A scrapblog honoring William Alton "Brother" Miller, Arline "Cissie" Miller Edwards and families

Thelma, Holcomb and Virginia

Holcomb and Thelma with Virginia.

Virginia, Thelma and Holcomb with Tennessee Isabelle Gough Jackson in 1943.

Virginia, Holcomb and Thelma.

Thelma with Brother's oldest two kids, Pam and Chris, in the 1960s.

Thelma with Brother's wife, Alverna Miller, and his three kids, Cathy, Chris and Pam, in the late 1960s. Note young Chris Miller's lederhosen; the Millers had just moved back to the States after being stationed for three years in West Germany.

Holcomb and Thelma.

Thelma.

Thelma listened as Brother Miller held forth during a visit to North Carolina in summer 1982.

Virginia and Everette Harris

Virginia Holcomb Harris is the beloved first cousin of Brother and Cissie. Some photos:

Brother and Virginia as teenagers.

Everette and Virginia in 1947, the year they were married.

Everette and Virginia Harris.

In May 1997, first cousins Virginia Holcomb Harris and William Alton Miller visited their grandparents' first home.

Virginia at Myrtle Beach in summer 1992.

The ever gracious Virginia in her Christmas sweater in December 1994.

EVERETTE HARRIS, STALAG SURVIVOR
During World War II, on Nov. 2, 1944, Everette Harris, an Air Force waist gunner on a B-17 bomber called "The Eight Ball," was shot down over occupied Holland. The plane came down on its belly and German troops who watched it come down took its crew prisoner. (The captain, Lt. Jack Davis, who was carrying classified documents, escaped for 30 days and was hidden by Dutch citizens, but was shot after being captured.) Everette was imprisoned for a year at Stalag 4 near the Russian border and liberated by the British army near the end of the war.

Bill Edwards

William Ralph Edwards was born on April 13, 1918 (yep, he shared a birthday with Brother and Cissie) and died on July 28, 1996. (The Catawba County farm where he was born is now at the bottom of Lake Norman.)

For years, Bill served as executive director of the Children's Home in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he grew up with his sister, Faye. Bill, age 9, and Faye arrived there on Aug. 24, 1927 from Long Island in Catawba County. He was an outstanding student at R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, from which he graduated in 1934 at age 16. While in high school, he was a star athlete on "the Children's Home Fighting Methodists" teams

. (The Children's Home only had grades 1-9, but when its older residents moved to Reynolds High, they'd still play on its athletic teams. Sports was extremely important to the home's young residents.)

Bill graduated from Brevard College in 1937. That fall, he went to Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., where he majored in math and history. He was captain of the football team and president of his senior class. In 1940, he returned to the Children's Home as a teacher and coach while earning his master's degree in education from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. In 1949, he became principal of the home's school. In 1966, he came assistant superintendent of the home, and in 1969 he became the home's seventh superintendent.

He retired from the home -- the place where he had lived 50 of his 65 years -- in 1983. That same year, he was hired by Arbor Acres, the Methodist retirement home built on the Children's Home's old peach orchard (and the place where he would move after Cissie's death). At Arbor Acres, he used his contacts in the Methodist Church to help with fundraising. He worked there for two years, retiring from that position in 1985. He continued to do volunteer work.

Bill garnered many honors over the years, including an honorary degree, doctor of humanities, from Pfeiffer College in 1976. The athlete also served as a football referee in the Southern and Atlantic Coast Conference, officiating at three Orange Bowls and a Cotton Bowl.

David Edwards, son of Cissie and Bill (that's him as a little guy in the 1960s in the photo above), volunteers that Cissie went to Hanes High School and Bill to Reynolds, Hanes' archrival. "Mother said she could not have conceived of dating someone who went to Reynolds, let alone marrying him," he said. "But she did." The two met when Cissie was working as a secretary to the Winston-Salem school system's business manager and Bill, who was principal of the Children's Home School (grades 1-9), visited the central office, where Cissie worked, to correct some errors that Cissie had caught in his monthly reports. "According to Dad, he intentionally made errors so he would have an excuse to see her," David said. "Mother said he was not that clever."

We think they were both pretty clever.

They were married on Nov. 23, 1955.

On April 2, 1976, Bill received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Pfieffer College. Dr. Douglas Reid Sasser, Pfeiffer's president, made the presentation.

*****

Below are some snapshots I took in November 2011, when David and Dee Ann took me on a delightful tour of the Children's Home where their dad grew up, became a leader and now is honored in several ways (there are many references to him in the campus' museum, including two of the photos below. The home still serves children in need, though in different ways than when they grew up on its grounds. The two houses pictured are those that the Edwards family lived in when we Millers used to visit them as kids.

Norma Martin Cashion

The lovely and elegant Norma Martin Cashion, of Spartanburg, S.C., was the daughter of Mamie Louella Jackson and Charles Norman Martin, Mamie's first husband. She was born on July 6, 1917, and died on June 17, 2009. Her father died of influenza on Nov. 4, 1918. Her mother went on to marry Clyde Clifton Miller on March 24, 1923. Brother wrote this of her: "Norma is my half-sister, but we always considered ourselves brother and sister, ignoring the fact that we had different fathers."

Norma and her mother, Mamie Louella Jackson Martin Miller, shortly before Mamie's death from cancer in 1951.

Norma and her husband, John Cashion (June 1, 1921-Aug. 7, 1967), married on March 16, 1946. They were parents to one child, Terri Lynn Cashion Jeter, who grew up to be a woman every bit as elegant and lovely as her mother.

Norma and John in 1946.

Norma in June 2000.

Norma with her lovely and talented grandchildren, clockwise from top, Amanda, Emily and Elizabeth Jeter, the daughters of Terri Lynn Cashion Jeter and Al Jeter.

NORMA'S OBITUARY

Norma Martin Cashion / Beloved sister, mother and grandmother / July 6, 1917 -June 17, 2009

Norma Martin Cashion, 91, passed away peacefully on June 17, 2009, at White Oak Estates in Spartanburg, S.C.. Born in Winston-Salem, N.C., on July 6, 1917, she was the daughter of Charles Norman Martin [who died in 1918 in the great influenza epidemic; see historic entries further in this blog] and Mamie Luella Jackson [who remarried in 1923, to Clyde Clifton Miller]. Mrs. Cashion was married to the late John Thomas Cashion, a local radio personality. She was a devoted member of Second Presbyterian Church in Spartanburg and worked as a medical secretary for Piedmont Internal Medicine. She is survived by her son-in-law, Dr. Albert L. Jeter, and his wife, Anne Chapman Jeter of Spartanburg; three granddaughters, Emily Cashion Jeter of Auburn, Ala., Elizabeth Bradley Jeter of Charlotte, N.C., and Amanda Frances Jeter of Spartanburg; one sister, Marilyn Miller of Winston-Salem; one brother, Charles Martin of Winston-Salem; a first cousin, Nina Hutchins of Columbus, Ga., and nieces and nephews, David Edwards and wife Addy Anne Edwards of Winston-Salem, Dee Ann Edwards of Raleigh, N.C., Lindsay and Julia Cashion of Nashville, Tenn., Chris Miller and wife Mary Miller of Centerville, Minn., Pam Miller of Robbinsdale, Minn., and the Rev. Dr. Cathy Miller Northrup and husband Michael Northrup of Andover, Kan.. Mrs. Cashion was predeceased by her daughter, Terri Lynn Cashion Jeter, and twin siblings William "Brother" Miller and Arline "Cissie" Miller Edwards. Graveside services will be held at Forsyth Memorial Park in Winston-Salem at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 21, 2009. A memorial service is also planned at 2 p.m. the following Sunday, June 28, 2009, at Second Presbyterian Church in Spartanburg.

Below: In November 2011, I visited Winston-Salem, including Norma and John's graves at Forsyth Memorial Park:

Terri Lynn Cashion Jeter

Terri Lynn Cashion was the oldest of Clyde and Mamie's six grandchildren, though they did not live long enough to meet any of them, we're sad to say. She was born on March 30, 1954, and adopted by Norma and John Cashion. She grew up gifted (especially in music), beautiful and gracious. She married Albert Jeter and they had three children, Emily Cashion Jeter (Dec. 1981-), Elizabeth Bradley Jeter (March 2, 1984-) and Amanda Frances Jeter (June 23, 1990-). Tragically, Terri Lynn died young, in May 1996, of a brain tumor.

Terri Lynn may have been the cutest baby ever born.

With her doting parents, John and Norma Cashion, in 1954.

Terri Lynn in the late 1950s.

Terri Lynn, eighth grade, 1967.

Terri Lynn Cashion, college freshman, 1973.

With her mother, Norma Cashion Cashion (July 6, 1917-June 17, 2009), after her Dec. 26, 1976 marriage to Al Jeter.

Terri Lynn and Norma in September 1991.

Terri Lynn battled cancer with grace and courage. Here she is in December 1994 with her lovely mom, Norma Cashion, her wonderful husband, Al Jeter, and beautiful daughters Elizabeth, Emily and Amanda.

Terri Lynn's legacy shines brightly in her children, Emily, Amanda and Elizabeth, here with their dad, Al Jeter, in late 1996. In the years that followed, Al happily remarried, to Anne Mosier Chapman (married on June 7, 2003), but Terri retains a special place in our hearts and history.