Celebrating Mrs. Alice Louise Miller's
100th Brithday

Today we have a very special person here with us. Her name is Alice Louise Miller.

She was born in Elgin, Indiana. As a young lady she studied for two years at Lombard College in Illinois where she met the man who would become her husband. Both her father and her husband's father were Unitarian ministers.

She and her husband had seven children; the oldest, Gene, is also here today.

The family moved to this area in the 1940s and became members of the National Memorial Universalist church in D.C.

In 1952, the plans for starting up this church began right in the living room of their house. The leaders of the church in Boston and D.C. Thought it was time a Universalist church was started in suburban Maryland, and they thought the miller family were just the right people to take on that important task.

When this church first held services there were 9 adults and 8 children. As the church grew - to about 30 members within a year both Mrs. Miller and gene, her oldest son, became teachers.

The members met for some time in two nearby schools. When they first came here they held their services in the small building where the YRUU now meet.

As you can imagine, Mrs. Miller was very busy, with seven children to raise. Gene says she was a very kind and good mother - always making sure that the family had what they needed, even if it meant she, herself, had less. Gene remembers that on Saturday nights she fed the family baked beans, and on Sunday after church she would cook a beef dinner. Sunday night was sandwich time, and gene and his brothers competed to see how many leftovers they could put in their sandwiches.

Today is extra special because we are celebrating Mrs. Miller's 100th birthday.