Larry Merl Miles

Larry Merl Miles was born November 22, 1943, in Topeka, Kansas to Merl E. and Fern Adele (Wilder) Miles. Grandson to William Wesley "Wes" and Dorsie Oral Osborn Miles and Baxter Newton and Alice Faye (Worthington) Wilder. He grew up in North Topeka, moving with his parents to near Meriden when he was 20. He was confirmed in Pleasant Hill Methodist Church in 1958, where he held membership until his death. For decades he was the one who had held membership the longest. He graduated from the eighth grade at North Fairview in a one-room schoolhouse-yes, the kind where all eight grades were taught in one room by one teacher. He graduated from Seaman High School in 1962 in a class of about 75. He attended Kansas State University for a year. That was an even bigger adjustment than the move from the one-room schoolhouse to high school had been. In March 1964 he enlisted in the Kansas Army National Guard in an aviation group.

In late summer 1965 the wife of a high school classmate set Larry up on a blind date with Ann Elizabeth Pitsenberger. She was the love of his life. They were married March 11, 1967, and started out in an apartment in Meriden. He was in D Company, 169th Support Battalion-Aviation Platoon, 69th Infantry Brigade, which was mobilized in 1968. Ann followed him to Fort Carson, Colorado, Fort Eustis, Virginia, and to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for a short time before he was sent to Korea with a Chinook unit after the USS Pueblo incident. He would have preferred to go to Vietnam where he could "do some good." He made his request, it was granted, but after a week his orders were changed back to the Chinook company where he was deployed to Korea.

In January 1970 they went back to Kansas and bought the ranch where they raised their family, raised shorthorn beef cattle, and lived the rest of their lives. Ann and Larry had two kids, Laura Ann in 1970 and Larry Merl Junior in 1972. In 1979 they built a berm home of their own design on the ranch. They were active in their kids' lives, their parents' lives, the church, the MS150 bike ride, and other organizations. They were beekeepers. They competed in chili competitions, each of them winning several, including Pleasant Hill United Methodist Chili cook-offs.

He not only enlisted in but also worked full-time for the Kansas Army National Guard. He trained as an aviation mechanic and went on to become a Flight Engineer on CH 37 and CH 54 helicopters with the 137th Transportation Company. The unit changed to the 108th Aviation Regiment where he served as Quality Control Supervisor and First Sergeant of Companies D and C. Following that he served in Kansas State Headquarters in the Aviation Section. He retired from the Guard on November 22, 2003, his 60th birthday. In his younger days he could do pushups and clap and could do pushups with the kids on his back, but a shoulder injury that kept his left shoulder dislocated for over a week ended that.

Ann had surgery in 2012 followed by numerous complications. He visited her in the hospital every day, sometimes twice a day, because "that's what you do." She passed away on December 15, 2012. He said, "When you lose someone like that, after 45 years, who lifts you up physically, emotionally, spiritually, it leaves a hole and a lot of memories."

In 2009 they started the tradition at the Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church of decorating the Methodist Home section of Mount Hope Cemetery every May. Larry continued the tradition after Ann died, putting out the flowers before Memorial Day with the help of friends from church, picking them up a week later, and replacing any that were bedraggled.

Larry did not like to talk on the telephone, preferring to drive a few miles to talk face-to-face. He loved to tease, and he had a wonderful sense of humor. Will Larry Merl and Josef ever forget the regular fish nights at the house-where conversation was laced with fish puns?! He had several sayings including: "I can't do a darn thing about it, but I'm a fairly good listener" and, the one that drove Ann crazy, "It is what it is." About farmers and ranchers, he said, "we buy retail, sell wholesale, and pay shipping both ways."

He was a gentleman in the best sense of the word. He lived by the code that if you open it, close it, if you make a mess, clean it up, if you borrow it, return it, if you broke it, replace it; show respect; do what needs done; practice moderation; and strive to be the best version of yourself.

He liked dark chocolate, sometimes with almonds or hazelnuts, Reece"s peanut butter cups, Diet Pepsi, Arizona diet green tea with ginseng, several roasts of coffee including Kenya AA, Sumatran, and Ethiopian, homemade cookies with English walnuts and Hershey's kisses, pecan or apple pie with cinnamon ice cream, the pie the family just called "that dessert", chocolate-dipped frozen key lime pie, chocolate ice cream, black walnut ice cream, lemon sorbet, beef, bacon, ham, cheese, jerky, tabasco sauce, jalapenos, chili, Ann's potato soup, ham and beans, honey including comb honey, Fuentes cigars, Westerns, crime shows, instrumental music, and manual transmissions. His favorite color was purple. He did not want any salad stuff like lettuce or tomatoes on his hamburgers and sandwiches, he preferred pickles and jalapeños, stating, "those are fruit!" He preferred .357 magnum or .41 magnum to 9mm, saying that, in his opinion, 9mm was "under powered and overrated, but they make up in quantity what they lack in quality." His favorite dog breed was the Great Pyrenees - he liked having a dog he did not have to bend over to pet. He enjoyed spending time with his family. He liked driving back roads, enjoying the journey not just the destination. He enjoyed concerts including, in recent years, Floyd Cramer, Andy McKee, Mannheim Steamroller, and the summer band concerts in Garfield Park. He enjoyed live theater at Topeka Civic Theater. He enjoyed watching professional bull riding and had attended the New Year's Eve event several times. He fed his "little welfare recipients": hummingbirds, finches, cardinals, flickers, etc., and enjoyed watching them. He sat on the porch most evenings with a cigar and cup of coffee, or occasionally a glass of Jack Daniels, and pondered on the wonders that God had created.

His first new vehicle was a 1966 dark blue Chevelle Super Sport, with a 396, AM radio, no air conditioning. "It was a car, period, but it did go down the road well." (Said with a wide grin on the second half of the sentence.) His last new vehicle was a 2016 cyber gray metallic GMC Canyon.

He was generous with his time, willing to help whenever asked, a good neighbor, and a good friend. He didn't like to be photographed. He petted his bulls and his newborn calves. He said the trick to getting cattle to go where he wanted was to make them think it was their idea. He claimed he could only converse on two things, "cattle and farm machinery" – and while he was well-versed in those things, he knew so much more than that. He had read the Bible multiple times (though he said he wished he knew as much about the Bible as son and grandsons knew about Star Wars.) He kept up on politics and current events. He was well-versed in firearms. He had read a lot of books and had some on-hand he looked forward to reading. He repaired night-vision goggles for a number of years. He could drive and work on a wide variety of vehicles, including any type of farm machinery. He rode motorcycles for years. He could pilot a plane, though a transfer to a different base permanently interrupted his flight training. He could repair several types of helicopters. He had once gone 140 mph in a Ford – backwards! No, he wasn't driving backwards at 140 mph, the Ford was loaded in an aircraft.

Larry was preceded in death by his grandparents, his parents, and his wife, Ann.

Left to cherish his memory are his daughter Laura (Steve) Hibberts, his son Larry Merl Miles, Jr,

grandsons Ornsen Hibberts, Olsen Hibberts, and Josef Miles, cousins, and many friends.

Cremation has taken place.  A memorial service will be held at 10:30 AM Saturday, January 20, 2024, at Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church, 4525 NW Button Road, Topeka, KS.