A job well done: OB-GYN Dr. Steve Mills retires

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, July 16, 2025

PHOTOS SUBMITTED Dr. Steve Mills, in an undated photo, holds one of the thousands of babies he has delivered in Brookhaven. Right, Mills today.

As journalist and publisher Bob Pittman noted in his Mississippi Scene column in October, 1999, Steve Mills has “been on a mission to contribute his talents and training for the moral, spiritual, cultural and physical improvement of Mississippi and Mississippians.” 

The medical component of that mission and journey will come to an end Aug. 1, 2025, as Dr. Steve Mills will officially retire after 37 years providing obstetrical and gynecological care to the women and families of Brookhaven and southwest Mississippi.

In July, 1988, Steve Mills and Kim Sessums moved with their families to Brookhaven, Mississippi.  After completing their college degrees, Medical School degrees, and 4 years of specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynecology, the young doctors built a new clinic building across Biglane Drive from what was then King’s Daughters Hospital. In collaboration with the hospital, their decision along with that of several other newly trained medical specialty physicians expanded the ability of Brookhaven to provide state of the art medical and surgical care in our community for years to come. Dr. Mills’ retirement serves as a poignant reminder of the commitment these two friends and colleagues made to provide prenatal and obstetrical care, treatment and surgery for gynecologic diseases, and basic yearly women’s health care and surveillance at a time when these medical services were unavailable in Brookhaven.    

Two years later, Dr. Richard Rushing joined the practice and in 2002 Dr. Leigh Cher Gray. For the next 20 years, the four provided care for Southwest Mississippi as Brookhaven OB GYN, Associates. In 2019, Dr. Carolita Heritage joined the group before migrating to Minnesota in 2024.  

All medical practices transition at some point to new providers while, in this case particularly, adapting to the nationwide changes in the structure and style of obstetrics and gynecology in 2025. This retirement is the beginning of that transition for our community.   

Sessums sat down with his friend and lifelong partner for a Q and A session exclusive to the Daily Leader.  

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Q: So 37 years providing obstetrics and gynecology to Brookhaven and the surrounding communities. Career choices in our lives inevitably come with costs and rewards. What has this career choice cost you? 

A: Well, certainly time with family. There were many days that my wife Juli was our representative at kindergarten programs, school functions, and sporting events. My youngest two children once told their mother that their daddy lived at the hospital. However, living in a small town made it possible for me to slip out of the hospital or office and attend most events. This would have been nearly impossible in a large city. The other cost would be stress and strain on me physically and emotionally. Obstetrics particularly is a very high-pressure specialty with life and death decisions having to be made in mere minutes. Many years with that type of stress has probably aged me more rapidly for sure. 

    

Q:  What have been the rewards? 

A: Numerous really. I’ve had an opportunity to have a doctor-patient relationship with many wonderful people and I’ve been able to serve them at a time in their lives that was usually one of great joy and happiness. That relationship has been 35 plus years in some cases. I’m now taking care of some patients that I previously delivered. It’s been an incredible journey. I’ve had the pleasure to go each day to a job that I loved, but I also have had the privilege of practicing medicine with people that I love. I look forward to going to work every day. God has blessed me incredibly. Of course you came with me to establish this practice in 1988. And I’m so very grateful to you and to Dr. Richard Rushing and Dr. Leigh Cher Gray. I could not have asked for more wonderful people to work with on a daily basis.

 

Q:  So why Brookhaven, Mississippi to build this medical practice?

A:  You obviously remember that we had made a commitment to open a practice somewhere in Mississippi that would have both a supportive medical staff and a family-friendly community. When we got to Brookhaven in July of 1988, there were no babies being delivered here. Patients were forced to go to McComb or Jackson or Natchez or Hattiesburg for care. Mr. Richard Borgman, who was the hospital administrator at the time, along with the hospital board made the decision to build a state-of-the-art labor and delivery facility. We took a risk and built an office across the street from the hospital and we quickly became a very busy OB/GYN practice. The community welcomed us with open arms and Lincoln County felt like home. So, we put down roots. Our children would tell you that they had a very happy childhood growing up in Brookhaven, Mississippi.

 

Q: From your perspective, in what ways has Brookhaven OB GYN, Associates impacted this community?

A: Since Lincoln County did not have an OB/GYN service at the time we arrived, it was positive for the community and surrounding areas to re-establish that specialty. At the time the hospital had been struggling to attract other specialties. Following the opening of our clinic, Urology, ENT, and Anesthesiology were added to the medical staff in the next 2 years. We found it easier to attract additional new specialists when other specialists were already established. That was very good for the medical community in Lincoln County and the surrounding areas. We now had big city medicine in a small-town setting. 

 

Q: What technological developments in medicine have you seen during your 3 decades of practice? 

A: One of the biggest technological advances in our specialty over the last 30 years has been in laparoscopic surgery generally and robotic surgery in particular. Previously most hysterectomy procedures required a large abdominal incision, 3 days in the hospital, and 6 weeks of recovery. Now the vast majority of hysterectomies are done as an outpatient with four small incisions and many folks go back to work in 2-4 weeks. Amazing! The other advance has been in ultrasound and the quality of the images generated by the latest ultrasound machines. The detail in these ultrasound pictures is so clear that most problems with babies in utero are diagnosed prior to delivery often allowing better treatment plans. 

 

Q:  What advice would you give to young OB GYN physicians beginning their careers? 

A: Dr. Ken Perry, one of our fellow residents in training used to say, “It’s not what you’re doing, it’s who you’re doing it with”. My advice would be to find a place where you and your family will be happy and then make sure you join a practice of like-minded colleagues. My three partners are followers of Jesus and believe that scripture is God’s message to His children. Therefore, we have common values and philosophy about life and consequently a common philosophy of medical practice. Even though we are broken, sinful people we work and live life from the same instruction manual. 

  

Q:  If you had the opportunity to go back 50 years and talk to your 18-year-old self, what advice would you give him? 

A: There were activities and relationships that I thought at the time to be extremely important, but in the great scheme of life, became not so important. Sports particularly taught me many life lessons, but I wish I hadn’t taken them quite so seriously. I also would tell myself to study to learn things and not just to do well on the tests. 

 

Q:  What has been your proudest accomplishment in this life?” 

A:  My proudest accomplishments in life are my marriage of 44 plus years to Julianne Tutor Mills. I could not have made it without her. She is the glue that holds our family together.  And I’m very thankful for my six children and 15 grandchildren. I’m also very grateful for my 37 years serving the community of Lincoln County and the surrounding area. I’ve tried to live by the verse in scripture that says, “Do all you do as unto the Lord”, so I saw my medical practice as an extension of my ministry as a believer. God’s grace has truly been amazing in my life and He gets all the credit for everything.

 

Q:  So, how many babies have you brought into this world over the past 40 years?  

A: When I decided to stop delivering babies, the nursing staff on labor and delivery looked back on the L&D recording ledger and discovered I had delivered approximately 4000 babies since being here in Brookhaven. I would estimate that I delivered around 500 babies in my 4 years of residency. So around 4500 deliveries. 

 

Q: What do you think you will miss most as you transition to the next phase of your life? 

A: I will miss the relationships with my patients and with the people I worked with at the hospital and the clinic. I had the privilege of working with some fabulous doctors and nurses, in whom I have tremendous confidence. If I’m required to have any medical procedure in the future and it can be done locally, I will always have it done here in Brookhaven if possible. I know the quality of the people who staff our hospital and our outpatient areas. 

 

Q:  After my heart attack a couple of years ago, I would run into people in town to hear them say, “I heard you were dead!” Despite your own serious health scare and treatment these past few years, you are still here my friend. So, final Q, what’s next for Steve Mills? 

A:  September 1st of 2023 I was diagnosed with a malignant tumor of my left lower leg. After radiation, two rounds of chemotherapy, and three operations to remove the tumor and close the leg wound, I’m finally recovered and cancer free for now. I will continue to have surveillance scans every three months for an additional nine months and every six months thereafter for several years. The events of the last two years have definitely moved up my retirement by a couple of years. Juli and I are making plans with the understanding that the Lord numbers our days, so we trust Him with our future. We plan to focus on three areas of life. Number one is investing in our grandchildren. We would like to get to know them well before we leave this earth. We also plan to travel. Juli and I enjoy going to places we’ve never been before and exploring the world. And finally, we plan on continuing in some sort of ministry. We presently teach Sunday school at our church, and we’d like to expand that to other ministry opportunities as well. We are seeking the Lord’s guidance on that for now.