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Kenneth L. Miller • 1916 - 2006 The only child of Andrew P. and Carrie (Knudsen) Miller, he was born May 21, 1916, on the family farm in McLeod County, Minn. He was raised there and graduated from high school in Hutchinson, Minn. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., and Minneapolis Business College before starting his career with Coca Cola in Minneapolis in 1938. He transferred to Coca Cola in Duluth, Minn., in 1939, returned to the company in Minneapolis in 1942, and moved to Minot to manage the company's bottling plant in 1945. He married Jeannette E. Docken in Northfield, Minn., on Sept. 16, 1939 -- a Dane merging with a Norwegian in a marriage and partnership that continued for 67 years. They purchased an interest in Coca Cola Bottling of Minot when they first moved to the city and completed the purchase of the company from the Moore family in Minneapolis in the 1960s. He helped found M & S Concessions in 1954. As working partners, he and Jeannette began humbly, living above the Coke plant where they started raising their family who, in time, worked their way into the business. In 1957, they moved into a new home in Green Valley where they remained until two years ago. Their residence since has been at The Brentmoor. Green Valley residents learned early on how blessed they were as neighbors of the Millers. Both loved gardening and were precise about it, creating an esthetic piece of nature's bounty that was the envy of those living nearby. At one time, they cultivated more than an acre of garden, and shared the fruits of their harvest with neighbors. He also passed along to them his knowledge of the care of trees, shrubs and other growing things. He demonized weeds with a passion and became an avid trapper of raccoons and squirrels which he then transported to remote areas, since his grandchildren forbade him from shooting them. He drew much pleasure from the company of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, often entertaining them with recitation of Danish nursery rhymes learned in his youth. He was an avid fisherman who traveled to Canada each spring for many years in search of the Canadian walleye and the odd "jack," his sons and grandsons often accompanying him on these trips. He also loved fishing the surf in the Gulf of Mexico on South Padre Island, Texas, and once caught a big sailfish in the Pacific Ocean while on a vacation in Mexico. Hunting game was another favorite sport. He was an excellent shotgunner, the result of being sent out by his father with an old single shotgun and two shotgun shells with instructions to "bring home a limit." Ducks, geese, pheasants, grouse, partridge, antelope and deer were all presents he brought home to Jeannette. She became a great cook of every kind of wild game. There was a brief argument once about skinning the deer on the kitchen table. Much to the dismay of his son, he insisted on saving the legs of partridge and grouse, noting that he had been through the Depression. He had a wood smoker that sent aromatic aromas through the neighborhood, arousing the neighbors - one more draw to the Miller back yard. For a number of years, he was a prime cooker of pork chops for Minot's Great Tomato Festival. He smoked fish, geese and deer sausage with gusto and success. But no one was very excited about his smoked goldeye experiment. Ken and Jeannette wintered on South Padre Island for 28 years. He took great delight in walking the beach, often in search of treasures to carry back to North Dakota. Where earlier in his career, he lettered signs for Coca Cola - signs that still adorn numerous buildings in the six-county region which comprised the company's service area -- he now painted beach and ocean scenes. He was an avid still and motion picture photographer for more than 50 years. By general consensus, the family felt there may have been too many slides or home movies of some of the many places Ken and Jeannette visited in their world travels. He also provided a photographic history of the family. The accordion was Ken's musical instrument of choice. For years he had an old "squeeze box" on which he would crank out old-time favorites. He preferred Cajun music over the old polkas and schottisches. He finally purchased a modern accordion and even lugged it down to South Padre for winter enjoyment. There he would take it along on beach picnics to entertain friends and neighbors while enjoying a little Champagne. Ken and Jeannette built the Minot business into one of the leading per capita franchises in the country. Their success was achieved on the shared traits of a conservative and honest business philosophy, hard work, brains and class. They sold Coca Cola Bottling Co. in Minot in 1993. They continued their involvement in the concession business until two years ago, still counting the business receipts on the kitchen table. Kenneth was a great salesman, and in so many respects, a Renaissance man who knew how to live right - the farm boy who wove a formula for success in the Magic City. He always felt that cold weather should never hinder the sales of Coco Cola, since, as he said, "People had to drink something year 'round." His last title with Coca Cola Bottling of Minot was chairman of the board. He was a president and secretary of the North Dakota Bottlers Association, a founding board member of Western Sales & Service, charter member and past president of the Minot Y's Men's Club, president of the Rotary Club of Minot and a Paul Harris Fellow, director of the Minot Chamber of Commerce, and a 60-year member of First Lutheran Church of Minot where he served as a church council member and treasurer. He held a life membership in the Minot Elks Lodge, and was a member of the Scottish Rite of the Masonic Lodge and of the Shrine. He is survived by his wife Jeannette; sons, Leon K. (Jocelyn) Miller, Madison, Wis., and Jeff L. (Peggy) Miller, Bismarck and Naples, Fla.; daughter, Janene (Richard) Baertsch, Garrison and Lake Havasu City, Ariz; grandchildren, Christopher Miller, Katrina Field, Carmen Miller, Hans Miller, Chelsey Baertsch Kovalchick, Rachael Baertsch, Keaton Miller and Danneka Miller; great-grandchildren, Julia and Brant Miller, Freya Field, Grace, Mia and Camille Miller, Claudia Purdon and Lassen Baertsch Kovalchick. He was preceded in death by his parents and an infant grandson. Funeral: Thursday, Nov. 16, at 10 a.m. in First Lutheran Church, Minot. Burial: Rosehill Memorial Park, Minot. Visitation: Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Thompson-Larson Funeral Home, Minot. Memorials are preferred to the First Lutheran Church Foundation
or to the Minot Rotary Scholarship Foundation. Music Honorary Bearers: Kenneth's family and friends Active Bearers: Wallace Berning, Gordon Johnson, Bob Markle, Wallace Johnson, Roald Mattson Walfrid Hankla To sign the online guest register
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