Scott Kirk

Special to the Reporter-News

After 60 years of marriage, Robert and Beth Miller of Ballinger were separated by death for only 25 hours.

Robert Miller, 83, died the evening of Feb. 4 at his home, surrounded by family and friends.

His 80-year-old wife, Beth, couldn't be there — she was in a San Angelo hospital, having just been diagnosed with leukemia, their daughter Nancy Minzenmayer said.

Beth Miller died Monday, just 25 hours after her husband.

Minzenmayer doesn't believe it was a coincidence.

“I’m very convinced she decided to go,” she said.

“For 20 years they didn’t do anything socially together because of dad’s health and now they’re having this big event together,” Minzenmayer said, referring to the couple’s double funeral at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Avenue B Church of Christ in Ballinger.

“Mom went everywhere. If a car was leaving, mom was in it," she said. "Dad was probably thinking, ‘I’ll probably have two or three years in heaven before she gets here, and danged if she’s not coming here with me.’ A car was leaving, dad was in it and mom got in.”

Following the leukemia diagnosis, Beth Miller had only been given a couple of weeks to live, Minzenmayer said.

“We talked about hospice, but mom said she didn’t want to go through any treatment without dad,” Minzenmeyer said. “She said, ‘I’m not afraid of dying, but I’m afraid of going through the treatment without your father.’”

Robert Miller met Clara Beth Alsobrook at a wedding in Andrews in 1956. As fate would have it, she was going to spend the summer in Austin with her sister and Robert was taking classes at the University of Texas. They spent the summer water skiing.

“Dad said that was the closest he ever came to failing in school and it was because of our mother,” Minzenmayer said.

They married Sept. 8, 1956, in Andrews.

As a young couple in veterinary school at Texas A&M, the Millers’ house was always open to the other vet students. That trend continued when the couple moved to Ballinger. Minzenmayer said the house was always opened for relatives and friends travelling through.

“When I was young, I thought everybody’s parents were like mine,” she said. “When I got older, I realized that wasn’t true.”

Minzenmayer said her father was a quiet man who “was always teaching. My sister and I are science teachers, and it’s because our dad taught us to love science.”

Beth Miller, her daughter said, was involved in everything, from volunteering in schools to running the ticket window at Ballinger High School football and basketball games.

Minzenmayer said there is some concern that the Avenue B Church of Christ won't be big enough to hold the funeral service, a situation she believed would have been viewed differently by her parents.

“Dad is probably going to be embarrassed by it and mom is probably thinking ‘boy, this is great,’” she said.

Robert Miller, a Ballinger native, was in the Corps of Cadets at A&M and served in the Texas National Guard. In addition to being a veterinarian, he ranched in the Ballinger area.

Beth Miller was born in Knox City. She worked in the state welfare office and later worked as a substitute teacher, a bus driver and the supervisor for the On-Campus Suspension Center discipline program for Ballinger ISD. A beloved figure on the school campuses, she was known as “Grandma,” her obituary said.

The Millers are survived by their three daughters — Lori Delaine Scott, and husband Romer; Julia Leigh Miller; and Nancy Minzenmayer and husband Michael; — and their son, Robert Miller, and wife Linda, all of Ballinger. They had 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

“They were wonderful people,” Minzenmayer said of her parents. “And, that’s not just a daughter talking. You should see the things that people are writing on my Facebook page about them.”