Newsmakers - As seen by Herb Hake
Cartoon # 4 Published 8-31-1976
Vera Miller

The “Meals on Wheels” program delivers one hot meal per day to 25 or 30 people in Cedar Falls on five days per week. Volunteers from 16 churches in the city take turns in delivering the meals. The food is prepared at the Western Home. Subscribers pay a nominal sum for the service. Since 1969, “Meals on Wheels” has been coordinated by Vera Miller, a newsmaker whose name seldom appears in print.
Vera Hood grew up on a farm near Independence. After attending the University of Iowa, she came home to meet and marry Earl A. Miller, a teacher in the Independence High School. He obtained his Master’s degree from S.U.I. and the couple moved to greener academic pastures in Dubuque and Minneapolis. But Earl was drawn to the farm, near Hudson, which had been in his family since 1868. He took over the management of the farm in 1935.
In 1949, he was elected to the Iowa General Assembly. He served four terms in the House, three of them as Chairman of the Education Committee. Earl was a good friend of UNI and was one of the founders of the UNI Foundation. He died in 1968.

Vera Miller was an active Four-H Club Leader during her residence on the farm. In more recent years, she has been a member of the AAUW Board, the Sartori Hospital Board, the Woman’s Club Board, and the Board of the Cedar Falls Historical Society. Vera is an energetic supporter of the Travel and Adventure Series at the Woman’s Club, and of the Goodwill Auxiliary. She is a member of the Nineteenth Century Club, PEO, and the First Presbyterian Church.
Daughter Marianne, now Mrs. John Leschensky, lives in Waukon. Son John is the fourth generation of the Miller family to live in the house built by his great grandfather. In October of 1975, John and his wife, Mary, were interviewed by Barbara Walters when the TODAY show originated on the Centennial Farm.