North Little Rock, Arkansas
Brenda (Green) Miller was born in Harrison (Boone County), Arkansas on April 9. She attended Bergman Elementary and Junior High School through 1959. In May, 1959, she attended HIGH SCHOOL at The School of the Ozarks (now College of the Ozarks) at Point Lookout, Missouri (near Branson), graduating in 1963. This is where I met my husband, Andy. We had dated for some time in High School but separated at graduation because my parents didn’t think he was right for me as a mate. (And that’s a long story). My father and uncle attended the same school graduating in 1933 and in 1934 respectively.
After leaving high school, I moved to Springfield, Missouri, where I attended Draughon’s Business College graduating in 1964 with a Secretarial Diploma. I worked in Springfield for a short time and then moved to Branson. After having left S of O after graduation and pursuing my career, I had lost track of Andy. However, the School Alumni News had received a letter from Andy advising of his whereabouts sometime in the year of 1965 and that he was in the Navy stationed on Guam. I wrote to him letting him know of my whereabouts, etc. and we began to correspond (but Andy is not a letter writer) but at any rate he advised me that he was getting an early out to come back to S of O to continue his education sometime in August.
I drove to Springfield to pick him up at the airport and I continued working in Branson while he went back to college. HOWEVER, we began where we left off and on November 20, 1966, we were married. He continued going to school and working part time.
We moved a few times before we settled down in Harrison in 1970 which is when we had our first child, Harlan, on December 26. Harlan is married and they have two sons, Brady and Caleb, ages 13 and 11, and they live in Harrison. Shortly thereafter Andy went to work as a Radio Dispatcher for the Arkansas State Police and I did general office work, legal secretary, etc. during this time. In 1979, I continued to be employed full time and we had two boys, but I enrolled in the North Arkansas Community College in Harrison and got my Associate Degree in Office Administration graduating in 1981 with a 3.0 average. I tested out of 21 hours of classes because with my other secretarial experience I had already achieved what I would have by taking the classes. I was certified at 140 wpm in Gregg Shorthand and 110 wpm in typing. I continued the use of shorthand until 2004. I still use it today in various organizations where I am secretary. We had our second child, Edwin, on April 21, 1973. He is also married and has two sons, Luke and Josh, ages 6 and 4, and they live in Fort Mill, South Carolina. We continued to live in Harrison until 1992 when we moved to Little Rock, with Andy taking a transfer with the ASP in 1991.
Andy retired in 2004 after 33 years with ASP and I retired in 2007. We are both enjoying retirement and are very active in church, Sunday school, choir and volunteer work in various areas. Andy is a Mason and both are very active in the Order of the Eastern Star of Arkansas with Andy having been elected the Associate Grand Patron in the annual meeting in December, 2010. I am a Past Grand Organist and we travel extensively.
Andy was born June 13, 1939 along with a twin brother Amos. I was born at home about 4 miles east of Topeka, Indiana. I have two older brothers and two younger brothers living. I had two brothers also that passed away shortly after birth and had one still-born sister. My parents were of the Old Order Amish faith. We moved to Buchanan County, Iowa when I was 5 years old and I did my growing up years there in that Amish community. I was not happy as a middle-aged teenager and had run away from home twice in my mid-teens. The second time I, and a close buddy of mine at the time, left together and hitchhiked to Chagrin Falls, Ohio. He went to work as a night watchman and I went to work at a thoroughbred horse race track as a groomsman. I was out there for 9 months and decided to come back to the Amish community once more and give it a second try. While I was gone to Ohio in 1958, my folks bought a home in Jamesport, Missouri and moved there. When I came back home, it was to Missouri. I lived there for about a year and then just left home and struck out on my own to make a life for me outside the Amish community.
I was working for Rayburn and Kathryn Tolen and they realized that I had no intentions of returning to the Amish so they encouraged me to go to high school. I applied to the School of the Ozarks (which was a high school at that time) at Point Lookout, Missouri and was accepted in 1959 and graduated Salutatorian of my class in 1963. Brenda and I were in the same graduating class. In 1961 I enlisted in the US Navy in the Reserve Unit on campus. After high school graduation I went to college for a year and then I was given the choice of extending my enlistment or going active duty in the Navy. I went on active duty from September, 1964 to August, 1966 and was stationed at the Naval Communication Station on the Island of Guam. I was a chaplain’s assistant on the base until I was discharged from active duty to go back to college at College of the Ozarks near Branson, Mo. After our marriage on 11-20-66 I went another year and a half of college as a Music Education major in voice. But as I got into my education courses I realized that it was not the vocation that I wanted. So I went to radio broadcasting school in Atlanta, Georgia. I worked in radio for a couple of years and really enjoyed it. But after our first son was born we moved to Harrison, Arkansas, and in February of 1972 I went to work for the Arkansas State Police as a Telecommunications Operator (dispatcher) at Troop I in Harrison. In June, 1991, I transferred to the Identification Bureau of the State Police in Little Rock and worked there until December 31, 2004, when I retired with 32 years and 11 months with the ASP.
I have been active in every church we have been affiliated with as a Sunday School teacher, a deacon in another denomination, a Lay Leader, and a Delegate to Annual Conference for 3 years when we were members at Levy United Methodist Church. I am a Certified Advanced Lay Speaker. I am President of the Builders Sunday School Class, song leader and part time SS teacher. I am really enjoying my active part, especially in the choir.
I am active in my Masonic Lodge #754 Sylvan Hills in Sherwood, AR. I am also the elected Associate Grand Patron of the Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star of Arkansas this past December, which means I will be quite active in OES until the last of December in 2012.