Joan Miller had creativity, and a passion for stories

For Joan Ross, it was another day at work.

The young woman was toiling away as a librarian in downtown Spokane’s old library on Riverside Avenue. It was the late 1940s. A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran named Lloyd Miller had returned from World War II and was attending Gonzaga University on the G.I. Bill.

Lloyd, a law student, arrived at the library seeking help with some research. But one trip to the card catalogs with Joan Ross wasn’t enough.

While most law students would pick up a bundle of books at a time, Lloyd would check them out individually so he could see her more often. He would find out which books within the scope of his studies were placed high on the library stacks, hoping to catch a glimpse of Joan’s legs as she climbed the ladder to retrieve them.

“You never saw one without the other,” said Cheryl Miller of her mother- and father-in-law’s 55-year romance.

Joan Ross Miller died July 3, 2003, after a brief battle with cancer. Out of respect to their mother, who never would disclose her age, Joan’s children only would say that she was in her late 70s when she died.

It’s no coincidence that Joan and Lloyd’s first encounter involved books. Joan surrounded herself with stories her entire life. When she wasn’t reading, she was volunteering at Spokane’s Civic Theater or for the theaters on Kauai, in Hawaii, or in Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island, where she and Lloyd lived during their later years.

Joan wrote stories and poetry for her family. She was a docent at museums, wrote a regular history column for The Islands Weekly, a paper published on the San Juans, and participated in re-enactments of the Pig War.

(The Pig War was a dispute in 1859 between the United States and Britain over who owned the San Juan Islands. Tensions escalated when an American shot a trespassing pig owned by the Hudson’s Bay Co. Although there was a standoff between 460 Americans, armed with cannons, and 2,140 British troops aboard five warships, the conflict ended peacefully with the pig listed as the only casualty.)

Kris Miller said her mother’s passion for stories was always evident.

“In the morning, she’d have cereal waiting for us (kids), but she was reading a book,” Kris said. “My grandmother said she had to force her to go outside and play.”

Joan’s mother stitched her daughter’s habit into a wall hanging Joan’s son, Mark Miller, has in his home today. The aging mural depicts young Joan absorbed in a book in a bathtub.

All that time spent reading resulted in a creative upbringing for Joan’s three children and four grandchildren. Christmastime and birthdays were particularly adventurous because Joan put the family on a scavenger hunt for their gifts.

In recent years, she enjoyed “The Amazing Race,” a reality TV show that pits contestants on a pursuit around the world. Joan decorated each room in her house as a different country during the holidays, and family members had to solve clues to get out of each “country” before they could find their presents. When the game show “The Weakest Link” was popular, Joan created a similar competition for the family. She dressed all in black like the British host and mimicked the stern woman’s expression “You are the weakest link” when they lost the game.

Joan assigned a color to each family member that stuck with them for years. When she sewed a coat hanger for her granddaughter Jaime, for example, it was pink. When she wrapped Christmas gifts for Jaime’s sister, Jenni, the paper was purple.

“I think (Joan) liked pageantry, and the holidays brought that on,” Kris said.

Joan was born in Calgary, Alberta, where her father was the general manager of the Calgary Stampede. Her parents raised her and her sister, plus three orphaned cousins.

Joan moved to the United States in the late 1940s to earn a master’s degree in library science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

“I don’t think she planned to permanently live in the U.S.,” Kris said. Nevertheless, Joan moved to Spokane to join a cousin here and soon met Lloyd at the library.

She became a U.S. citizen in 1951 because she wanted to vote in the 1952 election. Joan and Lloyd were active in the Democratic Party, and Lloyd had roomed with civil rights activist Carl Maxey at Gonzaga.

Joan and Lloyd married and moved to the Spokane Valley, where Lloyd opened his law office on Sprague Avenue where the Hyundai dealership stands now.

On July 19, 1951, the day their second child, Mark, was born, the Safeway grocery store near the old Dishman Theater burned down. While Joan was laboring at the hospital, Lloyd was picking embers off the roof of his office.

Joan and Lloyd raised their children in the Valley, and the kids all attended McDonald Elementary, Bowdish Junior High and University High schools. When Lloyd retired, the couple moved to Kauai – and their youngest daughter, Diana, unexpectedly followed.

“She was 18 when they moved, and she bought a one-way ticket there. She stayed with them for several months before they bought her a one-way ticket back,” Kris said, laughing.

While living in Hawaii, Joan visited 72 islands in the South Pacific and then moved to San Juan Island in Western Washington. But, oddly enough, Joan never liked water.

“She wouldn’t get in below her knees,” granddaughter Jaime Rees said. “She didn’t like boats. On the ferry, she had to be in the middle.”

When family visited Joan’s island retreats, she took them to museums instead of on catamaran tours. Rather than going deep-sea diving, she taught them the history and culture of her new surroundings. She let loose her grandchildren’s imaginations in the costume rooms of local theaters rather than on surfboards.

“She always loved for us to come and visit and go see the museums,” daughter-in-law Cheryl said. “She was so proud of that.”