Savvy Senior: Peeper Miller stays happy through life's many turns
NumaDale (III) Peeper Knaggs Cooper Miller is resilient, if not amazing. The third person in the family, after her mother and grandmother to be named NumaDale, took on a new persona the day of her birth when her father first held her and said, “This is my little Peeper.” The name stuck and has been her identity right through her 80th birthday this year.
Peeper Miller, recognized by all behind the huge blonde hair that is her signature, was born in Akron, raised in the Portage Lakes area, and attended Coventry High School. She was musically talented and began performing throughout the area when she was 12.
In high school she was in any bands and choirs she could manage in her schedule, singing and directing a choir at Lakeview Church of Christ. Life took its first odd turn when she was 13. Peeper met and fell in love with her youth minister, Jay Cooper, who was 23. They married after her graduation and left Akron.
Their first new home was in Cleveland where son, Jeffrey, was born. The next stop was Grayson, Kentucky.
“Our Kentucky belle, Robin, was born there,” Peeper said.
After four years, the family moved to New Philadelphia where Jay became pastor of the First Christian Church and Peeper took a job as secretary of New Philadelphia schools. She served as the church music director, working with four choirs for 24 years, and for the schools for 40 years.
“The whole family was musically inclined,” Peeper said. “Jay was accomplished. We sang and he accompanied all over Tuscarawas County. Jeffrey directed 11 shows during his four years at Heidelberg College, and we all participated in The Little Theatre of Tuscarawas County.”
Now the resiliency starts. While living in Kentucky, Jay was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease, a condition that encourages the rapid growths of cysts on major organs of the body. During the next 10 years of his 24-year pastorate, he was on dialysis and received a kidney transplant. He died in 1988.
Peeper recalls the doctor telling her not to have any more children. The further sadness of the disease is that it is inherited and was passed on to both Jeffrey and Robin, Both received transplants, but Jeffrey died in 2014, and Robin, who lives in Caldwell, is battling an aneurysm.
Yet all this has served to build a strong woman with a strong faith. With both children married and out of the house, Peeper sold the house, and on the night before she moved, had her first date with her second husband-to-be, Sam Miller. Miller was a teacher and football coach at the high school. They were married 24 years, until he died in 2015.
You know Peeper now, for the last 19 years, still behind the hair, working at Geib Funeral Home.
“I don’t think I have any plans for retirement other than spending more time with my family,” she said. “I love what I do. What would I do? Sit at home in a rocking chair? I guess they will just have to shovel me out the door.”
(Editor's note: If you know of a senior who is unique and deserves a story, please e-mail Lee Elliott at leeadirects@roadrunner.com. Please include contact information so she can share their story with our readers.)
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Savvy Senior: Peeper Miller stays happy through life's many turns
