Dorothy Hines Miller

Dorothy was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Floyd and Florence Collier Hines. Her older siblings were Ruby Mae and Eldon (who was always known as Dutch). The family had moved to Phoenix, Arizona from the little town of Spur, Texas for a business opportunity. Unfortunately at this time the stock market collapsed, the Great Depression started, and they had a new baby (my mother thinks she was a surprise addition as she was so much younger than her siblings). The lumber yard that her father was managing went out of business and the family moved back to Spur, TX. Her parents managed to keep the family together by working in the fields as farm laborers, and yes, they picked cotton.

They lived in a little house owned by the farmer they worked for. They didn’t have any luxuries but all the necessities. When my mother was about 10 years old she was home from school with the measles. Her sister was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Suddenly the pot Ruby was cooking on flared up and caught the curtain on the kitchen window on fire. Everything went up in a flash. The house burned to the ground with all of their possessions. The church got together and clothes and furniture were donated to the family. Until the house was rebuilt the children went to live with relatives. I only heard about this when I asked why she had no family pictures.

Dorothy loved to read and dreamed about traveling all over the world to exciting places. She also loved to dance and play the piano. Unfortunately her parents had no money for piano or music and dance lessons. (She tried giving music and dance lessons to her only child, but soon discovered that along with her husband, they were both tone deaf).

When she graduated from Spur High School she and a girlfriend moved to Kansas and got various jobs. While she was in Kansas she met her husband, as he was stationed there. He was 9 years older than her. She created quite an impression on him and after he was transferred to another base they wrote to each other. When he returned to the states he picked up his new car and drove straight to Spur. He picked her up at her parents' house and took her to Lubbock where they got married. She was 18 years old and he was 27. They drove to Mexico for their honeymoon and then moved to Savannah, GA where their only child was born 9 months later. Actually their daughter was born at Chanute Field AFB in Illinois as he was sent to a 6 month training and then they went back to Savannah. Dorothy likes to tell the story that the maternity ward was a barracks.

It’s amazing that a girl from the panhandle of TX could leave home for the first time and go to Kansas with a girlfriend and meet a Dane and get married months later. What a clash of cultures they had: food, customs, Baptist vs Lutheran and many more. They never reached any agreement over all their differences, but they were married for 62 years when John died in 2011. When he retired from the Air Force they settled in Chicago where he took over his father’s business and Dorothy was fully indoctrinated with Danish culture.

Dorothy had always wanted to be independent but as a wife in this era she didn’t have a job as she was a housewife and a mother. She hated to have to ask for money. After her daughter went away to college she decided to go to college. She majored in Education and later got credentials to teach ESL in the Chicago Public Schools. Now she had money and during her summer breaks she traveled all over the world. Most of the traveling was done without her husband as he had done enough in the Air Force and wanted to stay home with his gardens. When China opened up for travel my mother was on one of the first tours of China. She went on safaris in Africa, toured Egypt and other African countries. She traveled all over Europe. She loved to ride her bicycle and put her two loves together by taking bicycle tours of Europe.

She grew up in a time when smoking was cool and began smoking when she was 16. She smoked into her 50’s when smoking was being banned from public places. At this time she was selling Real Estate and was not allowed to smoke in the office. Smoking is a very difficult addiction to give up but she made up her mind and was able to quit. At this time it was said that after one year of not smoking your lungs would completely recover from the effects of smoking.

After her Danish In-Laws passed away, Dorothy and John moved to Garden Ridge, TX. Dorothy joined many groups, her favorite being Book Club. She found new friends to travel with and she enjoyed snow free winters. After her husband died she moved to the Army Residence Community. She had many happy years there. Unfortunately she developed COPD as a result of her years of smoking. It turns out it isn’t true that your lungs heal after a year of no smoking and her health continued to get worse until she was on oxygen full time. She had to give up traveling and riding her bike and it was even too hard to go to Book Club.

She is survived by her daughter Susanne Miller Koob, son-in-law John Koob III, 3 grandsons: John IV, Eric, and Jeffrey, grand daughter-in-law Suzanne and three great grandchildren: Ava, Hazel and John V and two nieces, Marsha Hines Morgan and Sherida Crane.

She will be remembered for her red hair, gold bangles, love off all things orange, animal prints, her great strength of will and determination and her sense of style. Her grandsons also like to recount that when they made her mad (she did babysit the 3 boys several times when their parents were out of town) her phrase was, “You make me so mad I could spit!” If I could name a song that expressed her life it would be, “I Did It My Way.”