Duane A. Miller

DUANE A. MILLER

Blairstown

Duane A. Miller, 67, died Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015, at Hallmark Care Center in Mount Vernon following an extended illness. Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at St. John Catholic Church,

Blairstown, with Father Craig Steimel as celebrant. Interment will be in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Blairstown. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at Phillips Funeral Home, Blairstown, with a Knights of Columbus rosary recited at 6:30 p.m.

A memorial fund has been established for the Knights of Columbus Association and Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration.

Online condolences may be left at www.phillipsfuneralhomes.com.

Duane was born Feb. 8, 1948, to Maurice and Alvena (Kubec) Miller in Cedar Rapids. He graduated from Blairstown High School with the class of 1966. Duane was united in marriage to Julie Peiffer on May 11, 1968, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Van Horne.

Duane owned and operated Smokey's Pizza and also worked for MeToo, Meyer's Feed and MoorMan's Feed before 1972. In 1972, he began his career as an over-the-road trucker, driving a semi-truck for Umthun Trucking, Decker Trucking, Food-liner and Benton Grain. He retired in 2012. During his trucking career, Duane was a "trucker buddy." He would write letters to an elementary class in Missouri to let them know where he had traveled. Often the class would write back to him – this program brought Duane joy during the many years he participated in it.

Duane was a very active member of St. John Catholic Church in Blairstown, serving on the church council and as a Eucharistic minister. He also was a Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus. In the 1970s, Duane also was a member of the Blairstown Fire Department.

Survivors include his wife, Julie of Blairstown; two sons and seven grandchildren: Brad (Molly) Miller, and their children, Mackenzie, Madison and Mason Miller and Jarod, Katy and Jackson Clevenger, all of North Liberty; and Chad (Carisa) Miller, and their son, Aidan, all of Van Horne; two sisters, Doreen (Kevin) Brower of Cedar Rapids and Donna (Randy) Heitman of Williamsburg; his brother-in-law, Jim Miller of Vail, Iowa; four sisters-in-law, Joyce St. John of Cedar Rapids, Marilyn (Charlie) Sieren of Keota, Linda (Jack) Mather of Cedar Rapids and Elizabeth "Liz" (Dean) Papesh of Hartwick; and many nieces and nephews.

Duane was preceded in death by his parents; his sister, Denise; his brother-in-law, Jim St. John; and his mother- and father-in-law, Evelyn Sieren and Wilfrid Peiffer.