Robert E. Miller
Robert “Bob” E. Miller, 94, of Clarksville died Thursday, Oct 12, 2017 at Lynn’s Heritage House in Louisiana.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m., Tuesday (today) at Collier Funeral Home in Louisiana with the Rev, Paul Akin officiating. Military honors will be conducted by American Legion Post 370 from Louisiana.
Visitation will be held from 10 a.m., until time of service at the funeral home. Following the service, there will be a short graveside celebration at Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville.
In 1923, Bob was a New Year’s blessing to Frank and Grace Miller. He grew up in Ferguson and Florissant which was “out-in-the-country” in those days, with lots of training on mechanical things, photography and on artistic techniques for painting and drawing from his parents and numerous family friends.
Upon graduation from Ferguson High School, he accepted a job with Curtis-Wright Aircraft Company as an avionics electrician and quality certification inspector. Shortly, thereafter, with the on-goings of World War II expanding to the Pacific, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force and was sent to Guam, Saipan and Tinian where he supported the B-29 mission in the 20th Air Force. As a Sargent, his duties were maintenance of the central fire control systems, avionics specialist/inspector and weapons inspector.
At the conclusion of the war, he returned home to Saint Louis, resumed work at Curtis-Wright now, McDonnell Aircraft Co., as an aircraft inspector foreman in final assembly, where he met Emma Lou Sterne, who was working as an administrative book-keeper. They were married on Aug 30, 1947 and in 1951 they both left McDonnel Aircraft Company and moved to Clarksville to begin their life farming.
In 1961, Bob began work at Hercules Chemical Company in Louisiana, until accepting a job with Holtec Engineering Company of Canada in 1965, to help with the building of Dundee Cement Company in Clarksville. He retired from Dundee in 1988 only to expand his farming and cattle ranching activities with a part-time and growing photography and sign painting business. Additionally, he painted portraits and landscapes, as a hobby, for numerous friends and family.
He is survived by his daughter, Tammy Smeeks and husband, Thomas and their two daughters, Krystina Sterne and husband, Stephen, and Ahnnya Beiswenger and husband, Caleb; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins on both the Miller and Sterne sides of the family and by a host of friends.
He has been a member of the American Legion Post 349 and the Christian Church, both in Clarksville and was a lifetime member of the Air Force Association.
Bob was preceded in death by his wife Emma Lou in Feb 2009, both his and her parents, and her sister, Elizabeth Mobley, and brother, Homer Sterne.
Pallbearers will be: Krystina Sterne, Ahnnya Beiswenger, Larry Webb, Geoff Sterne, Stephen Sterne, and Thomas Smeeks.
Memorials may be given, to the Raintree Art’s Council (Miller Family Art Education Scholarship), c/o Linda Blakey, P.O. Box 251, Clarksville, MO 63336, to support the growth in artistic development for our local youth pursuing a higher-education degree in the arts.
