Miller, Ella May Weaver (1915-2008)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2008 Nov 10 p. 7

Birth date: 1915 May 22

text of obituary:

'Heart to Heart' speaker dies at 93

By Mennonite Media staff

HARRISONBURG, Va. — For 18 years, Ella May Weaver Miller's voice flowed over the airwaves, touching listeners of the Mennonite radio program Heart to Heart. Miller, 93, died oct. 26 in Harrisonburg.

From 1958 to 1976, Miller was the speaker on Heart to Heart, a 15-minute weekly and five-minute daily program that at its height aired on more than 250 stations. The program, produced by Mennonite Media, a department of Mennonite Mission Network, spawned more than 200 Heart to Heart local fellowships — gatherings of listeners who discussed the programs.

Miller also wrote nine books which had sold 734,694 copies when record-keeping stopped in 1975.

As recently as five days before she died, Mennonite Media, which occasionally still receives mail addressed to Heart to Heart, received a $2 order from a woman in North Hollywood, Calif. She wised to purchase copies of Heart to Heart radio talks in leaflet form. The order form mailed was more than 35 years old.

Over the years, 28,000 people subscribed to a monthly Heart to Heart newsletter, and 11,000 subscribed to the weekly leaflets. During 1971, Miller received 35,894 letters, according to Mennonite Broadcasts: The First 25 Years.

Miller was born May 22, 1915, in Harper, Kan., to Reuben M. and Ella Neuhauser Weaver. She was the ninth child in a family of 16. Her mother died when she was 10 years old.

After graduating from Hesston (Kan.) Academy, she helped at the Kansas City Mission for two years. She lived with the mission superintendent and his wife, J. D. and Hettie Minninger, who became her mentors. Miller graduated from Goshen (Ind.) College in 1941.

She married a classmate, Samuel E. Miller, from Middletown, Pa., June 10, 1941. He died April1, 1985. The Millers were missionaries in Argentina for 11 years through Mennonite Board of Missions.

In 1953 they moved to Harrisonburg, where her husband began teaching Spanish at Eastern Mennonite College and serving as pastor of Mount Clinton Mennonite Church. Upon his retirement from EMC, they served several years as resource people to Mexican churches under Franconia Mission Board.

In her later years she served as Spanish interpreter for mothers who needed medical and legal services. In 2001, she moved to Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community.

She is survived by three sons and a daughter, S. Ernest miller of St. Paul, Minn., John Miller, Martin Miller and Jeanne Troyer, all of Harrisonburg; 12 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; a brother, Dale Weaver of Hutchinson, Kan.; and four sisters, Alta Fry of Elk Falls, Kan., Anna Ruth Beck of Hesston, Mary Shue of Harper and Wanda Good of Harrisonburg.

Funeral services were held at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.