Grandpa Miller

Since he doesn't appear anywhere else on the blogsite, I'll give you a little information about our step-grandfather, Wade Evers Miller ("Evie"). He was born May 3, 1906, at Cootes Store, Shenandoah Co., Virginia. He grew up in the very tiny hillbilly hamlet of West Lodi, Ohio, north of Attica.

He had a brother Luther in Willard, and sisters Stella Gray and Hazel Lutkemeier in Attica. They saw each other quite often and I knew all of them. He had a son, Orlin, by his first wife. Orlin was an alcoholic and they lived in poverty. His wife, Marcella, stood by him all his life. He died in a nursing home in his 60's. They had children Linda, Sherry, Gary, and Orlin Evers (died in infancy).

Grandma Miller told me once that our step-grandfather Evie had been the town drunk, but he agreed to give up drinking for her. They were married in June 1944 at the Lutheran Church in Willard in a private ceremony. They lived in Attica until about 1956, when they moved to Willard. He worked for the B&O Railroad at the roundhouse. When the roundhouse closed, he and several co-workers got jobs at Sandusky Crushed Stone (quarry). They moved to Sandusky about 1960. Grandpa Miller died of pneumonia August 5, 1966.

Grandma and Grandpa did not attend church, but they followed Rex Humbard, who was the pioneer televangelist. The last couple years of his life, they attended St. Paul Lutheran Church in Sandusky.

His family is all buried in Omar Cemetery, north of Attica.