Thursday, July 14, 2011

A new glimpse of grandpa Pete Miller

Sharing photographs has long been a joy of ours, and rummaging through a large number of photos shared by cousin Dori Derrick Savage during the recent Miller Family Reunion has been particularly enjoyable.

That's when we happened upon the photograph here of grandpa Pete Miller, taken in 1955 in Whitney, Nebraska.  He was 69 years old and appeared to be healthier and more robust than he would be during the subsequent two years.  Despite medical treatments in Omaha and Denver, he would not survive the cancer that afflicted him.  He died June 2, 1957 at the age of 71.

While there were several other people included in the original photograph shown here, we were so taken by grandpa Pete's smile and laid back manner, we thought we'd focus just on him.  We'll include the original photograph -- along with several other new ones -- in the Miller Gallery in coming days.

By the way, this picture was taken in front of the small stucco house that sits on Missouri Street, just across the street west from where Connell Oil Company did business in Whitney for so many years.  It was the final residence for Pete and Dora Miller, the German-Russian immigrants who sought...and found....a new life in the United States.