Olga M. Biehler

Born October 6, 1924 in San Antonio, Olga was the oldest of four children born to her parents, Zaida and Fred Miller. An avid student, Olga loved music, played piano and excelled in school. (She graduated from high school at age 16.) Olga always told her sister Pearl that she wanted to be a college president when she grew up.

But fate led her down another path. After high school, she went to business school, subsequently went to work in a department store, and soon after the FBI. When she abruptly resigned a few months after she got the job with the FBI, she told her agent/boss that she needed to pursue her vocation first. At the time, he telegramed J. Edgar Hoover to report that “Ms. Miller had left civilian employ.” She became a postulant in the Order of Sisters of the Divine Providence. It only took nine months to realize she was meant to have a family. When she returned to the FBI to reclaim her position, the same agent sent another telegram to J. Edgar that read simply, “Ms. Miller has rejoined the civilian world.” This time the FBI sent her to Washington, DC. It was the end of World War II, when the Cold War was just beginning and the Red Scare motivated Presidents Truman and Eisenhower to create Loyalty Boards to help Senator McCarthy investigate potential spies in the government. Olga often talked about those days, when she lived in a boarding house and spent most of her days transcribing the interviews with government workers. In her leisure time, she danced at the USO. For years after her time there, Olga attended annual FBI reunions, well into her 80s.

When Olga returned to San Antonio, she called up an old family friend—Paul William Biehler—and, as he used to say, “I almost dropped the phone when I heard her voice!” (Olga had written Paul a Dear John letter when he was in the service.)

Olga and Paul started dating again, and soon married. They had nine children and moved frequently with Paul’s job. When she wasn’t raising kids, Olga took part-time secretarial work. While living in Dallas, Olga was private secretary to the actress Dorothy Malone. Eventually, the couple settled in San Antonio and later, moved to Austin.

In Austin, Olga was a successful real estate agent, in part because she “never met a stranger.” Her curiosity about people’s stories, and her compassion for them, endeared her to them. She loved to play bridge, to gamble and, most of all, spend time with her family.

With 51 years of marriage and all those children between them, her husband Paul passed away at 79. In her 80s, Olga moved to Dallas to spend a few years near her sister, and then to Golden, Colorado to be near three of her daughters. She even fell in love for the second time, with a widower who shared her love of opera, afternoon cocktails and strong family. He was her companion and best friend until his death at age 90.

Olga’s own decline began after her 90th birthday a year later, so she made one last move, back home to Texas. She ended her days at a private home in Georgetown, watched over by two loving care givers.

We will miss her generous spirit, her “Every day is Christmas” attitude, and her “storm” novenas in times of need. It must be an unwritten truth that the mother, who prays always for her children can keep them out of harm, because all are living good and decent lives in their 50s and 60s today. She is survived by her two siblings—Fred Miller and Pearl Larcade, both of Houston—as well as her nine children, their spouses, eight grandchildren, one grandson’s wife, and one great grandchild. May she continue to keep up her “prayer protection” looking down on us from greater heights.

Services will be held at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Austin, beginning with a Rosary at 4pm, followed by a funeral service absent Mass at 5pm. Interment will take place the next morning at 9:45am, where Olga joins her beloved husband Paul at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery.