Anna Miller Obituary

Anna Limoges Miller

Anna Limoges Miller was born October 28, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Robert Edward and Alma Pearl (Alcorn) Limoges. She graduated in 1960 from Atherton High School. In 1964, she graduated from the University of Louisville with a degree in French and was elected to the Woodcock Society, U of L's academic honor society. She was chosen as the 1964-65 exchange student in the Louisville/Montpellier (France) sister city program and continued her French literary studies at the University of Montpellier. On return she enrolled in the University of Michigan graduate program in French literature specializing in the nineteenth century. She received her Master's in 1969 and began teaching at Alice Lloyd College. Three years later she married the German teacher, James Miller.

In 1975 Anna followed Jim to his hometown, North Baltimore. There she developed considerable construction and decorative skills in transforming an old, neglected farm house into a beautiful traditional country home. At the same time she was working on her dissertation on the novels of Guy de Maupassant, upon completion of which she received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Until she found a local university job, she taught at Patrick Henry High School and Maumee Valley Country Day School. After that, Anna taught college students at Bowling Green State University, Ohio Northern University, and Heidelberg College. For three of her years at BGSU she was on-site director of their academic year program in France, and at Heidelberg she initiated the summer Spanish language program in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Always a restless worker, Anna started two businesses – a commercial flower farm and a building renovation business. For about ten years, Quarry Farms supplied fresh flowers to florists in Northwest Ohio and dried flowers to crafters and wholesalers. Encouraged by Kern Ackerman of Cygnet, Anna began to raise gourds, and Quarry Farms morphed into Quarry Farm Gourds, which eventually, through the internet, supplied gourd seeds to growers in 48 states, as well as several countries around the Mediterranean and in the South Pacific. Out of the growing season, Anna fixed up and decorated houses and old downtown buildings in Tiffin, Findlay, and North Baltimore.

Anna was an active member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Findlay and served on the Vestry as Senior Warden. She was a member of North Baltimore Business and Professional Women, a member of Quest Club, and a member and president of North Baltimore Garden Club, and she frequently made slide presentations at area garden clubs. Anna loved to travel and she and Jim traveled extensively to visit historical and archeological sites in the US, Mexico, Britain, France, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mali.

All of this came to a screeching halt in April 2006, when Anna had several strokes, one of which completely paralyzed her left side. For three years she and Jim lived in the last house she had decorated. When that was no longer possible, she went to Briar Hill Care Center in North Baltimore. Jim gives thanks to all the staff for the wonderful care and to the staff of Bridge Hospice for their added assistance in her final weeks. Special thanks are due to Linda Ross and to the late Sue Ann Sandusky for frequently joining Anna for Sunday brunches; to Nancy Thompson for frequent visits and for many beautiful cat pillow cases; to Kathy Rayle for a beautiful quilt: to Lori Fleming for a beautiful quilt and for hundreds of 'thinking of you' cards; and to Fr. John Drymon for frequent pastoral visits.

Anna is survived by Jim, her husband of 53 years; by her brother, Robert, and his sons, Edward and Daniel; and by her cousins, Dorothy Kennedy and William Larkin.

Visitation will be from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Friday, February 14, 2025, at SMITH-CRATES FUNERAL HOME, 515 North Main Street, North Baltimore, Ohio 45872. Additional visitation for family and friends will take place from 9-10 a.m. Saturday, February 15, 2025, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 128 West Hardin Street, Findlay, Ohio 45840, with the funeral service beginning at 10 a.m. with Pastor Art Wilde officiating. Burial will follow at Weaver Cemetery.

In lieu the flowers, memorial contributions may made to Trinity Episcopal Church, 128 West Hardin Street, Findlay, Ohio 45840 or Briar Hill Nursing Home Activity Fund, 600 Sterling Drive, North Baltimore, Ohio 45872, where so many beautiful activities were made possible through donations.

Online condolences may be shared with the family via www.smithcrates.com