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James P. Miller Obituary

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James P. Miller

Roseau, MN

February 5, 1934 - November 23, 2020

James P. Miller Obituary

A Memorial Service James P. Miller of Roseau, MN will be held on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 1:00 PM at Helgeson Funeral Home in Roseau, MN. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. 

James Palmer Miller, 86, passed away on November 23, 2020, at his home in Falun Township. He was preceded in death by his parents, Henry and Gladys (Medhus) Miller; in-laws, Arthur and Ellen (Johnson) Boen; twin brother, Jerome; sisters, Betty (Miller) Johnson, Dorothy Miller, Donna (Miller) Anderson and her twin infant sons.

Surviving are his wife, Shirley (Boen) Miller; two sons, Jan Miller and Lee (Lynn) Miller; three granddaughters, Kayla (Jared) Dion, Kalicia (Issiah) Hruby, and Karlie Miller (friend Daniel Wright). Also surviving are five great-grandchildren, Jackson Dion, Ellie Dion, Levi Dion, Trenton Miller-Lovelace, and Kora Hruby. He is also survived by brother, Donald (Doris) Miller; brother-in-law, Virgil “Bud” Johnson; sister-in-law, Joan (Wahlin, Miller) (David) Wensloff; and brother-in-law, John (Wendy) Anderson. Also surviving are niece, Kristen (Ritchie) Omdahl; nephews, Joel (Sue) Miller and Molly and Zach, Scott (Cheryl) Miller and Sam and Julianna, Mark (Brienne) Miller and Pacey and Abigail, Ted (Kathy) Miller and Hannah, Alex, and Madde, Ross (Jackie) Miller and Harper, Brooke, and Mason.

TO OUR GRANDPA JIM FROM KAYLA, KALICIA, AND KARLIE: And just like that – our next door neighbor for all of our school years, our get-us-out-of-trouble guy, our oil changer, our bike riding teacher, our stick shift teacher, let’s be real – our everything teacher, our ultimate dancing partner, our leftovers eater, our tractor diving co-pilot, our favorite veteran, our parts getter, our favorite story teller, our cancer fighter – our Grandpa Jim left us at 8:36 pm on Monday, November 23, 2020. He lived with Signet Ring Carcinoma for over six years - much longer than the average life expectancy, but there was nothing average about this guy. Change happened suddenly and his passing was very peaceful. His humor and kind heart will be missed by so many. Thank you for your kind words. We were fortunate enough to be sitting beside him when he left us – no more pain.

TO MY HUSBAND OF 61 YEARS, 8 MONTHS, 17 DAYS AND 8.5 HOURS: You always enjoyed visiting with friends and neighbors. Much of the time the conversation ended up with a history lesson. So, let’s have a history lesson: The last two days of January, 1934, a local young mother passed away giving birth to a beautiful baby girl who survived. The first few days of February, 1934, there was a huge snowstorm that blocked the low country roads and filled the shallow ditches, making for impassible roads. Because the funeral was scheduled for February 5, the Herling brothers and other local neighbors managed to get the roads passible for driving. Fortunately for you, Dr. J. L. Delmore and his nurse, Ina Blom, were also able to come out because you and Jerry decided to be born that day – Jerry came first as a breech baby! You were born about 10 minutes later – two perfect identical 6 pound boys. You were born on a cold day, February 5, 1934, in your parents’ small house in Falun Township. A local young neighbor girl, Hildur Olson Westhed, was there to keep older sister Betty occupied with other duties the day you two were born. Your parents must have known they were expecting twins as Glady had bought one blue and one pink blanket. Since Jerry came first, he got the blue blanket and you got the pink one. Hildur kept you two apart by giving Jerry the blue one and you the pink. Jerry was called “Bluey” and you were called “Pinky”. Many years later, Hildur would sometime jokingly ask if you were “Bluey” or Pinky” as she still couldn’t tell you apart. You were so identical in every way except personality. You were together all the time and almost always knew everything the other was going to say or do. Glady used to recall many mix-ups, whether intentional or unintentional, that were made by Jim and Jer. Buying clothes and shoes was no problem except to buy two of everything. You attended school for eight years in Falun District 36 West. Then you went to Roseau High School for four more years together. After high school the physical togetherness changed somewhat but the same mental telepathy continued. You served in the US Army from 1954-1956 in Germany. After being honorably discharged, you worked in the woods for Clifford Comstock for the next winter. Then Jerry entered the US Army and also served in Germany. In the meantime, you guys got married; Jerry and Joan lived on the old A.R. Miller farm in Malung Township and we lived in your parents’ yard in Falun Township. Soon you started building up a dairy herd in the old barn in Malung, did small grain farming and lots of haying in both Malung and Falun Townships.

Life was good – but when I married into the Miller family it was almost like a cultural shock – six brothers and sisters and a mom and dad – I had no brothers or sisters and my dad had died the day before my 13th birthday, so Mom and I had been alone for many years. One thing that always impressed me was that you were always so helpful and respectful to your parents and my mother – my mom thought she had the best son-in-law in the world. Then came family, Jerry and Joan had three sons and you and I had two sons – five Miller BOYS! All the boys worked on the farm with you and Jerry, graduated from college and came back to the farm. Jerry lived where the barn was located, so much of the calving, sick cows, checking the barn every evening, etc. was left for him to do. You were the book keeper for Miller Brothers and you did a very thorough job – many nights you would work in the account books to keep everything up to date. You also had another “little black book” which you kept track of different daily things such as when new vehicles were bought, different things of interest in the community occurred, and many other little tidbits. You also had the crop and haying machinery in our yard. Many nights you were repairing equipment until midnight so they could be used the next day. There wasn’t much you couldn’t fix. YOU AND JERRY WERE A GOOD TEAM. Your granddaughters always liked to go with you to Badger or Greenbush to buy parts to fix various equipment. They called it buying “pots” and always got a snack afterwards.

Do you remember the day you ended up as Jan’s babysitter? Jan and Lee were in the lower grades in Malung School, I was teaching in Roseau, and Jan ended up sick so he was home with you. As usual when I came home, I asked Jan how the day had gone. He had the biggest grin on his face and he led me into the kitchen, stopped by the stove and pointed up to the ceiling – there was a big blob of something up there. You must have decided to cheer Jan up so you were frying pancakes and flipped one up so high it hit the ceiling (Lynn, I don’t think Lee got his pancake making expertise from his dad!) One day you said to me “If I haven’t taught my boys how to work, I haven’t taught them anything.” – but you were a gentle taskmaster, never expecting more from them than you did beside them. You were always so concerned about being fair and equal – which wasn’t an easy job since the two sons were so different in looks, personality, likes, dislikes, and interests.

Then came the Grandparents Era – three Miller GIRLS! So much work on the farm, especially milking cows, but you and I were actually going to the Cities with Merle and Rose Goos for a Twins game and other stuff, but that very day, little Miss Kayla decided to enter this world so our trip was delayed a few hours. Of course the new grandpa had to hold her before we left. As you were holding her, she pooped that yellow, runny baby poop in her diaper in your hand. What a way of bonding! She has had you wrapped around her little finger ever since. One day we will never forget is when I took Kayla for a ride in our NEW car. She was about two years old. I buckled her in her car seat in the right rear passenger seat of our NEW car. As I walked around the front of the car, I thought maybe she should be in the front seat by me – so I took her and her car seat to the front seat and buckled her in by me. So we started out and CRASH! Since our garage is attached to the house, you heard the commotion and came running out. What you saw was Kayla and I still in the car half way out of the garage, the right rear door twisted back and almost ripped off, and the track of the garage door ripped off. The first and only thing you said was “Are you ok?” (I had forgotten to shut the rear door when I changed Kayla’s car seat to the front seat.) That was the end of our day out. No scolding and then you started fixing my mess.

Just as the granddaughters said, you were also my go-to guy for everything. Such as my driving in the ditch on icy roads, or when a friend and I got stranded in the TRF airport on a stormy winter night and our intended ride did not show up, or when I got a flat tire in Roseau around 10 PM and 20 below zero – always call on Jimmy. In all my foolish escapades, you always came, never scolded me, but the first thing you always said was “Are you ok?” Your philosophy was that vehicles, appliances, etc. were inanimate objects that could be repaired or replaced while people were not always so lucky. Then later came two more beautiful granddaughters – all three being as different as your sons were, so you had to go into your “fair and equal” mode again. All this time, you were increasing the dairy herd and in 1966 a big, modern dairy barn was built. Ever since about 1950, you drove a rickety, old jalopy the 2.5 miles to and from the barn every morning at 5 AM and every evening at 4 PM. About 1996, you built another new barn, housing more cattle. Years passed by and then on February 7, 1999, came the worst day of your life – Jerry died. And so many times after, you would ask me the unanswerable question, “Why did I get to live 20 years more than Jerry?” That just didn’t seem right to you. In 2002, the year of the big Roseau County flood, one day five big semis came and loaded up over 200 dairy cows and then there was no more Miller Brothers Dairy – it was almost as if a vacuum was created. All of the five sons each went their own way. Only one remains a farmer but all live in Roseau County.

Life has to go on and everything seemed to be going good until 2014 when you were diagnosed with two types of cancer right after open-heart surgery. One type of cancer was curable but the other only treatable. You were a good patient and never complained. Your wish was to die in your own bed, in the same house you lived in for over 60 years, and the same yard you were born in 86 years ago and we were able to fulfill that wish. So when I leave this earth and we meet for the first time in the Great Beyond, I know the first thing you will say to me is “Are you okay?”

To share a memory or send a condolence gift, please visit the Official Obituary of James P. Miller hosted by Helgeson Funeral Home.

Events

Event information can be found on the Official Obituary of James P. Miller.