Illinois State Fair: Remember legend Mike Mills of 17th Street BBQ sj-r.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sj-r.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
MOLLY PARKER
The Southern
MURPHYSBORO â Mike Mills, who died this week at the age of 79, didnât set out to seed a love of barbecue across the country, well beyond its roots in the South and parts of the Midwest, but thatâs what he ended up doing. After graduating from Murphysboro Township High School in 1959, he enrolled in the first class in the Dental Technology program at Southern Illinois University.
He earned an associateâs degree and moved to Elgin to work in a lab there. After learning the trade, he returned home and founded the Murphysboro Dental Lab. It produced crowns and dental prosthetics for nearly 60 years on 14th Street until it closed in 2019, making it one of longest continuously running businesses in Murphysboro.
Mike Mills was an award-winning hall of fame pitmaster, a restaurateur who became a worldwide ambassador for barbecue, the southern Illinois region and the role that cooking meat slowly over a smoky fire plays in restoring the soul.
Mills, 79, who founded 17th Street Barbecue, turning a century-old building in downtown Murphysboro into an internationally known restaurant with a clientele that included top chefs and former President Bill Clinton, died Tuesday, his daughter and restaurant co-owner Amy Mills said.
Mills had reportedly been in ill health in recent months. No cause of death was given by the family, but Amy Mills said it was not COVID-19 related.