Anne Elizabeth Miller

Anne Elizabeth (Beth) Miller fulfilled her joyous life's journey on October 6, 2016. She passed peacefully in her bed at home, surrounded by her loving family. Beth was born on her family's heritage farm in Mills County Iowa on February 25, 1922. The youngest of 9 siblings, her parents John Wesley and Edith Iola (Ridlen) Wilson epitomized the hard-working and frugal lifestyle of the early Midwest farm communities. She was preceded in death by her brothers Harold (Elsie), Ben (Delia), Marion (Evelyn) and John (Betty), and sisters Elva (Eric) Nyren, Nellie (Marlin) Wilkinson, Lois (Floyd) Yates, and Tacye (Homer) Pederson. Beth's four brothers were integral in maintaining the farm, until their lives were interrupted by World War II. Two brothers were called to service, and their mother passed away in 1939, necessitating the assistance of the sisters with both farming duties as well as the traditional ""women's work"" around the historic colonial-style family home. Beth's recollections of this time included being cared for by her older sisters, being teased by her brothers, caring for chickens, the devastation of a tornado, etc. Her father was a particularly important character in her early life, imparting to her such nuggets as ""Push your work, don't let your work push you,"" and ""As a man thinketh, so is he"". One of her mother's wishes for her children was that they have fun; she has the memory of taking a mattress out into the timber and sleeping out under the stars with her sisters. Though they lived through the depression, her memories were of homemade fun and plenty to eat from their self-sufficient farm; her papa would say ""That was a great sufficiency"". With her sister Tacye, Beth attended Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska; she majored in art and studied with a particularly beloved professor, Miss Gladys Lux. On a geology field trip, she also met a student a few years older than she, who played basketball and football and studied aviation, named Charles Wayne (Milky) Miller. As with many young women of her time, Beth was enamored of the glamor of Hollywood. She embarked on her California adventure in 1943, accompanied by a college friend. She worked at a photo refinishing shop. Soon after, however, she returned to the family home to assist her father and brother Ben in the absence of her now-married sisters and deceased mother. Returning from a stint in England with the Army Air Corps, one day Charles showed up at the farm. During their courtship, he would sometimes visit by flying a plane to the family farm, landing in the fields and giving rides to family members. She was being wooed at the same time by another suitor who also proposed to her, and she had to choose. She remembers that the other man told her that Charles would leave her alone because he would spend all his time in the skies. Despite this warning, she chose Charles. Plans for a church wedding were frustrated by several cancelled leaves on the part of the Army; finally on September 8, 1945, they were able to hold a very small family wedding in Charles' family home in Lincoln. They spent Charles' last days in the Army (and the first days of their marriage) in Kearney, Nebraska, sometimes hunting pheasants in their free time. When Charles was honorably discharged, they planned to start a new life farming with Beth's brothers in Southwest Iowa. However, Charles was soon recruited by a new company, Aeroservice, out of Omaha, Nebraska. They also managed a trailer park in Omaha, while Charles taught flying lessons and flew charter flights around the region. During this time, Carol, Dale and Janice were born. Because Carol developed severe childhood asthma, they were advised to move to Colorado. Soon after Janice was born in Omaha in 1955, they moved to Colorado; for a brief time, they lived in Aurora and then they bought and managed a trailer park in Golden. Meanwhile, Charles found aviation jobs, working with private planes giving lessons at Boulder Airport, then at United Air Lines in the training center, and then for a time, as a pilot for an insurance company in Boulder. Charles settled with United to work as an instructor at Stapleton for his last 19 years before retirement. Soon after Anne was born in 1958 in Golden, Charles and Beth found and bought the Swiss-chalet-style house in Rilliet Park on Lookout Mountain that became the family home for the next nearly six decades. It was here that Daniel was born, and here the family had many adventures exploring Rilliet Park lands and beyond. Nearly every morning, Beth would take a walk and pray before she started her day; many mornings, she walked out to the far end of the meadow in front of the house. Throughout her years of raising five children, Beth's love of nature, of music, of art, of people and her faith shone through. Beth delighted in her garden, her adventures with Charles in the desert, in the mountains and in the sky. She also found joy in her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and extended family, in her dear (and numerous) friendships, in her neighbors, and in the last decade, in those who helped with Charles' last days and with her own last days, in particular, Tina Gibson and Terry Cook. Above all, she was grounded in her faith and her spiritual connections. In all these relationships, Beth often gave more than she received. We will miss her beyond the ability of words to express, but we are happy for her, and can hear her singing one of the hymns she chose for her service: ""I'll Fly Away"" Services will be held at Rockland Community Church, 17 S. Mount Vernon Country Club Rd. at 1:00 PM on Thursday, October 13th. Donations to Mount Evans Hospice at www.mtevans.org and/or Indian Creek Museum at www.indiancreekmuseum.org are encouraged.