HAMILTON - Mavis Miller, 91, of Hamilton, Montana passed away at The Remington on December 19, 2020 from Alzheimer’s dementia.
Mavis was born in December 1929 in Richfield, Utah to Kent and Fern Nelson. She was the first of four daughters born to the Nelson household. Mavis was raised in Richfield, graduating from Richfield High School as valedictorian in 1948. She resided In Richfield until her marriage to Charles A. “Smokey” Miller, on July 7, 1951 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a wedding chapel ceremony and a vinyl recording of the event still exists.
Smokey was employed in the oil industry and he and Mavis, and eventually their family, lived a rather transient lifestyle for the next 21 years, residing in 19 different locations throughout Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and a stretch of two years in Mendoza, Argentina. Many of these locales were lived in for only a month or two during the completion of an oil drilling project. Daughter Cyndi was born in 1952 in Dillon, Montana and son Kent was born in 1955 in Richfield, Utah. The family finally settled in Vernal, Utah in 1972. Smokey passed away in 2003 after 52 years of marriage and Mavis remained in Vernal until moving to Hamilton, Montana in June of 2011 to be closer to family. She lived independently for several years eventually moving into the Sapphire Lutheran Homes in 2014 and the memory care unit of The Remington in 2019 as her dementia progressed.
Mavis was a loving wife, sister, mother and grandmother. Many of her fondest memories were of family time spent camping and fishing at a lake in south central Utah aptly named Fish Lake where her family had a cabin and at one time owned a small resort on the lakeshore. Much family time was spent there and to her death Mavis talked about attending dances and adventures at “The Lake”. These were memories Alzheimer’s was not able to erase. She enjoyed weekend family jeep trips spent exploring, camping and fishing in the mountains of southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Mavis loved boating, fishing, camping, card playing, walking, RV’ing and travels with her daughter, sister and niece. She was a voracious reader of romance and adventure novels and enjoyed a fine glass of red wine on occasion. Mavis was deeply loved by her family and will be heartfully missed. She is now at peace and home at last.
Mavis is survived by her children, Cynthia L. (Greg) Flora of Marietta, Georgia and C. Kent (Ingrid) Miller of Florence, Montana; her grandson, Justin A. Miller of Missoula, Montana; her sisters, Linda (Ray) Chidester of Scipio, Utah and Peggy Ann (Bart) Jones of Layton, Utah along with numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, parents, sister Barbara Jean Forbush and her husband Kyle.
Cremation has occurred and a private celebration of life will be held at a date to be determined. The family requests that during this time of giving donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Association to fund research into finding a cure for this debilitating disease. Condolences may be left for the family at www.dalyleachchapel.com.
To send flowers
to the family or plant a tree
in memory of Mavis Miller, please visit our floral store.