Rose Miller
                                                              
Senior Speak, as reported by her daughter, Connie Schuster...Sadly, not too long after this was written, Connie also passed. Our thoughts are with the family!

                                                                                                                           by Kayla Strid

     I was pleased to have the opportunity to interview Connie Schuster so we could all learn a little about our Founder and first Director; Rose Miller.
     Rose grew up in Buffalo, WY and lived in Gillette as a stay-at-home mom with her husband Dorse Miller and 2 children, Connie and Larry. They lived for some time in Gillette, before moving to Powell where they owned the Happy Lodger Motel for 3 years.
     Eventually moving to Cody in the early 1980’s, Rose started the Meals on Wheels program at the Cody Auditorium. Meals on Wheels went out of the Cody Auditorium for several years, but Rose had bigger plans for helping Cody’s Senior Citizens. With the help of her husband, Dorse- Cody Mayor, they applied for several state grants. These grants (along with other funding?) allowed the Cody Senior Center to be built in 1987.
     Rose really liked working with the Meals on Wheels program and learning about what else could be done for the local seniors. With room to grow in the new Cody Senior Center building; congregate meals began one day a week at the center, bringing people together to socialize. The first big bus was purchased by grant money and the Transportation program was born. As time progressed and the demand for transportation to everything from doctor to beauty appointments grew, so did the Center’s transportation department. What we know today as the Thrift Barn originally housed the transportation vehicles before the new bus barn was built.
     Rose was self-taught, and without any college education at all, she learned about social security and anything else that could benefit the local senior citizen. Along with Rose’s assistant director, Janice Wright, they brought programs into the center to educate the local seniors. They offered LIEAP (low-income energy assistance program), AARP tax classes, Women’s Financial Programs and High School student programs. They even founded some of the fun activities that we still enjoy at the Senior Center today! Card games, (she was an avid bridge player!) bingo, Friday entertainment and they began our traditional monthly birthday celebration!
     After 30 years at the Center, Rose managed the Senior Center Thrift Barn for a few years, and yet another second-hand store after that. Following her retirement, she spent a lot of time in Gillette, hanging out with old friends. She then sold her house in Cody, and moved in with Connie. The last month of her life was spent in the Lovell nursing home with Alzheimer’s until she passed peacefully.
     Without this amazing lady, we would not have the Cody Senior Center that so many of us consider our home away from home today.