Known to her friends and family as Lizzie, her grandchildren as "Nanny," Marie Elizabeth Yochum grew up in Stone County, Missouri and married Arthur James "AJ" Miller. She was orphaned as a very young child and lived with her strength of character overcoming adversity, a trait she passed on to her 6 children: William "Bill" Ramey Miller, Arthur James "Jack" Miller, Jr., Carroll Howard Miller, Helen Miller Shenall, EllaGray Miller Butts, and Johnn Thomas Miller. The family sharecropped cotton in Oklahoma, and moved to Chaves County, New Mexico, when the boll weevil destroyed their crops. There, she and her sons tended the cotton crops and the family's cows and chickens, and they eked out a living in Greenfield, NM, living in an abandoned store. When AJ died of pneumonia in 1936, Lizzie and her remaining children, Helen, EllaGray, and Johnn, moved to a rented home in Dexter. Johnn attended middle and high school there and worked at a gas station at night to help pay the family's bills. Howard and Bill sent money home from their jobs elsewhere. Their situation improved, and Lizzie bought a small white house right across the street from the elementary school in Dexter. Her son Howard was killed in WWII, and her son Johnn served in combat as well and was taken POW in Germany before returning after the war. Lizzie was well known in the community as a strong Christian woman, a member of the Church of Christ. She had an extensive vegetable garden, which she tended daily. Though quiet and small in stature, she was well respected and lived her life with strength, grace and dignity.
Known to her friends and family as Lizzie, her grandchildren as "Nanny," Marie Elizabeth Yochum grew up in Stone County, Missouri and married Arthur James "AJ" Miller. She was orphaned as a very young child and lived with her strength of character overcoming adversity, a trait she passed on to her 6 children: William "Bill" Ramey Miller, Arthur James "Jack" Miller, Jr., Carroll Howard Miller, Helen Miller Shenall, EllaGray Miller Butts, and Johnn Thomas Miller. The family sharecropped cotton in Oklahoma, and moved to Chaves County, New Mexico, when the boll weevil destroyed their crops. There, she and her sons tended the cotton crops and the family's cows and chickens, and they eked out a living in Greenfield, NM, living in an abandoned store. When AJ died of pneumonia in 1936, Lizzie and her remaining children, Helen, EllaGray, and Johnn, moved to a rented home in Dexter. Johnn attended middle and high school there and worked at a gas station at night to help pay the family's bills. Howard and Bill sent money home from their jobs elsewhere. Their situation improved, and Lizzie bought a small white house right across the street from the elementary school in Dexter. Her son Howard was killed in WWII, and her son Johnn served in combat as well and was taken POW in Germany before returning after the war. Lizzie was well known in the community as a strong Christian woman, a member of the Church of Christ. She had an extensive vegetable garden, which she tended daily. Though quiet and small in stature, she was well respected and lived her life with strength, grace and dignity.
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