Wilhelmina ‘Willie’ Miller

Wilhelmina ‘Willie’ Miller

GUILDERLAND — Wilhelmina “Willie” Miller was a thoughtful, loving person who was always a lot of fun, recalled her daughter, Lauren Prezorski. Mrs. Miller died unexpectedly at home on Monday, Dec. 11, 2017. She was 75.

Mrs. Miller was born in Schenectady on Oct. 11, 1942 to the late Otto F. and Louise (née Fromm) Tants and grew up in Guilderland.

Mrs. Miller’s mother ran a restaurant called Tants’ Tavern at the site on Western Avenue that later became The Chariot, said Mrs. Prezorski; it has since become the Indian restaurant, Nirvana. It was there that Mrs. Miller met Allan J. Miller, a restaurant customer who would become her husband, her daughter said.

“They were friends before they were married,” Mrs. Prezorski said, “and they always were friends. They never argued.”

The Millers lived in Guilderland, on Hamilton Street, and raised their two children there.

Mrs. Miller loved games — cards and board games — and was always the one nagging her children to play with her, Mrs. Prezorski said.

She loved to watch sports, especially baseball, and was a great fan of the Boston Red Sox. When the Red Sox were not on TV, her daughter said, her mother would watch the Yankees, “to see them lose.”

“She was a lady with a great sense of humor,” her family wrote in a tribute.

Mrs. Miller worked for KeyBank for many years, her daughter said, spending many of those as a teller in Altamont. She loved to talk and banter with customers, Mrs. Prezorski said.

When her husband and son, Allan J. Miller Jr., were both ill at the same time, Mrs. Miller was the caretaker for both, her daughter said.

“She took care of everyone,” Mrs. Prezorski said.

Following their deaths, Mrs. Prezorski found a house for her mother very close to her own, in Cobleskill.

Mrs. Miller was “never the same,” Mrs. Prezorski said, after her son died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, although it helped that her long-awaited and only grandchild — Mrs. Prezorski’s daughter, Allison — was born on her son’s birthday. Allison was the light of her grandmother’s life, Mrs. Prezorski said, adding that Allison always said that “Mema” gave the best hugs.

Mrs. Miller, in her later years, also loved her constant companion, an American Ragdoll cat named Moofie, her daughter said.

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Wilhelmina “Willie” Miller is survived by her daughter, Lauren Prezorski of Cobleskill and her husband, Leonard; her granddaughter, Allison; her sister, Louise Gade; and many nieces and nephews.

Her husband of 38 years, Allan J. Miller, and her son, Allan J. Miller Jr., died before her, as did her parents, Otto F. and Louse (née Fromm) Tants, and her brother, Otto W. Tants.

Calling hours will be held on Friday, Dec. 15, from 9 to 10 a.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 140 Maple Ave., Altamont, with a funeral to follow at 10 a.m. Interment will be at Prospect Hill Cemetery, in Guilderland.

Memorial contributions may be made to the ALS Association, Gift Processing Center, Post Office Box 37022, Boone, Iowa 50037-0022.

— Elizabeth Floyd Mair

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