Surrounded by the love of her family and comforted by Word and Sacrament, Mildred Jean Blair Bruggeman entered into eternal life on July 2, 2008, at Winter Haven Hospital after suffering renal failure. She is survived by her daughters, Martha Blair Harrison and Jan Blair Fatouros, sons-in-law Robert E. Harrison and Panos P. Fatouros, daughter-in-law Linda Challain Stephansen, and her husband Skip, granddaughters Elizabeth Nicole Harrison and Catherine Jeanette Cliburn, grandson Thomas Bertrand Fatouros, grandsons-in-law Robert Gordon Gatland and John David Cliburn, granddaughter-in-law Meghan Fatouros and great-grandchildren John Andrew Cliburn, Blair Lindsay Gatland, James Matthew Cliburn, Hannah Noel Gatland, Paul Thomas MacKenzie Cliburn, Evan Charles Fatouros, and Lauren Isabel Fatouros. Her twin sister and brother-in-law, Martha and Eugene Zukas, brother and sister-in-law Donald and Mary Bollinger, sister-in-law Dot Bollinger, devoted nephew and nieces, Robert and Joan Higgins and Carolyn Self and her husband Bill, step-daughter, Linda Jensen and her family, and beloved friend Collie Hormell also survive.
Mrs. Bruggeman was born July 24, 1921, in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Lydia Ellen McKenna and James Burton Bollinger. She was a graduate of the Butler County Hospital School of Nursing and attended Southeast Missouri State University. She was the widow of Colonel Thomas George Blair and William Simpson Bruggeman. Her son, Captain Thomas George Blair, Jr., also preceded her in death.
Mrs. Bruggeman served her country with distinction as an Army Nurse during World War II. She was an avid gardener who especially loved roses. She was devoted to the work of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and enjoyed the fellowship of the Women’s Guild of Theatre Winter Haven, the Garden Club, the New Horizons Club, her bridge group, and her neighbors at Spring Lake Towers.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, July 5, 2008, at 5:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 656 Avenue I, N.W., Winter Haven, Florida. Interment will be in Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Memorial Rose Garden at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church or the American Cancer Society.
