Grace L. Miller

Grace L. Miller was born September 5, 1931 in Albany, Oregon, the sixth child of Henry and Bertha (Boshart) Gerig. She passed away unexpectedly on May 3, 2026 at Salem, Oregon at the age of 94 years, 7 months, and 3 days and was the last surviving member of her immediate family. She was living at Bonaventure Senior Living for 3 months, only 3 miles from her youngest son, recovering from a fractured hip and pelvis. She saw her family every day and was very content and happy.

She completed 8 grades of school between Grand Prairie School in Albany and Stoltz Hill School in Lebanon. In her youth she also attended Fairview Mennonite Church where her father was the pastor. It was here where she learned to sing hymns in four-part harmony using shaped notes and accepted Christ as her savior and was baptized.

Grace’s first job was kitchen help at the Gourley’s Jersey Dairy on Knox Butte Road. One of her jobs in the house was helping Mrs. Gourley make meals for the hired hands. It was here where she met a particular hired man who had recently moved to the state from Idaho and became the love of her life, Earl A. Miller. They were married April 27, 1951 and had 6 sons. There were only 8 ½ years that separated the age from the oldest son to the youngest. They lived on a variety of small farms around Linn County and for a time had a Jersey dairy also.

Grace loved homemaking and she also worked as a Certified Nurses Aid for 3 years at the Mennonite Home after her boys were raised. Grace enjoyed gardening a quarter acre plot - canning and freezing the produce it provided and making apple sauce from a large Gravenstein apple tree that grew in the center of the garden. She and her husband saved sweet meat and acorn squash in their home’s attic for the winter that she shared with all her immediate and extended family at meals during the holidays. Grace especially enjoyed the small animals that lived on their fourty-two acre farm on Brewster Road. She raised a pet duck she had helped hatch and bottle-fed numerous baby lambs her husband rescued from the cold. A favorite hobby of hers was second hand stores where she found collectables and clothing for her herself and her family. Her grandchildren have fond memories of their grandmother helping them find mice in the field and in the wooden grain bin in the large red tin-roofed barn that sat near the main road. For 36 years they had a grand view of the Cascades and Snow Peak.

Grace kept her sense of humor to the very end and blessed everyone in the way she expressed delight in seeing them when they stopped by to visit. Grace’s Christian faith and love of Jesus was central in her life, which she shared with her neighbors, family, and friends. She was one of the oldest surviving charter members at Lebanon Mennonite church. She is preceded in death by her husband Earl and her oldest son Keith. She is survived by son Ron and his wife Evone (Kornhaus) Miller of Albany, Clinton and Janet (Schmidt) Miller of Lebanon, Jim and Sheri (Loganbill) Miller of Lebanon, Paul and Darla (Forbes) Miller of Scio, and Roger Miller of Salem. She has 13 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren. A memorial service is being planned for Saturday, May 30, 2026 at 2:00pm at Lebanon Mennonite church.