Mary Alsa Miller

Mrs. Miller was the widow of Commander Francis Joseph Suhre (US Naval Academy Class of 1944, accelerated war-time graduation 1943) who was lost at sea in an A3D Sky Warrior accident over the Pacific near Wake Island in November 1959. After his death she moved with her six children to Kensington, Maryland, where she married in August 1963, Captain Edward George Miller (US Naval Academy Class of 1941). Captain Miller lost his wife, Jean Anne, Vieregg Miller, to cancer and had three sons of his own. Although Mary gladly resumed the life of a Navy wife running a full household, the newly combined family of nine children, seven sons, and two daughters, represented a challenge to both siblings and parents, requiring determination from all to make it work.

Mary was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on November 3, 1920, at her grandfather Barton's home, the second of seven to Maude Alsa (Barton) and Louis L. Thomas of Medicine Lodge, Kansas. During her depression-era childhood, she experienced subsistence-level poverty with vivid memories of the Kansas dust bowl and the insecurity of multiple moves in her father's search for work, which permanently colored her world-view. Despite hardships, her parents were dedicated to the education of their children, and after ending up in Kuna, Idaho, six of the Thomas siblings attended the College of Idaho.

in 1942, after her junior year at the College of Idaho, Mary accepted a war-time scholarship to Johns Hopkins University to train as a nurse. When the family that employed her as a live-in maid for room and board realized she couldn't afford a train ticket, they gave it to her as a gift, launching her on her lifelong quest to see the world. In Baltimore, she fell in love and married Ensign Francis Joseph Suhre on June 9, 1943. As the son of an American marine who married into a French-Canadian family in Haiti, Francis was an American citizen, who was educated in LeHavre, France by Jesuits. After Frenchy (so nick-named by classmates for his strong French accent) finished his war-time service in the Pacific and reunited with Mary and their first-born daughter, she began the life of a Navy wife, moving every two years, with tours in the post-war France, Hawaii, Japan, and both coasts of the USA. After the birth of her sixth child in 1953, she trained as an elementary school teacher, first and second grade, a career which she continued as a widow until her remarriage to Captain Miller. In 1990 she was awarded an Honorary Degree [as Doctor of Humane Letters] from the College of Idaho for her lifelong dedication to education.

After the turbulent decades spent educating and launching their nine children, Mary and Edward had a long, happy retirement, traveling world-wide, hiking the Appalachian trail in long segments, making it to every graduation and wedding, with frequent visits to Europe to see their second daughter who has entered a contemplative covenant in France.

Mary, who once said she lived with a volcano inside, was beautiful, tempestuous, and as brilliant as her accomplished brothers. Her intellectual thirst was the source of her voracious, disciplined reading, a passion for learning transmitted to all her children. The margins of her many books were annotated with her copious vocabulary notes and comments. Mary was known for her forceful convictions and her fierce support of those she loved when they were in danger, fearless in any catastrophe, willing to take charge, she was a person you could count on for help. From childhood on, she also developed a deep Christian faith in God's love. She never fell asleep without entrusting in His care a long list of names, especially those of her extended family and of single women in need.

In her mid-80s, she assessed the complaints of those aging around her and concluded that being nice was the best strategy for aging. She took that as a vow, respecting the constraints of niceness. She accepted the need for care graciously, outlived any painful memories of family dramas, both forgiving and forgiven, so that only love and admiration remained at the time of her death.

Mary is survived by her youngest brother C. Lloyd Thomas, of Wheaton, Illinois. She is also survived by her Suhre children: Ann Myers Bobigian, Francis Barton Suhre, David Thomas Suhre, John Andrew Suhre, Mary Cecile Suhre, and Robert Louis Suhre, and her Miller step-sons, David Edward Miller and Craig Lewis Miller. From her blended family, she is survived by 12 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by both her husbands and her step-son Richard William Miller, by her parents and her siblings, Louis B. Thomas MD, Elmer Thomas PhD, Music and Choral Conducting, Weldon L. Thomas MD, and sister Lorraine Thomas Hosac. One brother with cerebral palsy, Eugene C. Thomas, died in his teens after the family relocated to Idaho, an enduring tragedy for her family.

Her ashes will be interred at the US Naval Academy columbarium with those of her late husband Captain Edward G. Miller. Her first husband, Commander Francis J. Suhre, is memorialized at the adjacent Naval Academy memorial dedicated to those whose resting place remains known only to God. In Lieu of flowers, please make donations in her name to your local library. A memorial service will be held at a later date.