John L. Miller

Jonathon L. Miller was born to Lee and Ruth Miller on New Year’s Eve, 1933, in their home near Scott in LaGrange County, Indiana. His dad was a Mennonite bishop over five congregations. Their family also worked a farm to pay the bills. John’s mom was tiny in stature but fierce in her ability to care for their nine children and navigate the storms of correction and criticism waged on a pastor’s family.

In those days, their Mennonite community sought to refrain from association with modern culture. Men sat on one side of the church while women sat on the other. Even though John remembers being eager to flee the regulations enforced by community life, he was brought to tears when he spoke of Jesus coming to earth to save us. John didn’t care for “religion,” but his faith in Jesus propelled him through life.

John’s parents sent him to Hesston, Kansas, for his sophomore year of high school with a few of his friends. After graduating from high school back in Indiana, he attended Hesston College for a year until he was drafted. John spent two years in Wichita fulfilling his 1-W service as a hospital aide, even with his great aversion to needles and blood! It was at the Wichita Mennonite Mission Church where he met a fashionable and vivacious Maxine Woelk during one of the many young adult gatherings. John and Maxine married on October 1, 1955. Their lives together included raising four children and inhabiting twenty-five homes in five states.

John found humor in many things, was a spinner of tales, and was an amateur philosopher. A friend once commented that John’s common response to whatever life put in front of him was, “No problem!” He was hard working – often holding two jobs at once to provide for his family. An inventor, an entrepreneur, and a born salesman, John could sell everything from cars to major tool contracts. People trusted his quiet integrity and the way he looked out for them. His occupations included turkey rancher, printer, mobile home builder, national sales manager, restaurant manager, and nationwide auto transporter. He also held the position of vice president in two companies.

When he wasn’t working, John enjoyed golfing, designing landscapes, gathering wildflowers, grasses, leaves, and rocks to display, trespassing onto interesting properties that needed exploring, and setting out by car for locations known and unknown. “Hitting the road” was a great joy through the years of raising his family and remained so into the last days of his life.

There was nothing John wouldn’t do for his wife, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. If he could make it happen, he would. It was important to him for each of his family to be freed up to accomplish the things they most wanted to do in life. He reached out to many others with this same generous heart.

John is survived by siblings Silas Miller, Martha (Loren) Hartman, Esther (Ervin) Miller; daughter Suzanne Miller (Jim Buchhorn), son Jack Warkentin Miller (Marsha), son Bruce Miller (Angela recently deceased), daughter Jerri Kayll (Jay); grandchildren Leia Lawrence (Dan Stucky), Abe Lawrence, Jon Lawrence (Karry), Ryun Lawrence (Annie), Hannah Miller (Triston Mosbacher), Scott Miller, Bethany Miller; great grandchildren Cy and Wendell Stucky, Ellis and Briar Lawrence, and Attica Lawrence.

The immediate family will hold a private inurnment ceremony at Goessel Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to Bethesda Home in care of Jost Funeral Home at PO Box 266 in Hillsboro, Kansas 67063, or online at https://bethesdahome.org/make-a-donation/ . Online condolences may be posted at www.jostfuneralhome.com .