Lillian Miller

Lillian Miller Lillian ElDora (Anderson) Miller was born February 9, 1911, the eighth of nine children born to Bodel and Cecelia Anderson of Ashby, Minnesota. She was seven years old when her mother died during the influenza epidemic. While her mother?s graveside service was in progress, church bells and the Asbhy town siren announced the end of WWI. Lillian attended Grant County District 9, located on the south edge of her father?s farm. In the fifth grade her teacher administered the Minnesota State Board Examination, and she qualified to study at the ninth grade level. She entered high school as a twelve year old and lived with her older sister, Olga in a light housekeeping apartment in Ashby. She continued friendships with classmates her age but attended classes three years ahead. When her sister, Olga graduated and went to the Cities, her father found an apartment and charged the owner, Mrs. Halverson, ?make a lady out of her.? Lillian held fond memories of her sister, Agnes, nine years older, who had assumed housekeeping and mothering roles after their mother?s death. Lillian remembered the farm raised, home prepared food brought to her apartment by sister, Agnes. She spoke of the love and reassurance Agnes gave during her adolescence. Working with a professional dressmaker, Agnes sewed dresses ?with rows and rows of white ruffles and lace that made me feel like a young lady.? After consulting with her father, her school superintendent held her back so she could graduate with youngsters closer to her age. After high school Lillian helped her sister, Agnes, who had contracted a chronic illness that gradually sapped her strength and ultimately her life. The farm economy was sparse long before The Great Depression, so Lillian decided to matriculate at Moorhead State Teacher?s College so she could teach and support herself. After one year, conditions at home required her help so she could not return for her second year. Lillian accepted a teaching job at the one-room, District 13, Hans Rustad School and lived at home. She taught eight grades, kept house on the farm, and was active in Trinity Lutheran in Ashby as Sunday school teacher and superintendent, Luther League president, and choir member. After her father?s death in 1939, she studied one year at the Lutheran Bible Institute in Minneapolis, then worked in their offices for another year. She moved to Chicago to be trained to organize church programs and worship services in civil defense ?boom towns.? She was assigned to work in Sahara Village, near Ogdan, Utah, and later, Richmond, CA, near San Francisco. When the war ended, she returned to Chicago as secretary to the executive director of the Division of American Missions of the National Lutheran Council and studied journalism in night courses at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. She returned to Minneapolis in 1950 for brief stints as a parish worker at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in North Minneapolis and as secretary for Knox Presbyterian in South Minneapolis. She was employed by Lutheran Brotherhood where she was an administrative secretary in the legal and public relations departments. She took much pride in serving as the editor of the Lutheran Brotherhood internal newsletter, The Little Buzzer. Lillian married Berger John Miller in 1954. They lived in Bloomington, MN and enjoyed traveling the U.S. and boating on the Mississippi and St. Croix River in cabin cruisers built by Berger. In retirement, they lived on Booming Out Bay at the north end of Gull Lake near Brainerd and shared a deep love for nature and ?God?s wonderful world.? When Berger died in 1977, Lillian moved to The Senator in Alexandria where she served seven years on the Board and as its chairman for three years. She was an active member of First Lutheran Church in Alexandria. As a founding board member of Mount Carmel Ministries, she served as public chairman and intercessory prayer director. Lillian became an award-winning painter while a member of the Brush and Palette Club of Alexandria. Her paintings were expressions of her love of the beauty in nature. She died at the age of 99 on February 24, 2010 while residing at the Knute Nelson Nursing Home in Alexandria. Lillian was predeceased by her parents, Cecilia in 1918 and Bodel in 1939, and her siblings: Anna Rustad (Ole), Alfred Anderson (Ellen), Selma Knutson (Alfred), Agnes Anderson, Arthur Anderson (Mabel), Olga Monseth (Frijof), Walter Anderson (Evelyn), Waldemar Anderson (Thora). Lillian has been the loving aunt to twenty nieces and nephews and many grand nephews and nieces. A memorial service will be held 11:00 AM at First Lutheran Church in Alexandria on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 followed by an interment at Pelican Lake Cemetery in Asbhy at 2:00 PM. Arrangements are with the Anderson Funeral Home in Alexandria, MN.