Millie Lawson Bethell Paxton

Millie Lawson Bethell Paxton (February 2, 1875 Pittsylvania County, Virginia - 2 July 1939) was a Virginian civic leader and political activist. Her mother was Alice Lawson, and there are no birth records listing information about her father. She attended the Virginia Seminary and the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute and graduated in 1895. Later that year, on December 25, Millie married William H. Paxton; following their marriage, they had two sons and one daughter. Soon after their marriage, Millie and William Paxton moved to Roanoke where Mr. Paxton operated a horse drawn carriage company. In 1901, William Paxton died and left his widow to care for their children. To raise funds to raise her children, Paxton worked at different times in domestic service or as a laundress.

But the job that she would come to work at for many years was as an attendance officer for the city's African-American schools.

When she died a Virginia newspaper said that she had been "one of Roanoke's most widely known and beloved colored citizens," active "in all phases of civic and religious work."