In her own light: Remembering Millie Hefner Gunn

I have such wonderful memories of my time at Playboy and one of the highlights was Millie Hefner Gunn. She was the beloved mom to Christie Hefner, her brother David and families, and most famously, the first wife of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. She passed Dec. 13 at age 99. 

I met Millie at Playboy when she commandeered Playtique, a delightful store within the 919 building. Her smile would light up a room and she was the first person I spoke to when I arrived for work. She always had kind words to say to everyone and was one of the most popular and beloved people in the building. I was lucky to know her. 

Christie shared this most poignant obit with me. Clearly, she was a woman ahead of her time. 

Mildred Marie Joan Williams Hefner Gunn was born in Chicago on March 10, 1926 and passed away peacefully in her Chicago apartment on December 13, 2025.  One of five daughters of Henry Williams, a streetcar conductor, and Mary Micoley a housewife, she and all her sisters played instruments throughout their school years--the violin in her case--instilling a lifelong love of music.

She graduated from the University of Illinois and remained a lifelong Illini fan, proud that while she was there they went to the Rose Bowl. She met Hugh M. Hefner when they were both students at Steinmetz High School. They dated while he was in the Army and they both were in college.

Marrying after graduation, they lived with his parents Grace and Glenn Hefner. She taught school and he worked various jobs while they saved up for their first apartment.  When they could, they moved to South Harper Street where Christie Ann and David Paul were born. Always very contemporary in their sense of style, Millie and Hef furnished the apartment with a Henry Miller dining room set, Eames furniture and lacquered Pogo comic strips on the nursery walls. Hef created the first issue of PLAYBOY magazine on their kitchen table.

But, they had married and had children young and the marriage didn’t last. Hef became both a workaholic as the magazine and the company took off as well as the personification of a foot loose unencumbered bachelor.  So, they separated. Millie moved with Christie and baby David to the first high rise on Sheridan Road at 5801.

In 1957 she and Hef finally divorced. She started dating Ed Gunn, a partner of her divorce attorney. They soon married and the four of them moved to 232 Kilpatrick in west Wilmette, with everyone taking Gunn as their last name.

She became very active in the Wilmette Democratic Party and frequently served as a poll judge. She played duplicate bridge, competitive golf and bowled in a league. But, it was not a happy marriage--though having been divorced once she was reluctant to give up. She stayed in the marriage for 11 years until she finally realized that even if she never met someone who could be a life partner, she would never feel as lonely as she did in an unhappy marriage. So, she left Ed. At Christie’s urging, Hef bought her a townhouse in Northfield so David could finish high school at New Trier West.

Newly single, she flourished. She took flying lessons at Palwaukee, learned to curl and seemed to have an unerring ability to date not just nice guys but men with very useful professions including a pilot and a golf pro.  And then she met Pierre Rohrbach: a Swiss émigré, the love of her life and, by the way, a terrific hairdresser.  Somewhat gun shy, she lived with him for five years before asking him to marry her--on the first tee at the Winnetka golf course.

During their almost 50 years together, they traveled all over--including golfing in Scotland and Thailand, going on a Safari in Kenya, and sailing around the Greek Islands. They were avid opera goers--both at the Lyric and as far away as Bayreuth for the complete Wagner Ring Cycle.

She had always wanted to go back to work but Ed Gunn didn’t approve. Plus, she had the problem many of the women of her generation did: she was smart, well educated, and had been a school teacher, but was without a marketable resume.

So when Playboy Enterprises tasked Christie with overseeing a new retail concept combining fashion and music, called Playtique, located at 919 N. Michigan Avenue, she encouraged Millie to apply as a salesperson. She did and was extremely successful.  But, the concept wasn’t so the company closed the store.

At that point, Christie encouraged Millie to apply for a position in the HR department where she was hired.  There she ran programs like the service awards, tuition reimbursement, relocations, the blood drive, and employee get togethers, working into her 70s.

When she finally retired she still wanted to be engaged, so she completed the Great Books program at the University of Chicago, and then volunteered to tutor kindergartners in North Chicago.

Finally as Pierre’s macular degeneration forced him to quit working, post COVID, they decided to move out of their three-story town house into the city.  They moved into an apartment in The Clare.

Pierre’s medical problems ultimately required him to move into skilled nursing, but they saw each other every day until he died two years ago.

She continued to go out with friends, to meals, to concerts and to political and charitable events. Even in the last year, as she got weaker, her two wonderful full time care givers, Kenneth and Francisco, made it possible for her to stay in independent living and continue to go out to eat at NoMi, RL and Bistronomic as well as get her hair and nails done. She continued to read the NY Times and worry about the state of the nation. She continued to root for the Bears and the White Sox and went to a game of each team in the last three months.

Three of her four sisters preceded her in death with only Elizabeth Wilson, who lives in Sarasota, Florida, surviving her.

But, she is also survived by many loving nieces, nephews and their children, her former son-in-law William Marovitz and countless people whose lives she enriched with her joy, her intelligence, her sense of humor, her adventurousness and her concern about social justice.

Her daughter Christie and her son David are deeply appreciative of the outpouring of love that her passing has caused.

No service is planned but there will be a celebration of life in the New Year.

In lieu of flowers, please feel free to contribute either to the Lyric Opera or the Illinois ACLU in her name.