It is with great sadness that her family shares that Marilyn Jean Miller departed her earthly home on September 22, 2024. As was the case throughout their lives together, her loving husband, Bob, was by her side at the time of her passing. While the family mourns for her, we also rejoice with confident faith that she is celebrating with her heavenly Father and many loved ones.
Marilyn was born on May 18, 1946, to the late Thelma (Packer) and Henry Spring and was raised in Uhrichsville, Ohio. She treasured her childhood and youth, growing up in a loving family with four siblings, and being part of a small community. After graduating from Uhrichsville High School in 1964, Marilyn continued her education at Malone College and later earned her master’s degree from Oakland University. Teaching was her calling, and, as an elementary school teacher, she devoted 34 years to nurturing the next generation and encouraging them as readers.
In 1968, Marilyn married Bob Miller, the love of her life, who she had met in high school. Throughout their 56 years of marriage, Marilyn and Bob made countless treasured memories as they traveled throughout the United States and Europe with family and friends. Most of their travel happened over summer and school breaks, as Marilyn was devoted to the education of the children she was entrusted with each school year. Favorite places to visit included Williamsburg, Virginia and Bar Harbor, Maine. As Bob says, “We just enjoyed doing so many things together.”
Marilyn and Bob moved to Davison, Michigan, where she enjoyed nurturing their gardens, hosting friends and family, and decorating their beautiful home with collections of carefully-acquired antiques and consignment shop bargains. Marilyn especially loved when her many nieces and nephews would come to visit. It was always a special time for the children to have their stays with Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Bob and to have the opportunity to create lifelong memories of finding a mint on their pillows so that they could pretend they were in a fancy hotel, playing board and card games, setting up croquet in the back yard under the weeping willow tree, swinging, taking walks through the neighborhood while looking at autumn leaves, being in awe of her collection of books, and going on leisurely bike rides. She devoted herself wholly to her family and encouraged the love of family, church, and reading.
In addition to their home in Davison, she and Bob kept and maintained the family home in Uhrichsville so that everyone could gather for the holidays and other important family events. Marilyn continued her mother’s love of the holidays and ensured everyone could be together for those days. She shopped, planned, cooked, and painstakingly decorated to provide a warm, loving, and welcoming home for her family and friends. For over 30 years, she and Bob wrote and facilitated family road rallies at holiday gatherings. This provided immeasurable fun and memorable moments as the family attempted to decipher their cryptic clues, and the end of the game always followed with enthusiastic debates over who really won the competition.
Marilyn was a gifted writer, a trait her family and friends cherished deeply. Every year, she sent a multitude of handwritten cards and letters to her loved ones, and each one held a heartfelt reminder of their significance to her. Her letters were not just words on paper—they shared her life’s milestones, her thoughts and prayers, her dreams for the future, often a touch of nostalgia, and always, without fail, they were written in her signature cursive. Those treasured letters will be sorely missed.
Marilyn was an active member of both the First Moravian Church of Uhrichsville and the United Methodist Church in Davison, and her faith was a core value on which she built her life.
Marilyn is survived by her husband, Bob; siblings, Bette Anne Spring and Bob (Shari) Spring; sister-in-law, Kathy Spring; and leaves behind many nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews, along with dear friends, who will carry on her legacy.
In addition to her parents, Marilyn was preceded in death by her brother, Danny Spring, and sister and brother-in-law, June Elaine and Roy Rice. She always loved riding along in her brother’s antique truck and talking on the phone each day with her sister.
The family will be accepting visitors on Friday, September 27th, from 4:00 – 7:00 pm at R.K. Lindsey Funeral Home in Dennison, and at the First Moravian Church of Uhrichsville beginning at 10:15 am prior to funeral services which are to be held at 11:00 am on Saturday, September 28th. Interment will occur at Gnadenhutten Cemetery following the service. Those wishing to honor Marilyn’s memory by a charitable contribution are encouraged to do so to First Moravian Church of Uhrichsville, 315 N. Water St., Uhrichsville, OH 44683.
Marilyn and Bob decorated their home with sentiments that she embodied in her daily life – mottos that Marilyn not only believed, but also lived and encouraged in others. “Speak kind words and receive kind echoes,” and “Love of a family is life’s greatest blessing.”
R.K. Lindsey Funeral Home, Inc.
740.922.1970
www.lindseyfh.com
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