Christ Community Covenant Church

Dee and Rosie Miller

Their cheerful smiles have welcomed many visitors and regular attendees as they enter the sanctuary at 4 C's on Sunday morning. Dee and Rosie Miller love the opportunity to usher, and the benefits that come with volunteering at church - lots of warm hugs and handshakes from the many friends and acquaintances they have come to know and cherish here. Charter members, they are part of the sturdy foundation that has helped to keep 4C's alive and thriving for the past 25 years.

Verle Dee Miller was born at home in Hoxie, Kansas, a small western farming community about 33 miles east of Colby on January 1, 1933. His father was a barber, and his mother a homemaker during his early years, but Dee recalls that she eventually took a job working in a women's ready-to-wear store for $1 a day. When Dee was 9 the family moved to Denver so his dad could accept a position at Lowery Air Force Base in the officer's barber shop. At 16, Dee contracted polio, but was treated at home due to the 1949 epidemic in the Denver area. He recovered enough to be drafted in 1951, was given only a 30 day deferment due to his condition, and then inducted anyway. Newly married, Dee was sent to Korea in 1953 with the 25th Infantry Division, 65th Combat Engineers where he taught soldiers the use of explosives and temporary bridge building for two years. He continued teaching an additional five months in Hawaii before being discharged and returning to Denver in 1955. Dee had worked in the floor covering trade before entering the service, and he returned to that profession, starting his own business as part of a partnership when his tour was over. In 1976 this father of two - Susan, and Steven (who passed away in 1999) - found himself soon to be single again. It was then he met Rosie, the "love of his life", at lunch with mutual friends and was instantly smitten.

Rosalie (Rosie) Phillips was born at home in Alton, Illinois, near the Mississippi River on January 21, 1938. Her father was a carpenter who made beautiful cabinets and other fine finishing work. Her mother was a homemaker until the family was mostly grown, when she took a job as a restaurant cook to help with finances. Rosie's father built a home for his family in Godfrey, IL where they moved soon after Rosie was born and lived until she was 8 years old. The family then moved to Phoenix, AZ hoping the climate would relieve her father's asthma. Rosie and her sisters worked in the cotton and carrot fields to help earn money. But when Phoenix yielded few jobs for Rosie's dad, so he found work in New Mexico and moved the family again, eventually to a small ranch near Albuquerque. The ranch was quite self sufficient, raising horses, cows, and chickens, and it was there that Rosie admits that she "became a cowgirl"! It was a simple home where mom cooked on a wood stove, and dad hauled in 25 lb blocks for the ice box each week. But Rosie lived there happily until she married and moved to Albuquerque in 1955. There she had 2 boys, Doug and Bill, and 3 girls, Debbie, Denise, (now married to Ken Himes and also a member at 4C's) and Rosella, in seven years. Rosie then moved with her family to California, and eventually to Denver where she too would become a single parent with two children still at home. She firmly believes that God brought her here so that she too could meet the "love of her life" at that fateful lunch with friends. After a short courtship, Dee and Rosie married in 1977.

Dee remained in the floor covering business until he retired in 1995. It was then that he and Rosie fulfilled a dream when they bought a somewhat dilapidated 1910 homestead ranch near Stoneham, CO, 30 miles west of Sterling. For the next 7 years the two of them worked and planted, repaired and cleaned until all 13 acres looked like a "golf course" (in one daughter's estimation)! On one occasion, after another daughter had used their pasture to run some cattle for a short time, thy hauled away 26 small truckloads of manure in order to keep the homestead pristine! During their years there the ranch welcomed Mac McPhetrige and his riding club for an old fashioned round up, as well as many other gatherings. Both agree that they would not have traded those 7 years for anything, and together they reclaimed the property because they were a "great team". Due to heath issues, the Millers sold the ranch in 2002 and moved back to a home in Arvada to be closer to health care. Dee was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome 3 years ago, but continues to enjoy life with limitations in their new townhouse at Timber Cove. He used to love to hunt, but now is perfecting his baking skills, while Rosie keeps a spotless home and has produced several lovely works during painting classes. The two are complete sports fanatics and especially enjoy watching all the Colorado teams compete. Most important, they continue to support their church, their children, their 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren's life choices and decisions, believing and living by the model that it is best to "be forgiving, loving, and kind, because God is to us". It has been their recipe for three decades of happiness together.