Thomas O. Miller

Thomas O. Miller

Memorial services for Thomas O. Miller, 94, were held Saturday, Feb. 6, 1993, at 1 p.m. at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Sun City, Ariz., with the Rev. Jesse Y. Bingham officiating. Burial followed in the Mausoleum of Peace at Sunland Memorial Park in Sun City.

Miller died Feb. 2, 1993 at Boswell Memorial Hospital after breaking his hip. He was born July 24, 1898, in Lusk, Wyo., to Addison Lee and Elizabeth Daley Miller. He graduated from Lusk High School in 1917. In August 1918 he enlisted in World War I U.S.A. Army Engineer Corps and saw action in France. He was discharged in August 1919 as a regimental sergeant major. He then opened Miller and Winter Realty with Adolph Winter in Lusk.

In 1922, he married Margaret C. Dorsey in Lusk. They moved to Casper, Wyo., to work in the offices of the Illinois Pipeline Co., and Margaret taught in the public schools.

Miller accepted a job with Mammoth Oil Company in Teapot Dome. He was manager of the production department and later manager of the Gas department. At the same time, he managed the mess hall and studied. He enrolled in the American Extension University of Los Angeles, wrote his thesis on U.S. Oil Lands, finished with a law degree, passed the law examination and was admitted to the Wyoming Bar Association on May 21, 1927. His wife continued teaching in the local school.

When Teapot Dome was taken over by the Navy Department, he went to work with his wife's uncle, J. B. Mellor, at his Lincoln-Ford agency in O'Neil, Neb. He then returned to Casper to practice law with Harry Durham and Paul Bachellor.

In the 1930's Lusk, Wyo. was booming. Tom Fagan asked Miller to move back home and join him in his law practice. Shortly he had his own general law practice.

He became City Attorney from 1930 to 1946 and was County Attorney from 1933 to 1947. He was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1946. In 1948 his wife, Margaret, died of heart complications.

In 1949, Miller married Beatrice Cross Owens. He was elected to the state legislature as a senator from 1953 to 1957. In 1957 he moved to Cheyenne as Attorney General of the State of Wyoming until 1960 when he formed the law firm of Miller, Suyematsu, Crowley and Duncan.

He became a fellow in the American Bar Foundation and during 1957-1958 was president of the Wyoming State Bar, was listed in Who's Who in American Law and also Who's Who of American Lawyers. He was a 32nd degree Mason and a member of many service organizations including Wyoming Consistory #1 AASR, Korein Temple AAONMS, American Judicature Society and World Peace Through Law.

Miller and his wife traveled widely and restored an hacienda in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. In March 1984, Beatrice died after a long illness. He was also preceded in death by seven brothers and two sisters. Miller is survived by sisters Helen Lievrance of Tacoma, Wash., and Virginia Thompson of Lincoln, Neb; his daughter Demaris Hipps of Oak Brook, Ill. and Sun City, Ariz. and his sons, Thomas O. Miller, Jr. of Sun City and James D. Miller of Denver, Colo.

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