Ernestine Miller

The funeral service for Ernestine Miller, 102, of Meadow will be held at 2 p.m. MT on Saturday, November 14, 2020 at the Prince of Peace Chapel of the Evanson-Jensen Funeral Home in Lemmon. Pastor Harold Delbridge will officiate with burial in Greenhill Cemetery at Lemmon.

The funeral service will be live streamed at www.evansonjensenfuneralhome.com. Visitation will be on Friday from 1 to 7 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 to 2 p.m. at the funeral home.

Ernestine passed away peacefully on Saturday, November 7, 2020, one day before her 103rd birthday.

Leota Ernestine Miller was born November 8, 1917 to John Paul and Temperance (Broiles) Paul. She grew up on her parents’ farm near Welda, KS, attended a rural school, and graduated from high school at Welda in 1936.

In 1937, she moved to Fort Collins, CO to find work, where she met Gottlieb Miller. They were united in marriage on October 15, 1939. They had one son, Sidney. In 1942 they moved to South Dakota, where Gottlieb worked on the Perrett Ranch near Glad Valley and Ernestine cooked out of a sheep wagon for the ranch hands. In October, 1944 they purchased a ranch east of Meadow, where they started raising turkeys, geese, and Hereford cattle.

If you came to her house in the spring, you were likely to trip over boxes of baby lambs, had to be careful not to step on the dog under the table, and were told not to worry about the rain running out of the light sockets in the entry way; “It’s all fine!”

Ernestine was known for raising a large garden, milking cows, raising chickens and turkeys, supplying many of the neighbors with eggs, milk, and cream. She churned her own butter by hand. In the winter months she enjoyed sewing, making most of her own dresses with her pedal sewing machine. She was a perfectionist making beautiful leather work, but didn’t do it often.

Growing up in the 30’s and 40’s, she didn’t throw anything away. They butchered their own beef, chickens, and canned everything you could think of. Ernestine never had a driver’s license; as far as she would drive was to the garden. She took pride in her large garden and her yard with many beautiful flowers and lilacs.

It was considered a privilege by many to eat dinner at Ernestine’s house as she was a good cook. If you left the ranch without eating, she felt offended. She stayed on the ranch until July of 2015, when she moved to the Good Samaritan Society in Mott, ND. Ernestine is the last of her four siblings to pass away.

She is survived by her niece, Linda Lucke, Chanute, KS; two grandchildren, Robyn Miller (Steve) Schweitzer, Isabel, and Vern (Taye) Miller, Spokane, WA; great-grandchildren Nicole (Perry) Peichoto and Heather Miller, both of Spokane; and great-great-grandchildren Grace, Beau, and Eve Peichoto.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband Gottlieb on July 28, 2008; son Sidney Miller on December 2, 2016; and siblings Floyd Paul, Ruby Grummel and Myrtle Collyar.

(Robyn Miller’s address is 13734 SD Hwy 65, Isabel, SD 57633.)