A few years ago, June Miller decided it was time for a change. After 20-plus years of going by “June,” it was time to change back to her given name, Marjory.
“She never even said why – it was just, all of a sudden, ‘nope, everybody’s going to call me Marjory now, stop calling me June, gotta make a change,’” said daughter Alexis Grant.
That, along with her purple hair, was one of the latest indications that Miller made her own way. As a child, Grant remembers being mortified by it.
“I was always like ‘oh my god, Mom, why are you so embarrassing.’ Trying to disappear into the wall while your mom is wearing loud pants,” she said.
Looking back now, Grant said, 20-odd years later, she admires it.
“She was never afraid of being herself, ever,” Grant said. “She was never afraid of wearing exactly what she wanted.”
Miller, 69, died in her sleep on July 5, 2026. She had lived with Grant for about 12 years, but spent the last eight months or so at Haines Assisted Living.
She was born June 15, 1957, in Jerome, Idaho. Most of her immediate family still live in southern Idaho. Miller was the fifth of six siblings, five girls and one boy. Younger sister Kathy Whitaker remembers Miller as her mom’s understudy.
“She liked to help my mom all the time,” Whitaker said. “We used to tease each other a lot.”
Miller lived in several communities in Idaho, but came of age in Twin Falls.
Looking back at pictures from that era, Grant said her mom always had pretty, curled hair that was done nicely. “She was into fast cars and motorcycles,” Grant said. “I know that because his dad is the one with the fancy car and my dad is the one with the motorcycle,” she deadpanned, looking at her brother Lee Trout.
In her early 20s, Miller was involved in a motorcycle accident. Grant said that caused a traumatic brain injury that went undiagnosed for most of her life, though there were lingering impacts.
When she was 17 years old, Miller became pregnant with her first son, Matthew, born Jan. 5, 1975. She got her GED and followed an older sister to nursing school, where she trained to be a registered nurse. A few years later, the family grew to include Lee Trout on Dec. 25, 1979.
Miller’s first marriage was to David “Trapper” Trout, whom she had grown up with in Twin Falls. Trout’s own father had brought him up to Haines in the late 1970s. Trout fell in love with Haines, bought a boat and became a fisherman. The couple spent summers in Haines, and a few years later the couple welcomed Grant, who was born March 8, 1983. They moved to the Chilkat Valley full time.
While in Haines, Miller worked for Cornerstone Home Care. “She worked a lot with kids who needed home health aides and special nursing care,” Grant said. “She had the patience for it. She always wanted to help.”
She also worked at a fish-processing plant and subsistence fished with Trout, whom she married and then divorced, moving back to Idaho. But then Miller’s first son died in August 1991. He was 16.
“It was devastating,” Grant said. “Every year, at this time in August, she would have a hard time with it.”
Trout and Miller remarried and moved back to Haines, where the family stayed, though the two separated again in the late 1990s.
A few years later, Miller met and married Alan Miller. After 14 years, the couple divorced, but then remarried.
Friends and family remember Marjory Miller as someone who would persevere regardless of how hard things got. Jenny Lyn Smith, Relief Society president for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said she worked with Miller a lot.
“She had difficulty reading, but she would never say ‘I can’t read today,’” Smith said. “Sometimes she could read really well, and other times every word was a struggle. But she just didn’t say no.”
One of the main focuses of the church was family connection, genealogy and family history, which Miller was drawn to. She had a prized leather-bound journal of the family’s ancestry, tracing their journey across the country — homesteading, settling first in Utah and then Idaho. That interest in documenting her family’s story extended beyond history.
“When we were younger, for a number of years, there were tons and tons of photos,” Grant said. “We probably have three boxes of pictures, tons of glamour shots and family photos from when we were little.”
Younger sister Whitaker remembers that Miller took a photo of her when she was pregnant with her first child. It’s the only picture she has of herself during that time.
“She gave me a copy, and I was just so happy,” Whitaker said.
Miller also became the person who kept everyone in the family connected, calling regularly to check in.
“It used to be the loving frustration of ‘oh dang it, June, you called me three times today. I’m kind of busy. Why are you calling me again?’” Grant said. “I’m not going to get that anymore. No one’s going to pester you to say hi.”
In Idaho Falls, she sang with the acapella chorus, the Sweet Adelines. In Haines, she sang with Nancy Nash’s Haines Acapella Women’s Choir, as a soprano.
Miller was a big fan of pop music, including Bobby Vinton, the Carpenters and Michael Jackson. She also loved musicals including “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” and “Singin’ in the Rain.”
“It was generally religious music or pop music — lots of different country music too. There’s the rainbow song — a song she learned at a preschool in Idaho. I don’t even think it’s there anymore. It’s basically just singing the colors of the rainbow,” Grant said. “It will forever be ingrained in my head.”
She loved to color and would take coloring books and a special purple case for her colored pencils with her everywhere. Fantasy artwork was her favorite thing to work on, especially dragons and unicorns.
Miller also spent a lifetime with large dogs. One of the latest was Grant’s dog Freya, a 90-pound pit bull.
“I call her my dog, but she was really mom’s dog,” Grant said. “She followed my mom around, was just attached to her. She slept with my mom, sat in my mom’s recliner with her. It was the silliest thing, this ginormous dog climbing in her lap, trying to be all gentle.”
Miller is survived by Alexis Grant, Lee Trout, sisters Louise Jay, Marie Mondragon, Darlene Ball and Kathy Whitaker, and grandchildren Tia Jayne Grant, Katelyn Grant, Charles Grant, Grace Trout, Trenton Oaks, Jade Oaks and Robin Oaks.
There will be a celebration of life at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8 at the LDS Church at 417 Mud Bay Road. In lieu of flowers, send a donation to the Haines Animal Rescue Kennel or the Diabetes Foundation of America.