Betty Smith Miller, 90, of Smyrna, Georgia passed away peacefully on Saturday, February 23, 2019 at home. She was born on August 22, 1928 in Leighton, Alabama and was the daughter of Kittie Gambill Smith and Wesley Madding Smith. She graduated from Colbert County High School in 1946 and attended University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and graduated college at Florence Teachers College, Florence, Alabama in 1950. She began her teaching career in Jasper, Alabama and later married John Hugh Miller, Sr. on June 14, 1952. She lived in Birmingham, Alabama where she had two sons, John Hugh Miller, Jr and Michael Grady Miller and later moved to Smyrna, Georgia in 1964.She continued her teaching career at King Spring Elementary School where she started teaching third grade in 1964 and taught for almost 30 years. She taught hundreds if not thousands of young boys and girls to which she devoted much of her life. Her hobbies included planting a flower garden every year which she loved to tend every day. She also enjoyed a weekly bridge game where she was very competitive and played to win each week. She loved to “power” walk each evening either around the neighborhood or at the Smyrna Recreational Center where she had many friends. She will be missed immensely by her family and friends, and remembered fondly by both her teacher colleagues, and numerous students she taught and loved.
She was preceded in death by husband, John Hugh Miller, Sr., to whom she was married for 60 years; mother, Kittie Gambill Smith; father, Wesley Madding Smith and grandmother Sue Madding Smith.
Survivors include sons, John Hugh Miller, Jr. (Mary Kay), Michael Grady Miller (Lu); three grandchildren, John Hugh Miller, III, Wesley Madding Miller, Mary Ellen Miller; one stepgrandchild, Anna Grace Antonell (Mike); sisters, Wesley Madding “Biddy” Merrell (Jim), Kitty Gambill “Sis” Smith; brother, James Wesley “Bud” Smith (Carol).
A funeral service was held noon Tuesday, February 26, 2019 in the sanctuary of the Smyrna First United Methodist Church, 1315 Concord Rd. SE, Smyrna, GA 30080. The family received friends from 10 to 11:30 a.m. before the service at the church. Interment was held Wednesday the 27th at 1 p.m. CST. in Oakwood Cemetery in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
The family gratefully acknowledges and is eternally thankful to the wonderful, loving care provided by all the caregivers who cared for Betty for many years. In lieu of flowers, the family request donations to Smyrna First United Methodist Church where she worshiped her Lord since 1964.
