- Date Of Birth: October 8, 1927
- Date Of Death: July 26, 2016
- State: Texas
Beverly Gene Shock Miller passed away on July 26, 2016, in Dallas, comfortably at home and with her beloved caregiver Maria (Rocio) Garcia by her side. Within their hearts and in their own actions, the family and friends of Mrs. Miller will forever cherish and remember her supportive, indomitable spirit.
Beverly Gene Shock Miller was born on Oct. 8, 1927, to Chadwick and Winifred Shock in Sherman, Texas. Mrs. Miller lived all across Texas as a child and later as an adult and wife of a Methodist minister, The Rev. Gordon Miller (b. 1925, d. 2009.) She moved to Aransas Pass when she was eight and then moved to Refugio, where she graduated from high school. After graduating, Mrs. Miller became a student at Texas Women’s University in Denton. Later, as luck would have it, Mrs. Miller would meet her future husband of sixty-one years at a Methodist student mixer in Austin.
Mr. Miller attended the University of Texas at Austin. In 1948, the couple married in Austin. After nine years of marriage, Mr. Miller felt a calling to become a minister in the Methodist church, following in the footsteps of his father, The Rev. Homer Miller. The younger Mr. Miller earned his divinity degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1960.
Mrs. Miller devotedly followed her husband into the ministry, embracing the often challenging role of a small town minister’s wife. After he became a minister, the Millers would move their family every two to five years until Mr. Miller retired from the ministry. In addition to the myriad roles she played in every church they served, from Sunday School teacher to choir director to organist, Mrs. Miller worked outside the home to help support her family. One of Mrs. Miller’s favorite and most fulfilling jobs was as a certified Head Start Pre-K Director, working with underprivileged children. She started working as a director for Head Start when her own children, Donna and Mark, left grade school, and would become almost a second parent to the children she saw on a daily basis.
Mrs. Miller would often visit the children and their families at their homes. She was determined to see both the children and families succeed in life. Frequently, Mrs. Miller would become very involved with troubled families and help see them through difficult situations for the betterment of the children. Mrs. Miller was known as the “rock” of her own family. Between her and her husband, Mrs. Miller was the more practical and pragmatic and it often fell to her to solve a crisis, organize one of the frequent moves or take in another of the stray animals her children constantly brought to her. She was always a strong, loving friend, adviser, daughter, wife and mother. She was fiercely protective and proud of her children, Donna and Mark. While she worried when they moved to big cities far away from Texas, she was content in knowing that she and their father had prepared them to lead independent lives in which they could fulfill their ambitions and dreams.
She loved working with her hands and being active despite a lifetime of back and spine problems that often created debilitating pain. She was a wonderful seamstress, making many of her children’s clothes including her daughter’s high school twirling costumes. Mrs. Miller was a renowned cook for her friends and family. Her specialty was her chicken fried venison.
Beverly Gene Shock Miller is survived by her daughter, Donna Elizabeth Miller, and Donna’s husband, Martin Weiser; her son, Mark Emerson Miller; her grandchildren, Daniel Gordon Weiser, Leo Emerson Weiser and Aaron Isaac Weiser; her sister, Donna Shock Taylor and her husband James Taylor; her nieces, Tracey Woodard and Holly Meredith; and by Maria Garcia, her caregiver and friend. Mrs. Miller was preceded in death by her husband, The Rev. Gordon Homer Miller, and her parents, Chadwick Emerson Shock and Winifred Elsie Blake Shock.
Monday, August 1st, 2016, 10:30am, West Hill Cemetery
West Hill Cemetery
