Richard Cyril Miller 1926 - 1983
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Richard was the son of Cyril Bertram Miller (1902-1978) and Mildred Caroline Brown Miller (1903-1992). He was born 29 June 1926 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
His only sibling was his older sister Carol Joyce Miller Wheeler Mills James (1924-1981). He was married twice, once to Laurabelle (or Laura Belle) Bickell (1917-1988) with whom he had a daughter. He and Laura divorced and later he married Ingrid Ilse Grups, with whom he adopted a daughter.
Richard moved around a lot as a child, probably because his father C.B.'s employment status as a salesman was always a bit iffy. In 1930 they were living in Topeka, Kansas, where C.B.'s parents lived for quite some time. In 1935 the family was in Denver, Colorado, and then in 1940 Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri.
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Richard served in the U.S. Navy, enlisting during WWII and rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. He was then persuaded to attend Officer Candidate School and transitioned to being a commissioned officer. His highest permanent rank was Lieutenant Commander, although I believe for some reason that he briefly held the rank of Commander (although this might have just been for the purposes of retirement benefits). Anyway, he definitely made it to Lieutenant Commander, as is noted on his military marker.
The most time I spent with him was during the summer of 1975, where I visited with him, Ingrid and their adopted daughter for a week or two. They were living in western Missouri not too far from Kansas City, I believe they were near Harrisonville in Cass County. The most vivid memory I have of that trip was a sudden hailstorm which broke a plate glass window or door on their house. The property was really nice, they were living in the country and it was quite verdant. I don't remember how many acres they owned along with the house, but I don't recall any neighbors being very close.
The last time I saw Rick was at my mom's funeral in 1981. I had dropped out of college about six months earlier and he started to give me a hard time about it. I let him go on for a bit and then I said something to this effect, not defensive at all, just matter of fact: "Uncle Rick, I've learned one thing. You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine, but I did what I did for my own reasons and I'm dealing with the consequences myself."
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He was taken aback a bit by my response, but I think in a good way. I recall him saying something like "Well, maybe you did learn something after all." And then he dropped it.
I was still living in Colorado when Rick died in April of 1983, but if they had a formal funeral for him I know I didn't attend. I did visit Ingrid, her adopted daughter, and Rick's mother (my grandmother) Mildred in late 1986 for a few days when I went on a long road trip from Los Angeles to Arkansas and Kansas City and back. That ended up being the last time I saw any of them. Ingrid and her daughter moved to Orlando, Florida after that. Ingrid passed away in 2000. I have no idea what's going on with her daughter, I know she got married but we have lost touch with each other. I haven't been as good at responding to cards and letters as I should have been and that's my fault.
Mildred passed away in 1992. It was fortunate she had my address (I had just moved to a new apartment a few months earlier) and her sister Genevieve Brown Sayre mailed me a mess of copies of the funeral announcement because she remembered there were a whole lot of us Mills children.
I didn't get to visit Mildred's grave until 2009, the next time I was in Kansas City. Unfortunately I didn't get to Rick's grave in Garden City, Missouri at that time (he and Ingrid are at the Garden City Cemetery just outside of town). I knew where he was buried but I don't think I realized Ingrid had passed away until a year or two after that trip in 2009. In any event my wife and I finally got out to visit Rick and Ingrid's grave in 2019 when we went to Kansas City in May.
Because it took so long to get there I have probably overcompensated with the amount of marker photos I have attached to this article. I don't think I have any actual photos of Rick but since I have this page up now hopefully that will be an incentive for me to get some photos from some of our other relatives and post them here.
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BTW, the listing at the cemetery Rick and Ingrid are in show them at Lot 247. This is one row back from the east edge of the cemetery, it was quite easy to find as they have an upright marker and if you drive along the east side of the cemetery and look in towards the center of the cemetery their marker is quite visible.
There is a second flat marker for Rick which shows his military information. This is probably one of the markers the government pays for to put on the graves of veterans and servicemen and women who died on active duty. I've seen quite a few cases where a husband and wife will have a shared marker and the husband (usually) has an additional military marker.
Other Links
Richard Cyril Miller at Family Search Dot Org
Richard Cyril Miller at Find A Grave Dot Com
Richard Cyril Miller at Genealogy Locator System on Mills-sfv Dot Com
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