Odetta F. Miller, 78, a lifetime Baker City resident, died May 14, 2005, at her home of natural causes.
Her funeral will be at 2 p.m. Friday at Coles Funeral Home, 1950 Place St. Mr. Larry Albert will conduct the service. Interment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery. Visitations will be fro 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.
Odetta was born on June 12, 1926, at Baker City to Howard and Goldie Jacobs. Her best childhood memories included living on the homestead out at Five Mile (Lookout Mountain). She spent most of her time with her father. He gathered mustangs and broke them to use for the summer. Her mother would have to take a shovel to the berry patch to kill rattlesnakes before she could pick the berries.
In addition to “a life of hard-knocks education,” she attended public school in Baker City, as well as Baker Business College. She continued her education to get her private investigators license. She received her certified nursing assistant training at St. Elizabeth Hospital in the mid 1970s.
During World War II, Odetta played her guitar, yodeled and sang on the local radio station KBKR. She also worked at the Vancouver, Wash., shipyard with her sister, Edna.
Odetta married William Patterson in 1944. They had two children, Willy and Odett.
Then on June 26, 1950, she married Frank L. Miller at Winnemucca, Nev. After they were married they drove home the same day to do the nighttime milking on the ranch. Frank and Odetta were sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple in 1954.
Frank and Odetta had three children, Lynn, Lacy and Leah. She kept busy as a mother of five and worked helping Frank dairy for many years, and she loved every minute of it.
She canned more than 1,000 quarts of fruits and vegetables per season and baked five loaves of bread every other day for her family. All of her family loved to hear her play the guitar, sing, and yodel. She loved family, music, flowers and her goats.
Survivors include her husband, Frank Miller of Baker City; her children, Odett Patterson of Virginia; Lynn Miller of Baker City; Lacy Gargan of Lynnwood, Wash., and Leah Bussard of St. Helens; 13 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; two brothers, Dewayne and Dewey Jacobs; one sister, Ethel Rogers; and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her father and mother; a son, Willy Miller; two sisters, Edna Brill and Erma Price; two brothers, Harold and Edward Pointer; and one grandson, Christopher Bussard.
Memorial contributions may be made to Pathway Hospice through Coles Funeral Home, 1950 Place St., Baker City, OR 97814.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, May 23, 2005
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor