Mildred Hiti

Millie Hiti died early Thursday morning, May 8, 2025, at Essentia Duluth Palliative Care, following a fall on May 5 at her apartment at Edgewood Vista, where she had resided the past five years. The fall resulted in a brain hemorrhage from which she never recovered.

Millie was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on October 11, 1929, to Emil and Lydia Ostman. She grew up on a farm in the St. Louis River area near Makinen, Minnesota, with her brothers, Milton and Melvin. Her mother, Lydia, died when she was six years old. Her father later married Eunice Allen from St. Cloud, who brought her daughters, Patricia and Joyce with her when she moved to Emil’s farm. Emil and Eunice together had another daughter, Rachel.

Millie had eight years of primary education in the St. Louis County schools. She then worked cleaning houses in the Virginia area and at the Cluett Peabody shirt factory in Gilbert. She married Frank Hiti, Jr. on February 7, 1953, at the Ostman farm and moved to the Hiti homestead in Sparta, Minnesota, where they raised their three sons, Brian, Randy and Leon.

Millie worked hard all her life, both as a wife and mother, and outside the home at the Speed Queen Laundromat in Virginia. She also was a waitress for many years, at the Coates Coffee Shop and Sammy’s Bar & Grill in Virginia and the Lantern Restaurant in Fayal Township. She was a long-time member of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Virginia.

Millie enjoyed travelling to church conventions, shopping, cake decorating, spending time with family, her lipstick -- and cats, especially her pal, Sebastian.

Millie was preceded in death by her parents, all her brothers and sisters, her husband, Frank, her son, Randy, and a grandson, Joe Hiti.

She is survived by her son, Brian (Cathy Hoel) Hiti, her grandson, Matt (Katie) Hiti and their children, Adelyn and Camden, her granddaughter, Sara Hiti and her children William Cogger, Weston Cogger, and Leland Soiester; her son Leon (Anita) Hiti and their children Jacob, Jesse and Amber; her son Randy’s widow, Laura, granddaughter, Ann (Nick) Truman and their children Patrick and Elizabeth and granddaughter, Kat (Joe) Proveaux.

The family would like to thank the Edgewood Vista staff under head nurses Brian Hopkins and Crystal Turner for their many years of loving care given to Millie, and also, her chauffeur, Jeff. Special thanks, also, to the doctors and nurses of Essentia Virginia and Duluth including Emergency and Palliative Care.

A Memorial Service will be held at the Ziemer-Moeglein-Shatava Funeral Home Gilbert on Friday, May 30th at 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. with a prayer service at 4:30 pm.