Obituary: Patricia L. (Patty) Miller

Patricia L. (Patty) Miller
Sept. 27, 1930~Nov. 2, 2017
Our beloved wife, mother and friend passed into eternal life on Nov. 2, 2017. Patricia L. ‘Patty’ Miller was born Sept. 27, 1930, in Denver, Colo., to Stanley “Bud” Biles and Lois Wells Biles. Patty said as soon as she opened her eyes they headed back to the Western Slope. She grew up in the Skull Creek, Blue Mountain area where her folks had a homestead. They put her on a pillow on the saddle in front of her mother and rode horseback all over.
Patty married Leonard Vaughn in 1947 in Vernal, Utah, when she was 16 years old. They cowboyed on Blue Mountain and around Meeker where their sons were born, Boone in 1958 and Lowell in 1959. They moved to Arizona for five years then back to Colorado to the Uncompahgre and Pinyon Mesa. She was always thankful that she had lived the life lived and was able to raise her boys on a ranch and to see her grandchildren raised the same way. She and Leonard loved to dance and would sometimes drive 100 miles to go dancing. She loved to tease and to pull jokes on others.
She was able to go back to her beloved Blue Mountain for a while before moving to Clifton, Colo. They still cowboyed until Leonard passed from this life in 1994. They enjoyed 47 years of marriage. She went on cattle drives, a horse drive, a wild horse chase and a three-day pack trip on the Flat Tops the year after he passed.
She married Dick Nichols in 1986. She became “stepmom” to his eight children. They enjoyed traveling and took trips to Alaska, Tennessee, Texas and Lake Powell and Lake Mead. He passed away in 2004. After that she still went up to her sons’ ranch and helped whenever she could.
In 2006 she married an old friend, Milt Miller, “the perfect man”. She again become “stepmom” to his three children. They continued to live in Clifton, going to the ranch and helping with the cattle, going dancing, attending auctions and traveling to reunions.
A woman of many talents, Patty was a published writer and extraordinary artist. Her paintings hang on walls all over the country as she loved giving them to loved ones.
She is survived by her loving husband Milt, her sons Boone (Sherry) of Piceance Creek and Lowell of Clifton, sister Elva Jean Murry of Dinosaur, Colo., grandsons Kyle (Rachel) of Golden, Colo., Kelby of Ft. Bragg, N.C. (US Army) and granddaughter Emma Brown of Meeker, Colo., and two great-grandchildren, special nephew Jim (Janice) Vaughn of Questa, N.M., Dick’s eight children and Milt’s children, Bonnie (Bob) Shaw of Oregon, Ken (Linda) Miller of Idaho and Clydi Evans of Clifton, Colo. She was predeceased by her parents, her husbands, Leonard and Dick, and an infant son.
Services will be Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Grand Mesa Ward, 3076 E ½ Road. Viewing will be at 10 a.m. followed by the funeral at 11 a.m. Interment will be at Grand Junction Memorial Gardens
Memorial may be made to HopeWest Hospice, 3090 N. 12th St, Grand Junction, Colo., 81506 or to Community Hospital Oncology, 2596 F Road, Grand Junction, Colo., 81505.