Gerald Hope Miller
1880-1971
Gerald was born just before Christmas in Birtle, Manitoba, the son of Francis Benjamin "Ben" Miller and Frances Louise "Fanny" Frodsham.
As a young man he moved to Winnipeg and worked in real estate. Gerald was married in Solsgirth in 1907 to Ethel Pearson, a native of England and daughter of William Pearson and Marguerite Annie Wadsworth. Ethel was the sister of Marguerite Pearson, his brother Bernard West Miller's wife. The Pearsons had emigrated to Canada from England and settled on a farm near the Millers.
After twenty-five years in Winnipeg, the family moved to Vancouver where Gerald continued in the real estate business. In 1945, their children grown, Gerald, Ethel and daughter Mavis moved to California, settling in Santa Monica, not far from Gerald's sisters Ruby and Helen and his mother Fanny. Gerald became an American citizen in 1951.
Ethel died in 1965 and Gerald continued to live there with his daughter until he died, after a short illness, in 1973. They are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica.
Ethel and Gerald had four children:
William Sidney "Sid" Miller, whose love of sailing led to the business of sail making with his brother Phil. He married Janet Mary Dearlove, his second cousin, and they had two children.
Vernon Hope Miller, was a commercial artist and the creator of early Canadian comic books. He married Lillian Ellen Pinkney and they had two children.
Philip Pearson "Phil" Miller, whose love of sailing led to the business of sail making with his brother Sid. He married Winnifred Jean Smith and they had no children.
Mavis Ethel Miller, 1917-1984, who went by Mavis, was born in Winnipeg and then moved with her parents to Vancouver. Mavis, like her father, was involved in real estate and also did a lot of volunteer work in her church. In 1945, Mavis and her parents left for California. According to a nephew, Mavis moved there for her health, possibly suffering from asthma. She lived with her parents, and after her mother's death, with her father. Mavis became an American citizen in 1951, the same year as her father. She died in 1984 in Los Angeles.
