Frances T. Miller

Frances Teresa Miller, nee Tramontana, was born in August, 1943, in Alameda, CA, and she died February 5, 2021, peacefully at home surrounded by her loving family after a courageous battle with cancer.
She grew up in Alameda, attending St. Joseph's Elementary School and later Notre Dame High School and dearly loved the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She had many friends among children in her school and neighborhood and a large loving family with many aunts and uncles.
She graduated Providence College of Nursing and she spoke very fondly of her time working with young unwed mothers at Booth Memorial as well as her years at Herrick Hospital in Berkeley where she developed lifelong relationships with some of her dearest friends. Both of her children became RN's, following in their mother's footsteps.
While in nursing school, she met the love of her life, Randy Miller, from Jamestown, N.Y. Her mother, father, grandparents, aunts and uncles had all originated from Jamestown as well and had moved to the San Francisco Bay Area during WWII. After Fran and Randy wed, they spent a year and a half in Germany where Randy was stationed as a US Army Russian interpreter. It was here that the couple's daughter Teresa was born, and after they returned to California, the couple settled in Alameda and the family grew with son Paul. Family was everything to Fran. While growing up, she spent a great deal of her time with her grandparents Grace and Sam, parents Rose and Joseph, and Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill. Fran and Randy took good care of her family members as they grew older.
Fran and Randy liked to travel, both with Randy's parents, Paul and Edith, also of Jamestown and Lakewood, and with friends as well. They loved New Orleans as a special place.
They treasured the steamboat trips they enjoyed together. They became very active square dancers and campers and spent many weekends trailer-camping in the local Northern California area to attend 3-day dances. Fran joined the Ligure and Colombo Clubs with daughter Teresa to celebrate and embrace her Italian heritage.
Fran went back to school later and completed a Bachelor of Health Sciences. She continued to work at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley as a psychiatric nurse until 2010. After retirement she and Randy continued a very active square dance schedule and learned to line dance as well, making many new friends along the way.
Fran was the most beautiful and colorful person and the very best of cooks, with a great fondness for cookbooks of which she had a wonderful collection. She was also the very best of listeners, with a kind and compassionate ear. Fran was also a seamstress of the highest caliber, whatever her project of the moment: school uniforms, senior prom dresses or dance club costumes - she was capable of sewing anything.
She is survived by her husband Randy, son Paul and his wife Teresa Elaine and son Charlie, daughter Teresa Marie and her partner Bruce and their sons Aaron (Kate) and Noah (Hannah), friend Bende and many others who will miss her dearly every day but who had the good fortune to be loved by her. The Miller family would like to thank everyone for their support during Fran's two years of treatments in Santa Monica. She was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, Oakland, CA, near her mom and dad, aunt, uncle and grandparents.
We family members count ourselves as the luckiest people to have closely shared her life through good times and difficult ones, most of us for over half a century. She was an exceptionally kind and loving person who enriched our lives just by being with us. We will carry on without her, but with her spirit hovering over us to help keep us the kind of people she would like us to be, and with the hope and faith that we will be with her again someday in a better place.
 

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