Texas Scenic Company's Mildred Martin died on Tuesday, May 04, 2004, according to Stephen Surratt, the company's vice-president/CEO.
Martin’s parents, Adolph and Martha Beck, founded TSC in 1936 in an old San Antonio theatre building. Martin loved to tell stories about spending time in that old theatre building as a child watching the stage curtains being sewn.
In the early 1950s, ownership of the company passed to Mildred and her husband, Glenn C. Martin Jr., known throughout the industry as "Millie and Big Glenn." Under their direction the company grew from a small San Antonio business to supplying many types of stage equipment to schools and theatres throughout the state. Martin’s son, Glenn C. Martin III, assumed the presidency of the company in the 1970s.
On the occasion of the company’s 60th anniversary in 1996, Glenn wrote about the legacy of his grandparents and parents in the company newsletter. Speaking of his mother he wrote: "Today, my mother still gives me advice at the office or over the phone. This advice is not about how to motorize a set or lay out a dimming system, but it is about how to treat our customers."
In 1998 in conjunction with Texas Educational Theatre Association (TETA), TSC established the Mildred and Glenn C. Martin Jr. Scholarship for Technical Theatre, awarded annually to a Texas high school student wishing to study technical theatre at any Texas college or university.
The family requests that donations be made to either of the following: St. Peter’s-St. Joseph’s Children’s Shelter, 919 Mission Rd., San Antonio, TX 78210 or Christus Santa Rosa Hospice, 4415 Centerview Dr., San Antonio, TX 78228.