Four Miller Daughters

My grandmother's (maternal) family consisted of four girls...

she was Mozelle Booth Miller (before marrying Webb and then Munhall) b. 9 Sept 1897 d. 2 Sept 1960
Her sisters were:
Rowena Eugenia Miller Rogers, b. 23 June 1900 d. 14 Sept 1989
Dorothy Dain Miller Buchanan, b. 24 Aug 1903 d, 11 Dec 1979
Margaret Etha Miller, b. 10 Jan 1909 d. 22 June 1980, who never married.

Christmas 1952, the Miller sisters

Their parents were Charles Herman Miller (posted about yesterday) and Eugenia Almeda Booth Miller (sometimes spelled Almetta) who was born 30 Jan 1873, d. 1 Jan 1936.  They married on 28 Oct 1896 in Hillsboro, Texas.

Eugnia's mother died when she was 2, and her father was killed when she was 6, so she was raised in her grandparents William and Eugenia Booth's home.  Actually it wasn't until 1900, when Charles and Eugenia Miller's second daughter was born, that we know they were living in their own dwelling.

My grandmother Mozelle married Albert "Bud" Webb in 1915, and my mother Mataley Mozelle Webb was born March 26, 1917.  Bud died in 1919.  Mozelle remarried to Frederick Munhall in 1921 or 1924.  Fred died in 1927, not having adopted my mother.  Mozelle spent the rest of her life as a seamstress to support herself.  She was an elegant lady, and her clientele were those who wore high fashions for the bigger events of society in San Antonio.

Mozelle and Mataley Webb Munhall, 1924

Mozelle 1935

Mataley Rogers, Mozelle Munhall in the back, and my little sis, Mary Rogers in front, 1954 St. Louis MO.

I don't have any photos of Rowena Miller, who married Shelton (Robert Shelton) Rogers, a Sgt. during WW I infantry.  They married  in 1927, and had a daughter Patricia Eugenia Rogers, and a son, Robert Jr,. I just found out that Robert Jr. was in the Army from 1951-53.  As far as I know Patsy Jean is still living, having had 4 children and 2 husbands.  Her oldest daughter Leslie, was the one who contacted me about our shared great grandfather Charles Herman Miller.  But I don't know anything more about any of this family at this time. Ancestry doesn't give information on those relations who are still living, usually.

Cousin Patsy Jean Rogers, my mother Mataley, and cousin Bob Rogers 1934.

Great Aunt Dorothy didn't marry until she was 47 years old, to Bennet Hillard "Buck" Buchanan, who had been married before and had 2 grown sons.

 

Dorothy 1926

When Dorothy died in 1979 of lung cancer, she willed her body to scientific study.

Margaret 1927 (but it's possible it was earlier before being put in my mother's album)

Great Aunt Margaret was a favorite of mine, and probably all her nieces and nephews, because she had a young spirit. She taught junior-high school math all her life, until she retired in a small one bedroom apartment in San Antonio.  I know because I visited her with my 2 sons a couple of times, and again later with a boyfriend.  The boyfriend didn't go over too well with her, but she was polite.

I remember hearing how Margaret (and probably her sister Dorothy) would fly to Cuba to gamble back before the embargo...before Castro even.   That wasn't exactly the topic of conversation, but somehow I learned about it while learning to play canasta in the 50s with my grandmother when we visited either in Texas or St. Louis.  There were very few visits, but they did make me feel like I had a family besides the 4 of us in the nuclear family.

I never spent time with Aunt Rowena, though I think I visited at her house at least a couple of times.  I do remember the other three Miller girls liked to drink and smoke.  I especially remember because my teetotler mother was trying to keep my sister and me from being around either the alcohol or continuous cigarettes.  But we enjoyed the stories and the sense that these women liked to have fun.

 Other posts about-
"Grandmommy" Mozelle - HERE
Frederick Munhall - Here, my mother's stepfather
Great Aunt Dorothy - a bit more Here.