Special to the Minden Press-Herald
MINDEN – Sally Evelyn Henry Miller marked her 104th birthday on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019, with a large gathering of her family, friends, and neighbors at Savannah Court in Minden.
“Aunt Evelyn” was born Oct. 21, 1915, on a large farm in Heflin, Louisiana, the youngest child of M.C. and Nora Fuller Henry. She had one brother, Calhoun Henry; and two sisters, Mrs. Eunice (C.V) McCollum and Mrs. Eula (Jack) Stanfield.
M.C. Henry donated land for the location of Adams School in Heflin, which Aunt Evelyn attended until she entered secondary school. She graduated from Heflin High School after grade 11 and soon after began a work career that spanned over 50 years.
In the late 1930s, Evelyn married Floyd (Abe) Miller of Evergreen. Lt. Miller served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. While living in Springhill, LA, Abe worked for International Paper Company, and later as QC manager at the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant.
In the 1940s, Evelyn went to work for the West family at West Bros. Dept. Store in Springhill, where she retired after nearly 45 years of service.
The Millers had no children, so they bundled and shared their love with their nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews and even great, great-nieces and nephews. Their home was always full of the cooking aromas from fresh vegetables and fruit from “Uncle Abe’s” award-winning garden. Aunt Evelyn used her spare time to sew for the little ones and big ones alike.
In the late 1980s, after Mr. Miller became stricken with Parkinson’s, the couple relocated to Minden. They resided on Cline Street until his death in 1996. Aunt Evelyn later moved to Louisiana Avenue, where she resided until moving to The Arbor (now Savannah Court) in 2008.
“A child of the Great Depression and two World Wars, Aunt Evelyn always had a project going that would make use of something she had saved,” said niece Marilyn Miller, “She wasn’t a hoarder, but she could ‘re-purpose’ with the best of them.”
For many years, she was very active with the Webster Parish Council on Aging’s Senior Citizen’s Center. And when she was able, she was doing something for someone else, whether it was sewing, buying goods from her daily excursions to area stores, helping with a loved one’s home repair, or canning fruit from her own trees.