Darrell Frederick Miller

Darrell F. Miller, 82, McVille, ND, passed away on September 2, 2025 at CHI St. Alexius Hospital, Devils Lake, ND.

Born in Mankato, MN on June 2, 1943 to parents Lucy (Willette) and Fredrick Miller, Darrell Miller was known to his family and friends as a fisherman, a guy who could fix nearly anything, and an inveterate storyteller.

Darrell grew up on the family farm outside of Mapleton with his four sisters, Moneta, Mary, Francie, and Darlene. In his younger years, he helped his dad raise cattle, keeping the operation going when his dad got his leg caught in the tractor. He joined the Navy right out of high school and went off to see the world on the USS Saratoga, becoming a gunner's mate technician, going from peeling potatoes to learning how to safely handle nuclear ordinance.

A year out of the Navy, Darrell married Janice Hoehn on February 23, 1965 and moved to Mankato, MN. He took a job with Continental Can (later Crown Cork and Seal) and settled down to raising five kids: Mike, Rob, Victoria, Kim, and Fred. He worked as a union machinist moving the family to La Crescent, MN; Racine, WI; and Houston, MN in order to stay with the company. Darrell retired shortly after his wife Janice died at age 50 in 1995.

After spending a few years traveling, fishing, and searching for a cure to his loneliness, Darrell expanded his family by marrying Joyce Toeben (Zens) in 2006. The two of them settled in McVille, ND and spent summers in Wellton, AZ. He loved spending time with grandkids, playing poker, fishing for walleye, hunting deer, and tinkering in the garage.

He was a tenacious man of nine lives, surviving accidents, strokes, heart attacks, and a broken hip. He spent his last months in the nursing home in Devil's Lake swimming against the great tide of dementia, when Covid Pneumonia finally got him.

Darrell was a member of American Legion post 0135 and was a part of the Minnesota Twin Study. He is greatly missed by his wife Joyce; his kids Michael, Robert (Jennifer), Kimberly (Glen Hirshberg), Victoria Phillips (Jonathan), Fredrick (Nikki), Randy Toeben (Sherry), Wayne Toeben (Terry), Jerry Toeben (Katie), David Toeben (Angela); and his sister Darlene Dunsmore (Bill); fifteen grandkids; two great grandkids, and many nieces and nephews. Darrell was preceded in death by his first wife Janice (Hoehn); parents Fredrick and Lucy; and sisters Moneta Juergens Stahn, Mary Freeman, and Frances Wittrock.

Darrell will be interred at Chase Cemetery outside of Mapleton, MN.