Edna Elsie Miller 1913-2005

MILLER, KRUSE, BUENGER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 5/1/2009 at 21:42:08

Edna Buenger Miller
July 25, 1913 – January 1, 2005

Edna Buenger Miller, who grew up in Mapleton, went Home to be with her Savior, husband, family and friends on the 1st of January, 2005.

Services were held 2:00 p.m. Friday, January 7, 2005 at Greenwood Salli Lynn Chapel of Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego, California with Pastor Dan Hennig and Chaplain Dave Clark officiating. Unique to the service, Edna was, herself, the soloist, using prerecorded selections as she was formerly a professional mezzo soprano vocalist. The Prelude and Postlude included several spiritual selections. Interspersed during the service were "The Lord's Prayer", "Going Home", "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" and "For My Father". Her daughter, Suzanne, gave the eulogy and two messages were given, one by her pastor and one by her hospice chaplain.

Edna Elsie Buenger was born to Ernest C. and Emma (Kruse) Buenger on July 25, 1913 at their family farm just north of Charter Oak. She was baptized later that year at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Soldier Township, Charter Oak.

Shortly thereafter, she and her parents moved to Mapleton where Edna spent her entire school years, graduating with the Mapleton Class of 1932. She proudly attended several of their reunions and had her eye on attending the all-school reunion this summer if circumstances had permitted.

After graduation, Edna spent the years before World War II working in Sioux City and came back home in the summers. During the war, Edna moved to San Diego, California where she met and married her husband of 47 years, Ira J. Miller, who passed away in 1993. They had one daughter, Suzanne Iris.

Edna was very proud of the fact that in June of 1966, her mother, Mrs. Emma Buenger, sold the pasture land behind her home on Chamberlain Avenue to be the site of the Maple Heights Nursing Home, land that Edna had played on and ushered the horses home as a child growing up.

Edna was a homemaker and church soloist until her daughter left the nest. Following a serious illness, she "promised the Lord" that if she recovered, she would make every effort to become an entertainer and entertain others as she had been, during her convalescence. She began studying under a prominent voice teacher in California, which launched her career.

Her selections tended to be sacred, classical and semi-classical types of music and her love of her work and people made her a sought-after entertainer. Edna primarily performed for senior citizens, clubs and organizations in the San Diego area, along with continuing her soloist work at church. She sang at various locations in and around the Mapleton area when she and her husband visited here during the Bicentennial Celebration of 1976.

In 1977, Edna and Ira caught the cruising "bug", taking several cruises together. After Ira's death, she continued cruising, then accompanied by her daughter and son-in-law. She had been through the Panama Canal three times.

Her passions were thwarted the last few years, but she still managed to take her last cruise in 2003, this one to the "Baltic Capitals", including St. Petersburg, Russia. She led sing-alongs at the "Friendship Senior Club" at the Downtown San Diego Salvation Army and at the retirement community in which she resided, until July of 2004.

She is survived by her daughter, Suzanne Iris Miller, and her son-in-law, Stewart Mossman, of San Diego, California; her brother and sister-in-law, Ed and Elaine (Ketelsen) Buenger of Loveland, Colorado; and several nieces and nephews.

Pallbearers were Stewart M. Mossman, Eric F. Mossman, Jack W. Mossman, Warren "Tex" Eckhoff, Rev. Scott Rische and John Fisher.