Irene D. Miller, 85, of Minot, passed away on October 13, 2014 from the effects of vascular Dementia in a Granville adult care facility.

Irene was born on December 1, 1928, in Harvey ND, the daughter of Jens Hystad and Freda (Lansrud) Hystad. Her father was a switchman on the Great Northern, and they lived in Heimdal, Ray, and Surrey, ND, where she graduated from Surrey High in 1946. She attended the Business College in Minot for a year. One of her first jobs was waiting tables at the cafeteria at Ellison's in downtown Minot, where she lived after The Fair was converted to condos in 1989. She also worked in the office at Sears when it was downtown.

In 1947, she met and married Kenneth E. Miller in Surrey. They had one daughter. Ken took over the running of Miller Sheet Metal, which had been started by his father. Ken and Irene devoted their lives to running the business successfully until Ken's health forced their retirement in 1988. Irene was the Secretary Treasurer and handled the money.

The two of them shared many hobbies. From its beginning, they were very active in Nodak Race Club. They were car owners and officers on the Board of Directors, and Irene handled much of the club bookkeeping, counted laps, and wrote up the results of the races to deliver to the media after race day. Irene was the first, and perhaps still the only woman, elected to the Nodak Race Club Hall of Fame, along with Ken. Irene was also active in Zonta, the American Legion Auxiliary, and the Moose Auxiliary.

After passing the weekly race club business to new hands, they became active with the Norsk Hostfest. Since Irene was half Norwegian and half Swedish, she loved the week of activities, and for many years, she worked a couple days a week in the Hostfest offices, answering the phone and helping with clerical work. She handled most of the registrations for the RVers until the computers took over, and was one of the managers of RV Hospitality. She also volunteered for over 12000 hours at Trinity Hospital.

She loved traveling in their RV with their dog(s) and spending the winters in Las Vegas and summer fishing trips to Lake Sakakawea. Ken did the fishing while Irene relaxed in the air conditioned RV and watched TV. She never was the outdoors type. She was instrumental in getting the Family Motor Coach Association to hold rallies in Minot and received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Minot CVB for this.

Irene enjoyed crafts. But most of all, she loved to knit. Her Swedish grandmother taught her as a child. For many years, she taught knitting to the kids from Jefferson School both boys and girls. She made many sweaters for her daughter and countless baby sweaters for friends and to donate to Trinity Hospital gift shop. Her hands were never still and she was famous as "the mitten lady." She started 60 years ago making mittens for the Salvation Army's annual "mitten tree." Soon she was making so many that she would deliver a box of them for their annual coat giveaway. By the time her dementia took away her knitting ability, she had made 8060 pairs in 58 years. She received the Exchange Club's Golden Deeds Award in 1969 and the Salvation Army Thirty Years of Service Award in 1984 for all those mittens.

Irene is survived by her daughter, Connie Miller of Minnetonka, MN, who was happy to be able to return to Minot to help until her condition required continual care; and numerous nieces and nephews and cousins in the US and Norway.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth; her parents; her brother and his wife, Gordon and Karen Hystad; and an infant sister, Hope.

Booksigning: Sunday, October 19, 2014 from noon until 4:00 p.m. in Thomas Family Funeral Home, Minot.
Memorials are preferred to her favorite charities: Souris Valley Animal Shelter, Salvation Army, and Second Story, all of Minot.