Aletha Miller

Aletha Lucille Eilts was born on December 25, 1926, on the family farm in the rural Wiota area, the daughter of Henry William and Emilie Augusta Anna (Brauer) Eilts and passed away Monday, March 8, 2010, of pancreatic cancer at the Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic, Iowa.


She attended country school and Cumberland schools, graduating from Cumberland High School in 1944. After graduation, she worked as a waitress at the Whitney Hotel in Atlantic, IA.

On March 28, 1948, she married Earl Miller at the First Lutheran Church of Wiota, IA. The couple bought and farmed the Eilts family farm in the rural Wiota area until their retirement in 1988. At that time they moved to Wiota, where she was an active member of the Wiota Booster Club. Aletha was a lifelong member of the First Lutheran Church of Wiota. She also enjoyed participating in the neighborhood Sew-A Bit Club.

Aletha will be remembered as someone who was always serving others, whether it was through her job as a waitress, in her service to the church or visiting friends in the hospital or at the nursing home, never asking anything in return. Aletha enjoyed sewing, crafts, gardening flowers and vegetables, and watching the finches at the feeders outside her picture window. She liked to cook and bake for her family, at one time enrolling in a cake decorating class and making her son's wedding cake.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Esther (Frank) Gillam of South Gate, CA; her brother Albert Eilts of Anita, IA; and other relatives.

Aletha is survived by her husband of 61 years, Earl Miller of Wiota, IA; her children, Charlotte (Bill) Riggs of Indiantown, FL and Dan (Marlene) Miller of Anita, IA; her grandchildren, Justin (Jill) Miller of Anita, IA, Grant (Katie) Miller of Hatley, WI, Kelly Miller of Iowa State University and Spenser Miller of Kirkwood Community College; two step-granddaughters and four step-great grandchildren; her brothers, Arnold Eilts of Fort Myers, FL, Lawrence (Norma) Eilts of Cumberland, IA and Ervin (Mary) Eilts of Crescent, IA; numerous other nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

A visitation will be held on Friday, March 12, 2010, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Hockenberry Family Care in Anita, IA.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, March 13, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. at the First Lutheran Church of rural Wiota with the Reverend Ted Weishaupt officiating.

Lunch will be served in the church fellowship hall following the funeral service.

Burial will be held at 2:00 p.m. also on Saturday, March 13, 2010, at the Evergreen Cemetery in Anita, IA.

The family requests memorials be made to the Cass County Memorial Hospital Hospice or the KJAN Lutheran Hour.

Hockenberry Family Care in Anita, IA is in charge of the arrangements.