Grandma Miller and "the girls" get together!

Alas, we have no date with this photograph, but it was almost certainly taken at the "ditch rider" house in Whitney, probably in the early 1940's.  Shown are Grandma Miller and her daughters.  Left-to-Right, they are:  Evelyn, mother Dora Miller, Bertha, Pauline, and Marie.  Wish it were a wider view; would like to have seen the cars and more of the house, but it was fun to seeing Grandma Dora and "her girls" together! 

Busted! A case of mid-morning nostalgia...

It used to glow in the dark.  Wait...wait.  It still does!

I take pictures at the drop of a hat. And then some.  So this morning, – instead of doing chores that need to be done – Karen caught me rummaging through the "numerous" photos occupying space on my cell phone.  I had been busted....mesmerized by the photograph on the left above. 

It was nostalgia at first sight, a photo snapped a few years ago while visiting sister Linetha in Oklahoma.  

We were reminiscing about our days of yore, when I recalled a framed picture of a "vagabond duck" that used to grace her bedroom wall when we were kids.

"I still have it," she exclaimed.

"No!" I retorted in disbelief. 

"After all these years?"

Within minutes she produced the object of my interest.   It wasn't very big.  It wasn't framed.  It had faded a wee bit....and....horrors.....it wasn't glowing!"  Nonetheless, I captured the above image of Linetha with her duck friend.

Yep, as a kid, I was enamored with this vagabond duck, apparently running away from home, or maybe just exploring new places.  And perhaps most intriguing for me (when I was a kid....and maybe still) was that this wandering waterfowl had glowed in the dark.

Maybe my early exposure to Linetha's vagabond duck explains why Karen and I have lived in a gazillion places over the past half century or so.

But my excitement over seeing this long-lost "friend" really was tempered by the fact that it didn't seem to glow anymore.  After all, that was what had really intrigued me as a kid.  I'm not sure what kind of goop (read that "chemically-treated goop") was applied to it to make it glow, but it did.

Methinks that goop has lost it punch, just like the rest of us.  

But with a little help from Photoshop, I wanted to let my dear sister know that her Vagabond Duck still shines! 

Still standing...Whitney's old Methodist parsonage

In the mid-1930's  Alex Miller met a high school girl from Crawford named Mildred Saxton.  But it would be a couple of years later, after he returned from working in Michgan, that they would marry.  It was on  July 1, 1936; they were married in the Methodist parsonage by Reverend C. Curtis Norlin.   It was Alex's 25th birthday, and they  were married nearly 50 years before he died in April of 1985.

Alex and Mildred's children have often visited the Whitney area, usually to visit the cemetery and occasionally to see if the old parsonage is still standing.  It was on one of those visits about 15 years ago that Charlene Miller took this photograph.

Charlene and brother Bruce were in Dawes County within the past few months  (winter 2020), and report that the old parsonage structure is, indeed, still standing!  Thanks to Charlene for sharing this photograph!

Happy Birthday TODAY to cousins Marlene & Darlene!

by Larry Miller

One of the real joys of genealogy is finding family you either didn't know you had – or reconnecting with family you've never met.

But those happy moments also apply to cousins you knew you had – but hadn't seen in a long time.  Say....50 or 60 years!

Such is the case with the Snyder girls, Marlene and Darlene (shown above, although it could well be Darlene and Marlene!)  They are  the twin daughters of Evelyn (Miller) Snyder, youngest of the 11 children born to Pete and Dora Miller, our German-Russian grandparents who lived the last 30-40 years of their lives in Whitney, Nebraska, where Evelyn was born in 1930.

I saw the twins at least once, but it was a long time ago.   I believe they were with Evelyn when she came back to Nebraska for the funeral of grandma Miller in 1963 – but in may have been in 1957 when grandpa Miller passed away.  

In any event, it was a long time ago!  Fact is, my memories conjure up only the images I've seen of them in two photographs.  One of those photos is shown above.

In March, after finding information about both the girls in a 2000 obituary published in Akron, Ohio, I was able to locate Marlene in Virginia and track down a telephone number.  

We had a delightful conversation – followed some days later by a phone call from Darlene, who also lives in Virginia!

It's safe to say that most of the Miller cousins whose photos have appeared on this website and the linked Miller Gallery have never met these ladies, who are still on the young side – even though they're celebrating a landmark birthday today!  We hope they're able to review some of the many stories and photos we've posted over the years, learning a bit about their Miller cousins.

We hope to learn more about Darlene and Marlene.  Perhaps they'll share with us a bit about themselves and their families as so many of our other Miller cousins have over the past 15 years or so.  Maybe a photo from time to time that we can add to our gallery (It'll be hard to top the cute photo above!)

But for now, we wish them both a very Happy Birthday!  May you and your families be safe and well!