Billy Miller

Billy Beth Beam Miller
January 28, 1920 – December 18, 2022
Retired School Teacher
How will Billy Miller be remembered?
• Loving mother, grandmother and great grandmother;
• Cherished friend to innumerable people of all ages, throughout her long life;
• Esteemed educator, well remembered by hundreds of former students;
• Admired leader in church and community organizations;
• Avid traveler, who visited, studied and volunteered, in countries around the world;
• Devout United Methodist Church member, whose faith was the source of her lifelong sharing of time, treasure, and talent, as she felt called.
Billy Beam was born at home, on January 28, 1920, and grew up in tiny Cherryville, North Carolina. Her mother, Ila Etta Spargo Beam, was 44, and her father, David Eli Beam, was 64. She had five half-siblings, from her mother's first marriage, and one 3-year-old sister, Virginia, who was born to the Beams.
Billy enjoyed what might now be remembered as an idyllic childhood. Her home was located on Main Street, right in the center of town, and the outgoing little girl was at the center of the action. She was a good student and a friend to everybody in the school. At Cherryville High School, she participated in school plays, was elected cheerleader all four years, played on the girls' basketball team, won speaking contests, and was elected class president in three of her four years. In her senior year, she was chosen Miss Cherryville High School and most popular girl. She graduated as valedictorian in 1937.
She attended Sue Bennett Junior College, in New London, Kentucky, aided by a Methodist Women's Society of Christian Services scholarship. After completing two years there, she returned to North Carolina and Greensboro College. In June 1941, she graduated Magna cum Laude, with a degree in English Literature.
After graduation, Billy had hoped to teach overseas, in a mission school. However, circumstances found her teaching high school English in Lincolnton, North Carolina, where she also sponsored the school's cheerleading squad and organized a youth group in the Methodist Church. From there, she was recruited to the First Methodist Church, of Gastonia, NC, to serve as Director of Christian Education.
In the spring of 1943, Billy replied to a request for volunteers from the Methodist Church's National Board of Missions and the National Board of Education, to go for training for church work as a volunteer in war industries areas. This training involved a quarter of graduate work, at Scarritt College, in Nashville, TN, for the Church School Extension Corps.
It was while she was there, that a Cherryville friend introduced her to Carroll Miller, who was in Nashville, going through the Army Air Corps Classification Center. Unknown to them, they would become Mr. and Mrs., only three years later! In the meantime, he went off with the Army Air Corps, to India, where he worked in a unit that maintained military vehicles and equipment. After a brief volunteer stint in Virginia, Billy was re-assigned to Bremerton, Washington, a burgeoning ship building town.
On the way home to Cherryville, to prepare for the trip to Bremerton, Billy was met by her mother, who said, in an excited voice, "I'm coming with you to California!" She had her bag ready. Going to California had always been her dream. She was so excited, that Billy changed her plans from the northern to the southern route, and they boarded the train together. For two days and two nights, her mother was glued to the window, where she saw every inch of the southern U.S., from North Carolina to Long Beach, California. Billy's brother-in-law and sister lived in Long Beach, and she dropped her mother off, to stay with them for a week, while she continued to her new position in Bremerton.
This experience – taking her mother to California – turned out to be one of the proudest and most fulfilling episodes of Billy's entire life. Even in her final months, she continued that assertion. In coming years, her mother accompanied the family in Colorado, on several lengthy western road trips, but none could compare to that first train trip to California.
Bremerton was a small and quiet town, where the population went from 12,000 before the war to over 100,000 with the influx of the military. There Billy established church programs for soldiers getting on and off the battleships from the Pacific Fleet. Following her one-year commitment, she stayed an additional six months in Bremerton, helping direct the citywide vacation Bible school program.
Once back in Cherryville, Billy got a call from the Methodist Church's North Carolina Board of Christian Education to serve as Director of Children's Work. She loved her job, and since her office was at Duke University, she could take some university classes.
She and Carroll kept up their correspondence during the war and became engaged when he returned in 1945. They were married in Cherryville, August 20, 1946. Their honeymoon was a one-week trip, moving to Colorado, where the next chapter of Billy's life began. Carroll taught English and Social Studies, at Skinner Junior High School, and Billy became the family "social director."
Carroll had been raised in the Lutheran Church, so when the couple moved to Denver, they visited both Lutheran and Methodist churches, to determine where they would worship. They chose Trinity Methodist Church, in downtown Denver, and immediately became involved.
Within a few months, they started the "Mr. and Mrs. Fellowship," a young married couples group at Trinity. Most of its early members were, like them, new to Denver, without nearby families. In the coming years, this group of people became family – their children like cousins, and the adults like aunts and uncles – for the next 70 years. Billy was the last of them. And the Mr. and Mrs. group – developing it, sustaining it, depending on members and supporting them in their needs – was the second of her own personal accomplishments, which brought her great pride, joy and comfort.
Within a year of their marriage, Billy and Carroll had embarked on building a family and building a house. Billy had the first baby in July 1947; Carroll and a nephew built the house, which was ready a year later. Three more children were added to the family – a boy and two girls – while the family lived in that first little house.
The family moved their church membership to Wheat Ridge United Methodist in 1953, because Billy and Carroll believed their children should attend a church where they were likely to have school friends and Sunday school friends together. Many of the Mr. and Mrs. group's families were doing the same, in other parts of town, so this church-born group became a home-based group, and met monthly in members' homes for a potluck dinner, for another 60 years.
At Wheat Ridge United Methodist Church, Billy and Carroll were, again, among the founders of a new group – the Homesteaders Sunday School class. This class became the source of additional lifelong friends, and Billy saw them most weeks, well into the 2000s. The children grew up there, as they had hoped.
As the children grew, a bigger house was needed. Again, Carroll built a larger house, farther into Wheat Ridge, this time with the help of another school teacher and the advice and assistance of several of the Mr. and Mrs. men.
In June 1961, Carroll passed away, following a lengthy illness, and Billy was left to rear the children – now ages 14, 11, 10, and 8 – alone. She returned to teaching, becoming an elementary school teacher in Jefferson County Public Schools, where she taught until her retirement in 1980.
In 1972, Billy was one of 66 American teachers chosen to be exchange teachers in England. Her school was in Bexleyheath, Kent, in southeastern England. Living only 14 miles southeast of London, and with a train running every 20 minutes, she was able to visit the sites on weekends. On longer school holidays, she visited the Continent, and at Christmas, she was able to have her children join her for a week. She was really getting a feel for how wonderful traveling could become, in only a few more years.
By 1975, all four of Billy's children had graduated from college. She, herself, had also obtained her Master's Degree, in 1968, from the University of Northern Colorado. Together, these constituted another milestone for her. She could begin to think of retirement.
In 1980, she retired from teaching, with accolades from principals and administration, and started her new adventures. Travel, volunteering, AAUW, grandchildren, moving, more traveling, learning Chinese in China, teaching English in India, serving the church in a variety of ways, moving again, great grandchildren. And everywhere, and at every turn, Billy made new friends, provided service to others, and kept her positive outlook.
Several years ago, Billy put together a retrospective of her life. Here, from its Conclusion, are her own words:
"I look back on my life and I can say I have lived a very long life filled with great happiness. From childhood I have had a multitude of close friends who have helped me along the way. I have valued our relationships and tried to be a good friend. Carroll, I think, would say I was a good wife for those 15 years that we shared…
"I have spent my life working hard to be a good mother to our four children. I have given this task my first priority… I have given my thinking and my energy to what I considered worthwhile. In the community, I have tried to continue to grow intellectually. I have taught hundreds of little children how to read and tried to turn them on to the excitement of learning. Through volunteering for meaningful jobs, I've found self satisfaction. I've encouraged, loved and helped my children and I've kept the family close together – as Carroll hoped I could.
"I do not know anything specific about life after death, but I believe there will be something. I believe Carroll will be eager to greet me and to hold me tight. He will say, 'You did it. You were wonderful. I knew you could.' And we will go on together."

Billy is survived by her 4 children: Alan C. Miller (spouse Elizabeth Grieser), Mary Beth Elland, Ann F. Ross, and Jane C. Miller. She has 3 grandchildren: Andrew Ross (spouse Charli), Connor Ashbaugh, and Selena Ashbaugh Arriola (spouse Willian); and 2 great grandchildren: Adrian Arriola and Axel Arriola.
We love you very much.
A Celebration of Life and Memorial Service will be held at 1:00 pm., Friday, January 20, 2023, at Covenant Living of Colorado, Smith Fellowship Hall, 9153 Yarrow Street, Westminster, CO 80021.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Billy's name to: Covenant Living of Colorado or Wheat Ridge United Methodist Church.