Family is important to a Brookhaven man.

Allen Mills and his wife, Laura, have been married close to two decades. They’ll celebrate their 19th anniversary in July. They’ve been together 26 years though, since they started dating in high school. They’ve been to Thanksgiving dinner at Laura’s parents’ house every year since.

Mills, 42, has two boys — Stephen, 17, and Nathan, 13 — who attend Loyd Star Attendance Center. Mills is the assistant coach for the Hornets’ baseball team.

He’s also a Farm Bureau insurance agent, a job he feels called to. He’s been with the company since February, and says the job allows him to help others — something he enjoys — and be home more with family. Nothing is more important to him than his family, Mills said.

A Batesville native, Mills moved his family to Brookhaven about five years ago. They attend Macedonia Baptist Church. One of his sons’ friends invited him about two years ago, and they’ve been going there ever since.

He feels his best quality is that he’s a people person.

“I can get along with just about everyone,” he said.

If he had a super power, it’d be the ability to fly because he’d get to places faster. One of those places would definitely be Tahiti — a place he and his wife have both “always wanted to go,” and the place they would have gone on their honeymoon, if they could have.

Coca-Colas and his wife’s Philly cheese steak sandwiches are his favorites. His hobbies include hunting, fishing and taking his boys to practices and games — four sports each.

Not many people are aware that Mills ran the St. Jude marathon when he turned 40.

“The best advice I can give anyone who is thinking about running a marathon is train,” he said. “Training is everything.”

The hard work and perseverance of training comes out in his coaching, sales, and dedication to church and family. His advice for surviving and thriving in his marriage reveals it, too.

“Stick it out, through the good and the bad.”

Story by Sarah Elizabeth Balkcom