Helen L. Miller

Helen Miller always served Heart for din­ner. She couldn’t make a quick snack, her idea of a meal was ten-courses of home­made com­fort food. Her spe­cial­ties included home­made noo­dles, potato salad, potato soup, may­on­naise cake, well, really every­thing Helen made was a favorite to some­body. She put so much love into her cook­ing and bak­ing, every meal was made with her most impor­tant ingre­di­ent: her heart.

Renowned for bak­ing pies, Helen passed away Sun­day morn­ing Sep­tem­ber 16, 2012 in Kin­dred Hos­pi­tal. She was 82.

Born Helen Louise Jaynes March 17, 1930 in Weller Town­ship of Rich­land County, she was the daugh­ter of Ernest A. and Car­rie (Cor­nell) Jaynes.

Helen lived in Mans­field most of her life, where she shared her love of cook­ing with many peo­ple. She worked as a cook at the for­mer Over­look Nurs­ing Home and later as a cook at Cracker Bar­rel Restau­rant in Johnsville. She owned and oper­ated her own restau­rant ‘Duddy’s’ on Route 430 near the for­mer Peo­ples Hos­pi­tal, and then worked in the kitchen of O’Malley’s.

Aunt Duddy could turn any ingre­di­ent into a sump­tu­ous dessert. She made a great Dutch apple pie, and was famous for her mock pecan pie made with pinto beans. So good were her pies, that restau­rants often bought her pies to re-sell as their own.

She enjoyed sewing, play­ing Bingo, and really looked for­ward to her card games. She played a mean hand of euchre, and was happy to win at poker.

Helen was a mem­ber of AMVETS Post #87, Cas­tor Post # 5101 VFW, and St. John’s Lutheran Church near North Wood­bury. She moved to Edi­son sev­eral years ago to be near fam­ily and was a mem­ber of Bound­ary United Methodist Church.

She is sur­vived by her daugh­ter and son-in-law Car­rie & Gary Rogers of Edi­son; her grand­chil­dren who she loved to spoil Crys­tal (Ryan Ball) Pierce of Mar­ion, Clin­ton (Lamara) Rogers of Edi­son, Brit­tany (Will Adkins) Rogers of Mar­ion and Cole (Chelsea Conant) Rogers of Mt. Gilead, Chris & Ter­rie Rogers of Card­ing­ton, Steve Rogers of Ori­ent, Jen­nifer LaRue of Mar­ion and John LaRue of Mt. Gilead; her cher­ished great grand­ba­bies Kylie, Caleb, Cait­lyn, Addi­son, Eliza, Whit­ney, Ste­vie, Kris­ten, Collin, Wyatt, Jor­dan, Haylie and Trent; her for­mer son-in-law Bryon (Val) Rogers of Edi­son; trea­sured nieces and nephews includ­ing San­dra Carte of Johnsville (whom Helen con­sid­ered another daugh­ter); dear friend Laura Whitt in Vir­ginia; count­less friends and card-playing bud­dies; and her beloved dog Daisy.

Her hus­band Ver­non Miller pre­ceded her in death. Also deceased are her eight broth­ers and sisters.

Her fam­ily will receive friends Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 20, 2012 from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Lex­ing­ton Avenue Sny­der Funeral Home, and will con­tinue Fri­day at the funeral home from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Her funeral ser­vice will fol­low at 11 a.m. in the funeral home. Bur­ial will fol­low in Oak Grove Memo­r­ial Park. Pas­tor Laura White will officiate.

Con­tri­bu­tions in her mem­ory to Bound­ary United Methodist Church may be made at the funeral home.

Sny­der Funeral Home is hon­ored to serve Helen Miller’s fam­ily, and pri­vate con­do­lences to them may be made online at: www.snyderfuneralhomes.com

Posted by Randa Wagner on Sep 16 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.