Nancy Evans MiIler

Nancy Evans Miller departed this life on June 5, 2022, in her home, 15 years after the medical establishment first counted her out. Her will and zest for life held the entirety of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in amazement. Nancy Miller was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Dwight and Elizabeth Robinson, who did their best to raise her as a proper southern lady. She had other plans. After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Nancy headed to New York City to be a teletypist. There she had run-ins with Nehru, Castro, and beatniks. Nancy then found her way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where her parents had settled, and worked as a secretary at a radio station which led to a funny encounter with the Rolling Stones. She married, raised four children, and discovered teenagers are exasperating. Nancy created a stable, loving family home while simultaneously exploring art, yoga, gardening, world cuisine, and home improvement projects. In the 1970s, she convinced her husband, an affable Pittsburgh native, to move to Warren County. Thanks to deep family ties, Nancy had spent nearly every summer in McMinnville. Once the family moved to McMinnville, it became home through encounters with the lakes and rivers, wildlife, gardening, church, and many diverse friends. Nancy worked as a bookkeeper, tax preparer, and did something software-related for the Navy that might still be classified. She found the perfect outlets for her boundless, maniacally fastidious creativity in bread baking, beading, and extended pursuits in painting, sewing, and cooking. (Yes, for a good bit of the 1980s, the family ate Chinese hot and sour soup every week made from scratch until she perfected the recipe and then lost it). Nancy will be remembered by those closest to her as a quick-witted full-time matriarch, troublemaker, coconspirator, and dispatcher of opinions. She appreciated beauty—in painting, landscape, jewelry, and textiles- and each person’s story and uniqueness. Nancy loved spicy food, margaritas, and company with which to share them. She did not lie or swear unless it was absolutely necessary. She traveled widely: Canada, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Mexico, Central and South America, and in recent years Russia and Italy. Nancy always made friends, no matter where she ended up —a beach in Belize or a deserted café on a dirt road in Tuscany. She never made it to Machu Picchu, but until the end, she was scheming for a way to get up there with her rollator strapped to an alpaca. We, her family, continue to appreciate the things she loved: temperamental flowering plants, even more temperamental felines, beating family and friends in card games and then being really ungracious about it, ancient friendships, and new friendships that feel ancient. Nancy is survived by her husband Raleigh B. Miller Jr. of McMinnville; children Steve Evans Jr. of Minneapolis, Paul Evans (Katherine) of Sewanee, Tom Evans of Rock Island, and Eliza Evans of McMinnville; grandchildren Amelia, Andrew, and Jackson; sister Lisa Julian of Murfreesboro; nieces Amy Perkins and Sarah Perkins of Murfreesboro; great-nephews Alex and Chase; and Susan (Blaine), Emily, and David and all the other Millers, whom she adored. She is preceded in death by her first husband Stephen S. Evans. A graveside service will occur at Shiloh Cemetery in Mud Creek at 10:00 am on Tuesday, June 14, with Rev. Doug Dunlap presiding. Online condolences can be made at www.highfuneralhome.com. High Funeral Home and High's Cremations Inc. is in charge of arrangements.