Ed Miller came from humble beginnings as a 1950s teenager growing up in the Massey Hill community.
He was good-hearted and soft-spoken with a kind way that would follow him all his life.
“Ed was a good man,” the Rev. Ken Earwood reminded us Saturday at a Celebration of Life, where family and friends gathered at the Rogers and Breece Funeral Home chapel to remember a successful businessman, devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend you could depend on in the best and worst of times.
No hour was too late. No reach too far.
The preacher said it all.
Ed Miller was that good man who never forgot where he came from, no matter the success he found as a State Farm Insurance agent, first in 1963 on the second floor of the old Wentz’s grocery store in the Highland Village Shopping Center, and later when he purchased the old Hilton’s Diner across the street until retiring in 2020.
He was born July 2, 1940, in Bladen County, the oldest of two sons to Jerome Albert Miller and Mittie Lenora Swain. He grew up in the Lakedale community of Massey Hill, where his mother worked in the Lakedale cotton mill and at Massey Hill Drugstore along Southern Avenue. His father was a long-haul truck driver.
Ed Miller graduated in 1958 from old Massey Hill High School, where he met the love of his life, Winnie Brunson, when he was 12, and she was 11. They married June 28, 1959, at Victory Methodist Church. They were a young couple who once lived in the two-story apartment house along Forsyth Street, just across the street in what would become his State Farm office.
“They were inseparable,” Earwood said.
Before becoming an insurance agent, he worked as a butcher and later at the old Capitol department store downtown.
A Calm in the Storms
But an insurance career was calling, and Ed Miller saw an opportunity.
He had a gentle and caring way of assurance with clients and customers.
No matter the tornadoes and hurricanes and storms that passed our way or the automobile collisions, you could count on Ed Miller to be there for you. He could put your mind at ease with his calm assurance that tomorrow would be a better day.
Ed Miller was more than an insurance agent.
“He was a man,” Earwood said, “who could do anything.”
He was a general contractor and a real estate broker. He developed the Miller Business Center along Robeson Street, which became a home for restaurants and other retail businesses.
Ed Miller was proud when his daughter, Lynn Kelly, followed in his footsteps in 1993 as owner of her State Farm Insurance agency in Hope Mills.
“I learned from my father that it is not selling insurance, it is helping people make the right decisions,” Kelly said. “It is my job to understand what my customer needs, help them in a respectful way, and make sure they leave feeling taken care of.”
Ed Miller retired in 2020.
He wanted to spend more time with his wife and the grandchildren and great-grandchildren he adored. He enjoyed being with them at his three-story home not far from the Tallywood Shopping Center. How he loved those grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a picture is worth a thousand words if ever a picture could capture a grandfather’s and a great-grandfather’s love.
Ethan Gardner, a State Farm agent since 2013, relocated his franchise from McPherson Church Road to Miller’s office on Raeford Road.
“What I learned most from Ed was the real estate game,” Gardner, 34, said. “He knew everything about real estate. But the biggest thing he taught me was to slow down and be a good neighbor. I grew to love the man. He trusted me.”
And, if you will, I trusted Ed Miller.
He was my mother’s insurance agent from 1963 until her death in 2009 and remained mine until his retirement. When Mama died, Ed Miller and Lynn Kelly were at Highland Presbyterian Church for her funeral. You never forget those who are there for you in your darkest hours. It’s not so much the words of condolence; it’s the presence of those who come to remind you that you are not alone in your grief.
Epilogue
Ed Miller counted his blessings all of his days.
“His faith was steady and great,” Ken Earwood said.
Edwin Jerome Miller died peacefully at his home at 3 a.m. on June 17. He was 85.
“Moments like this are a reminder that life is beautiful and fragile,” the preacher said on this day of farewell to a family patriarch. “I want you to remember the hope Ed carried in the faith he had. God walks with us in times like these. God walked through his rose garden, I think, on the day Ed passed. God saw a beautiful rose that day and plucked it and said, ‘I want that rose for me.’
“His life was one of joy, victories, struggles, and accomplishments. For those who trust in God, death is not the end of the story.
“For those who trust in Christ,” he said, “it’s the beginning of a new season.”
The mantra for State Farm is “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” Ed Miller lived those words of assurance for 57 years. And like a good neighbor, Ed Miller always was there like the bridge over troubled waters when the tornadoes, hurricanes, and storms came our way.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
