Tommie Virginia Melton Miller

Tommie Virginia Melton Miller passed away May 4, 2011, surrounded as always by her loving family.

Tommie was born in 1922 in Sebree, Kentucky, the youngest of five children of Clarence Monroe Melton and Waleska Jane Powell Melton. She was salutatorian of her class at Sebree High School, and attended Mount Saint Joseph Junior College and Kentucky Wesleyan College. She moved to Owensboro in 1946, where she eventually became executive secretary to the manager of Green River Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, J.R. Miller. J.R. convinced her to become his wife, and they married on April 10, 1947.

Tommie was active in the lives of all her children, but found time to hold leadership roles in many civic groups, including The Women's Club, The Democratic Women's Club, The Symphony Auxiliary, and the Owensboro Concert Association. She was a long-time, devoted member of Settle Memorial United Methodist Church, where she was proud to be one of the close-knit members and former president of the Mary Lou Phillips Sunday School Class. She was also active in the United Methodist Women and the church's missionary circles.

Tommie and J.R. played couples bridge for many years with a regular group of friends. She was a member of a ladies' bridge group and continued to play regularly up until the last year of her life. She loved reading and cooking, and attained some measure of celebrity over the years for her poetry and story-telling abilities.

She was preceded in death by her husband, J.R. Miller, her mother and father, her brothers, Ross and Herbert Melton, her sister, Thelma Cox, and a niece, Norma Wheatley.

She is survived by one sister, Dee Powell, Sebree, KY; her children: Jim (Paddy) Miller, Jane Haase, Mark (Robin) Miller and Tim (Mary Dean) Miller of Owensboro, KY, Mary Dee (Barry) Denton of Henderson, KY; her grandchildren: Emmy (Burch) Antley, Columbia, SC; Kelsey (Chris) Starks and Jeff Miller of Louisville, KY; Graham (Natalie) Miller, Washington, DC; Caty Miller, Owensboro, KY; Meredith Miller, Covington, KY; Scottie Ellis (Bowling Green, KY), Jack Ellis (Henderson, KY); Jared Lee, Jennifer Lee and Jamie Lee (Lexington, KY); and her great-granddaughter, Jane Riess Starks, Louisville, KY.

She is also survived by two nieces: Nancy Powell of Sebree, KY and Jan (Andy) Welborn of Sturgeon Bay, WI and Palm Beach, FL.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the chapel of Glenn Funeral Home and Crematory. Visitation will be from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Friday and after 1 p.m. on Saturday at the funeral home. Entombment will be in Owensboro Memorial Gardens.

Expressions of sympathy can be directed to Settle Memorial United Methodist Church, 201 East Fourth Street, Owensboro, KY 42303.

Online condolences may be left for the family at www.glennfuneralhome.com.