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Worland couple celebrates 95th birthday weeks apart

WORLAND – Worland residents John and Lorene Miller are both celebrating their 95th birthday this year. Lorene Miller turns 95 on Oct. 15 and John Miller turns 95 on Nov. 9.

Lorene Miller stated that for about a month every year she gets to be older than her husband which means she gets to be the boss for about a month each year.

The Millers grew up in Missouri and started dating during their junior year in high school. They were engaged when John Miller joined the military and they got married on Dec. 27, 1943 when he was stationed in Japan. “He came home from the service and said, ‘I am going to be stationed in California. Why don’t we get married and as soon as I get stationed, you can come out there.’ Well, on his way back to Japan, the war broke out and I didn’t see him again for three years,” Lorene Miller said.

John Miller was in the Navy from 1943 – 1946. He originally wanted to join the Air Force with a friend but when they got to Kansas City he was enlisted into the Navy. “We went to Kansas City, both of us, and they had a deal where he went in one door and I went in the other one and this guy said, ‘It looks to me like you would make a good sailor.’ I said, ‘I’m afraid of water, I don’t want to be in the Navy’ and he said, ‘Well we need Navy really bad.’ So he put me in the Navy and the other kid got the Air Force, but I had a better deal than he did, in the long run,” John Miller said. “I went to boot camp in Idaho and then I went to electrician’s school there. After I went to electrician’s school I went aboard ship, the San Juan a CL-54 cruiser and we made a lot of history. We escorted the Missouri into Tokyo when they signed the peace treaty with MacArthur and the emperor of Japan,” he added.

Finally back together again, the couple had a son and decided to move to Worland in 1950. When asked why they decided to move to Worland, John Miller stated, “We starved out in Missouri.”

In 1956, the couple’s 12-year-old son passed away from cancer. Their son Dan Miller was born a couple years later in 1958.

John Miller worked for the Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline for 35 years retiring in 1986 as an area supervisor.

Lorene Miller worked for the American National Bank for 30 years, which was called Stock Growers Bank at the time and retired as head teller in 1985. “As soon as Dan got through veterinarian school, I retired,” Lorene Miller stated.

When the Millers came to Worland they said that the town was booming. “It has gone downhill an awful lot since we come out here. This was the main town in the area. When we came here it was a booming town. [There was] a lot of work, a lot of people, a lot of things to do. There were more people in the town than there is now. Worland was the hub of the Big Horn Basin at one time and Cody was just a small town at that time, now look at Cody,” they said.

Having been married for 74 years the couple stated that through thick and thin divorce was never something that they ever thought of. “We must have gotten our fight over early,” John Miller stated. “We are a Christian family and I think maybe they survive a little better,” he added.

When asked the secret to their longevity, they couple stated that clean living, hard work and not trying to outlive their income plays an important part. “Work was my hobby, I enjoyed working. I don’t know if it had anything to do with keeping me out of the hospital or what. I still work some yet. I think clean living had a lot to do with it and we have always been Christians,” John Miller said.

The couple has two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and will be celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary on Dec. 27.