Obituary for Maria Miller | O'Bryant-O'Keefe Funeral Homes
- Date Of Birth: April 1, 1935
- Date Of Death: July 18, 2022
- State: Mississippi
Maria Voce Miller was born in the Southern Italian village of Cutro on April 1, 1935 to Blanche and Frank Voce. Maria was their first daughter after six sons, she also had two younger sisters. As Blanche’s oldest daughter, Maria inherited the title of Baroness DeSanctis from her mother. During the Second World War her village was occupied by German military and freed by the Americans.
When she was 12 years-old, Maria immigrated to the United States with her family and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1954. They settled in Ohio and she spent her first year in America studying English before attending Wilbur Wright Junior High and then West Technical High School in Cleveland, Ohio. She won many awards for community service, academics and attendance. Maria was beautiful and popular and served as president of the student body and met her husband, John Wesley Miller while in High School.
Maria went on to graduate from Nursing School and then married John and managed a private medical office until the birth of her first child, Teresa. Two years later she gave birth to her surprise, identical twin sons, Mark and David.
John and Maria decided to follow Maria’s family to California in 1960 while John attended USC. Maria adored the years she spent in Southern California, raising her children, enjoying her family and an active church life, and serving as president of the PTA at her children’s school.
When her five-year-old daughter asked her about the gospel and received Jesus Christ as her savior through prayer with her, Maria became intrigued that young children could understand salvation so she studied to become a child evangelist. Maria then began presenting felt board bible stories to groups of children with The Good News Club, leading many children in the sinner’s prayer and teaching them about Jesus.
Due to a job transfer, Maria and her family moved to Mississippi in 1972. Initially the family moved to Moss Point but later settled in Gautier permanently where John designed and as a family project, hand built their home. It was not an easy transition, but Maria embraced her new life there and even after her beloved John died from leukemia in 2003, she remained in the town they had come to call home.
Until the pandemic, Maria spent her time socializing with her many friends, as an active member of the United Methodist Church in Gautier and as a Master Gardener in her community. In 2020 she relocated to Orange County, California to live with her daughter.
Maria was preceded in death by her husband John, her parents Frank and Blanche, sister Angela, and brothers Maurice, Alfred, Ugo, and Tony.
She is survived by her children, Teresa, Mark, and David, 12 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren. Maria is also survived by her brothers Carl and Sesto and her sister Sylvia.
