Michala Marie "Mickey" (Cloonan) Miller
Marriages
Al Miller - 1958
Burial Details
Obituaries
Steamboat Today - August 11, 2012
Longtime Steamboat Springs resident Mickey Miller entered eternal life Aug. 6, 2012, in Tulsa, Okla. Michala (pronounced mike-yuh-luh) Marie Cloonan was born May 5, 1933, in Denver and grew up in North Park, where her father was superintendent of the fluorspar mine. Mickey graduated from Loretto Heights College in Denver with a major in education and a minor in music. She taught elementary school, and in 1958 she married Al Miller, who she met years earlier when he was working as a ranch hand in Walden.
After Al graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in geology, the two began their “gypsy years” living in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona and New Mexico. In 1968, with two kids and a third on the way, the couple decided to settle down in the mountains of the state they both loved dearly, in the town of Steamboat Springs.
Mickey was devoted to her children while still teaching, this time catechism, piano lessons and 4-H cooking. In 1984, she began a new career as bailiff, a role that suited her well even though she was far from fitting the position’s stereotype.
After retiring in 1997, Mickey became devoted to a longtime passion: writing. Her book “The View from the Folding Chairs” about her childhood during World War II in North Park, was published in 2001. She continued writing, with multiple manuscripts in the works and a recent submission, the story of her mother’s china doll throughout three generations.
Mickey sustained her cheerful attitude despite rheumatoid arthritis that struck when she was only 6; lymphoma that developed not too long after her husband, Al, died in 2008; and even through what finally claimed her life — seven years of progressive neuropathy in the neck and chest area for which even the Mayo Clinic had no diagnosis.
In April of this year, she moved into Saint Simeon’s skilled nursing center in Tulsa, near her daughter, hoping that humidity and lower elevation would help with healing. She missed her home and family as well as her huge circles of friends and activities, including the Steamboat Writers Group, Elk River Estates Book Club, Holy Name parish council and Lectio Divina gospel reflection group.
Mickey leaves behind her only sibling, sister Margaret Cloonan; children Cathy, Mike and Chris; son-in-law Kevin Clough; daughter-in-law Kristen Sundberg Miller; and five grandchildren, Devon, Paige, Kent and Cole Miller and Sean Clough.
A service is at 11 a.m. Aug. 13, 2012, at Holy Name Catholic Church.
