Kathleen (Tipton) Miller, daughter of Leonard & Martha (Dillard) Tipton, was born October 03, 1932 near Chillicothe in Rigger, Missouri. Surrounded by loved ones, she departed this life on March 07, 2022 in Cabool Missouri at the age of 89following a long illness.
Hazel Kathleen, “Kathy” as she was known to her family and friends, was born during the Great Depression. Like many other families from the Midwest, her family relocated frequently following any work they could find at the time. The Hickory Grove community near Grove, Oklahoma became the Tipton family’s new home when she was a small child. She worked at several different jobs in her life which helped her meet many different friends. She started working while just a young school-girl baking pies at a local stockyard café in Vinita, OK. Later after her family moved West following migrant farm work, she was hired to pick wild bird seed in the mountains of Idaho. While living with her family near Twin Falls, Idaho she met her future husband, Herchel Martin from Cabool, Mo. He was a handsome Navy man who had just returned from WWII and the Pacific front of the war. They fell in love and after starting a family they moved from Idaho to the Pleasant Grove community near Cabool, Missouri where their family grew to include 8 children. After Herchel’s death, she married a childhood friend and neighbor, Donald Miller and they lived in Afton OK until his death in 2013. She moved to Aurora and later Cabool, Mo. to be close to her family in her later years. She was a resident of the Kabul Nursing home at the time of her passing and was blessed to have her granddaughter Juli Orvec visit her every day while working in the facility. Her daughter Gail is a volunteer at the facility and together they spent many hours playing Bingo or making crafts with other residents.
Kathy accepted Christ at an early age while attending the Indian Territory Baptist Church in Oklahoma. As a young girl she would walk several miles to attend Church with her mother. Her Faith was always important to her and she enjoyed singing and listening to music her entire life and would often sing solos in her Church as an adult.
Her Grandchildren including Greats, and Great-Greats, always brought joy to her heart and a smile to her face. She will always be fondly remembered by generations of descendants. “Grandma” or “Grandma Kat” was a name she was proud to be called.
Kathy was preceded in death by her father, Leonard, and mother Martha; her husband’s Herchel Martin and Don Miller, her brothers Harold, Wayne, Herman, Ronnan, and Gerald; sisters Mildred & Marie; Her sons, Philip, Kenny, David; her daughters Shirley & Kelli; Grandson Bradley Jones, and several nieces and nephews.
She is survived by her daughter Gail and Steve Stapp of Cabool, Mo; sons Marlin and Mark Martin-Workman, Springfield, MO. & Kevin Martin, Ozark; and a host of Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren, Great-Great Grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.
