Francis Joe Miller

Joe Miller (1945 - 2022)
   Francis Joseph Miller (“Joe”), 77, of Eastpointe, passed away peacefully at home in his sleep, holding the hand of his beloved wife, Susan Miller of 53 years, on Saturday, November 12, 2022. Joe Miller was born in 1945 to Francis Joseph Miller and his wife Marjorie Maxine Miller in Detroit, where his boyhood home later made way for I94. 

   Joe Miller will be remembered for many things: his determination and strength of body and spirit, 200 situps nightly until recently, his compulsion to work hard and improve the lives of his loved ones whenever he could, his love for the Polish cooking and homemade meals of his wife, daughter, and granddaughter, and his devotion to the sport of softball, as a tremendous player and fierce competitor for many teams at Rotunda, Softball City, Memorial Park in Eastpointe and Barrymore’s, including UAW Local 600, Danbar, Lockies, The Huddle, O’Haras, and many more. If pancreatic cancer was a softball team, Joe might have beaten it. 

      His four grandchildren recall highlights from two decades of baseball mentoring and coaching that include hundreds of trips to the batting cages, more Coney Islands than can be counted, two trips to Cooperstown and the occasional word or two not found in the Bible. As a young man, Joe played in a hockey league at the Olympia. He was a lifelong Red Wings fan and displayed eternal optimism by often wearing a Detroit Lions sweatshirt. Joe was an expert at finding the shortest lines in Disney World for rides and buffets, who was often carrying a grandchild or the family cooler full of water bottles. An avid backyard gardener, Joe provided his family with fresh vegetables almost year round, including corn every August vigilantly well-enmeshed from birds and squirrels, yielding 200+ ears.

Joe worked for Ford Motor Company for 30 years as a member of the United Auto Workers Union, spending the majority of his years on the night shift at the Rouge stamping plant, to and from which he drove a Thunderbird, and almost as many years in retirement. There was nothing Joe could not fix, no tool he did not have handy, and he excelled at fixing plumbing issues and repairing family cars in his driveway, which was posted for Ford Parking Only.

   Joe Miller leaves behind his loving wife, Susan Miller, his daughter, Maryanne (Todd) Schmitz, his grandchildren, Thomas (Prakhya) Schmitz, Maggie (Kevin) McCabe, John Schmitz, and Joseph Schmitz.

   Visitation for Joe Miller will be held on Monday, November 14, 2022 at Bagnasco & Calcatera Funeral Home in St. Clair Shores, MI, from 2:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. with a 7:30 P.M. Rosary with help from parishioners of St. Basil the Great.  The funeral will be on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at St. Veronica’s Church, in Eastpointe where he will lie in state at 9:30 A.M., until the 10 a.m. mass. He will be laid to rest at Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton Township. This day will end as Joe’s days frequently did: with family, good friends, good food and love. All knew Joe Miller to be a genuinely nice guy.