Verna Margaret Anna Miller

Verna Miller was born in a farm house near Pierce, NE, on June 4, 1922 to William and Agnes (Krueger) Henzler. She was baptized at two weeks in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church of Pierce and confirmed in that church on June 2, 1935. She started school with her 14 month older brother Gilbert. Both only spoke German when they started school. Other students and teachers made fun of them for speaking that “funny language.” She attended Pierce High School and worked for room and board so that she could go to high school. When she was sixteen, she graduated Pierce High School in 1939, having taken the “Normal Training” course of study. She worked for room and board in Pierce so that she could attend high school. The “Normal Training” course prepared her to teach in a rural school at age sixteen for $45.00 per month. During World War II, at age 20 in 1942, she became a civil service employee for the army’s division of Women Ordinance Worker (WOW) as a mechanic learner or apprentice. In 1943, she became an automotive serviceman at Fort Crook in Bellevue, NE. She worked for 72 cents an hour making parachutes, spray painting ID numbers on officers’ cars, painting white stars on weapon carrier jeeps, red crosses on transport vehicles among other responsibilities. She was also a foreman over seven Italian prisoners. To supplement her income, after her duties were finished at Fort Crook, she worked as a waitress at the Blackstone Hotel in Omaha. On June 4, 1944, she married Stephen Beckner and sold Avon to help support the family. They lived in Mitchell South Dakota where Naoma was born in 1946 and Nancy in 1947. She married Robert Crisp of Plainview on September 12, 1952. She taught rural, one room schools for twenty years before she started teaching at the Plainview Elementary School in 1968. Also over a twenty year period, she earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Wayne State College in Wayne, NE, in 1965, with a major in education and a minor in history. She earned her Master of Science degree in Elementary Counseling and Guidance from Kearney State College in 1971. She was in the group of teachers who were first to receive this degree in the state of Nebraska. She then counseled elementary students outside of school hours for various problems. She and Ronald Miller were married in 1979 . She continued to teach at Plainview Elementary School until 1984 when she retired at age 62 from forty years of teaching. She and Ronnie enjoyed traveling and motorcycle riding. They spent six months in Arizona and six months in Plainview. After his death in 1987, she built an apartment onto her daughter, Nancy’s house in Valley, NE where she continued to spend six months a year and go to Arizona for six months. In 2008, she needed to move to Valley where Nancy and her husband Danny cared for her until her passing. Her accomplishments include: Kappa Delta Pi Honorary Society for Education; Nebraska Personnel and Guidance Association; National Education4-4- Association, Nebraska State Educational Association; Circuit speaker for reading and non-graded school systems. She was the first elementary teacher to receive the Teacher of the Year Reward in the Plainview Public School System in 1977. She exhibited great community involvement: Plainview Historical Society; Junior Red Cross for all of the Pierce County Rural School System; Pierce County Red Cross; She reorganized and led the Girl Scouts; She helped organize the Prairie Gems 4-H Club and served as assistant leader; She volunteered many years as a camp counselor for both Girl Scouts and 4-H. She was a charter member of the Pricillas Society in the Zion Lutheran Church; served as a Sunday school teacher for fourteen years; gave demonstrations at circuit Sunday School and completed five Sunday School Institutes; Life Light Bible Study Group for twelve years; member of Aid Association for Lutherans both in Plainview and Arizona; Lutheran Fellowship Club. She really enjoyed going to the Casino, playing cards especially poker, bridge and ten point pitch and fishing. For many years, the family vacations consisted of going to either Minnesota or Canada fishing with husband, Bob, Naoma and Nancy as well as her parents and her brothers and sisters-in-law. Her pet peeves were people yawning and eating too fast. Verna (Crisp) Miller, age 92, of Valley, NE, formerly of Plainview, NE, died 3/10/15. Survived by daughters: Dr. Naoma Crisp-Lindgren of Wichita, KS, and Nancy Heim-Berg, and husband Danny Berg of Valley, 10 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren. Funeral service 10AM Saturday, 3/14, at the funeral home in Elkhorn. Visitation one hour prior to the service. Graveside service at Pleasant View Cemetery in Plainview, NE, 3:30 PM Saturday. Memorials to the family.

Verna Margaret Anna Miller

June 4, 1922 - March 10, 2015