died on December 4, 2021, at the age of 97. Born in 1924 at the Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington D.C., she lived most of her life at Redwood in Casanova, Virginia, the farm bought for her mother as a wedding gift by her grandfather, James Strother of Carrington in Delaplane.
Joint-Masters Mildred Ridell and David Semmes lead the field over the Old Dominion country. / Douglas Lees photo
While Master at Old Dominion, Mildred served first with Joint-Master David Ferguson, then David Semmes and William Osier. Professional huntsmen Jim Atkins and Charlie Brown hunted hounds during her ten years as Master.
Earlier, during the nineteen-seventies, Mildred had assisted her dear friend Judy Gilman in leading a southern Fauquier Pony Club, the goals of which were to “promote sportsmanship, stewardship and leadership through horsemanship.”
She remained devoted to those goals for the rest of her life, continuing her participation in numerous equine activities and competitions by rooting for her Cleveland Bay/Thoroughbred eventing horse, Jamieson, and attending and supporting local steeplechase races and The Warrenton Horse Show.
Mildred was the youngest daughter of six children. She graduated from Warrenton High School in 1941 and went on to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, she played varsity basketball and became a physical education teacher. Mildred taught riding at a girls’ school in Vicksburg, Mississippi, then expanded into other areas of physical education at the Quantico Marine Corps Base High School and various public and private schools in Fauquier County.
Mildred inherited Redwood after the death of her parents in the 1950s and began her lifelong passion for caring for its farmland, woodlands, streams, and the many native and domesticated animals that lived there.
A prudent environmentalist by the1970s, Mildred was a proponent of preserving stream buffers to decrease farm runoff into the Chesapeake Bay and served on the Citizens for Fauquier County’s Board of Directors and the Piedmont Environmental Council. Her farm’s almost 200 acres is protected as a conservation district by the Virginia Outdoor Foundation
A student of local and family histories, Mildred documented the history of Casanova and the early land grants that define the area’s features and farms to this day. She served on the Advisory Board to the Warrenton Antiquarian Society and assisted in the documentation and preservation of the area’s nineteenth- and twentieth-century farmsteads.
She was a life-long member of Grace Church, Casanova, where she served as a member of the vestry for many years. Funeral services were held at Grace Church on Saturday, December 11 at 11:00 a.m. Contributions in Mildred Riddell’s memory may be made to Grace Church, 5096 Grace Church Lane, Casanova, VA 20139; The Piedmont Foundation; and the Warrenton Antiquarian Society on behalf of Weston.
To plant a tree in Mildred’s memory, please click on the link.
Posted December 11, 2021