>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Miller

Louise L. Miller, 91, of La Grande, died May 2 at her home. At her request, no services will be held. Loveland Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Louise was born March 1, 1917, to Hans Albert Larsen and Anna Marie Hansen Larsen in Dwight, Ill. Raised in Montana, she graduated from Harlowton High School and Eastern Montana Normal School in Billings, Mont. She attended the University of California at Los Angeles and graduated from Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif.

During her long career in education she taught for more than six years in Montana, mainly in one-room country schools. She taught for two years in a one-room rural school in the San Bernardino mountains of Southern California, where in addition to the usual three “R”s a fourth “R” was included once a week — rifle shooting.

After moving to Northern California she taught for nearly a year in Pepperwood, and finally for 32 years in Rio Dell. Before her retirement in Rio Dell, she taught several successive generations of the families from the area and was proud of the accomplishments of her former students.

Louise married Harold Magee in 1938, and they lived in Seeley Lake, Ashland and Red Lodge, Mont., where Harold was a road maintenance man for the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads on the Cook Pass between Red Lodge and Yellowstone Park. They had two children, John and Karen, both born in Montana.

Later Louise married Charles Miller and moved to Alton, Calif., in 1952. Louise lived in the heart of the redwoods most of her life until, in 2000, she moved to the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Allen Hasel, in La Grande.

Louise loved county fairs and worked for many years at the Ferndale Fair in historic Ferndale, Calif. She enjoyed movies, reading, learning and traveling. Louise was a proud American and tutored many immigrants in United States citizenship for their naturalization requirements. She was a life member of the California State Teachers Association and National Education Association.

She is survived by her children and their spouses, John and Annita Magee of Anchorage, Alaska, and Karen and Allen Hasel of La Grande; several grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren in Oregon and Alaska; siblings, Ted Larsen of Edina, Minn., and Barbara Wickman of Bothell, Wash.; various nieces and nephews; many friends; and generations of former students. Louise was preceded in death by her husbands, Harold and Charles; parents; three brothers; and one sister.