Don Dean Miller, age 68, has gone off on his last fishing trip, taking off early during the evening of January 2nd, 2026, while under the awesome care of the Hospice staff at the Memorial Sturgis Hospital in Sturgis, SD, with his immediate siblings and wife saying farewell at his bedside.

The “Celebration of Life” at the Vale Community Church, on May 16, 2026, is a final goodbye from family and friends. Don’s favorite meal, a turkey, with all the trimmings, was planned in his honor. A graveside service is scheduled for next month. His cremains will join his deceased parents and younger brother in the Riverside Cemetery in Pierre, SD. He will reside there above his youngest brother Robert.

Donald Dean Miller was the third child born to Rosemarie “Rose” Kreitel and Laurence Eugene “Gene” Miller, on March 5, 1957, in Helena, MT. He and his fraternal twin brother (that means they were NOT identical, by the way) brother Daniel Gene Miller were taken three weeks early via C-section. Don weighed 5 lbs.14 oz., while Dan weighed 6 lbs. 02 oz. Don individually weighed much more than the single baby born to the mother sharing the hospital room with Rose. Our mother used to joke about how big and heavy her twins were during pregnancy. She had to wear suspenders to help support her growing bellyful of 12 pounds plus of babies and fluids. People were assisting her up and down the stairs when she was only 6 months along; she looked like she was going to give birth immediately! After birth, the nurse told our mother that Don would be out behind the barn chasing the girls, and Dan would be running in to tattle on his brother! She must have been gifted, as that turned out to be a very true prophecy. Don’s mother had 4 tiny children to care for after the twins arrived. His older sister Pat was only 2 years old, followed by his second sister Deanne who was one year old. Rose made use of the older sister during diaper changes, having her bring cloth diapers to her and taking away soiled diapers to put into the bucket to soak before washing. His sister stated that she not only took care of her baby brother as a newborn, but she also did the same for him for years prior to his death. Fortunately, she could simply toss those nasty diapers into the trash by this time!

The twins attended elementary and junior high schools in Helena, MT, riding the bus into the city daily from the valley outside the city. One year there were no buses running for an entire week due to winter storms, so the kids played a lot making snowmen and snow forts. A legitimate skip week while the city students still had to attend! The family constantly had to chuckle at the twins’ teachers as they constantly claimed they couldn’t tell the boys apart! To solve that problem, staff placed the twins in different classrooms. Hey...they are NOT identical! LOL.

One of Don’s earlier jobs while in grade school was working at the chicken farm behind our home. He helped feed chickens, gather eggs, wash buckets full of eggs, and candling them for sale. One of the annual jobs included hauling aged chickens out of their coops to a waiting semi in the middle of the night. Don and his brothers and sisters got paid a total of a penny per hen that they hauled! Our arms felt like they were falling off by the end of the wee hours of the night. It was hard work at times! There was a treat at the end of the haul, however; the kids were taken to breakfast at a local establishment. One of the things Don and his fellow siblings enjoyed doing was opening the feed bins and swiftly grabbing handfuls of mice, then tossing them out into the chicken barn floor. The chickens LOVED them! Talk about a skirmish to kill and eat the mice, whew! They also tried to give mice to the cats, but they were too full to eat them and simply played with them.

Don’s father, after going through years of burn treatments in hospitals following a plumbing accident in 1966, obtained a job with the SD State Transportation Department as a computer programmer in Pierre, SD. Thus, the family moved to a new state, where Don continued his education in the Pierre school system, graduating in May of 1975, from T.F. Riggs High School. He claimed he never read a book, and his family believed it...he was barely able to graduate since he wasn’t a fan of schooling. Don and the crew learned to fish as children. Their father initially took them to catch salmon with lures. They loved it. Don and Tracy continued enjoying the sport after marriage. In fact, his mini coffin has a fishing scene on it. Don picked out his own cremains coffin from several choices that his siblings found online. A fitting remembrance.

During his teen years, Don spent summers working on relatives’ ranches (the Kreitels and the McCamishes) south of Ekalaka, MT, where they raised cattle and sheep. He helped with herding, feeding, and haying. Don worked numerous jobs during his early adult years, from sheetrock and painting work in the Pierre State Capitol during their building remodeling program, to garbage hauling. He eventually joined his twin brother in California, working maintenance (mainly painting jobs) in an apartment complex. The twins eventually completed truck driving courses from a trucking company out of North Dakota and began hauling over-the-road loads all over the US and Canada. One famous load was a batch of bees. Every time Don stopped at inspection sites, the staff would simply wave him through. Finally at one stop in North Dakota, the inspector stated that he couldn’t believe no one inspected their load. “Who wants to inspect a load of angry bees?” Don asked. That inspector said HE would. He marched inside, looked through a window, and stated "looks okay to me"! He signed the paperwork and sent Don on his way.

He fathered two daughters in two different relationships before meeting his current wife. Grandson Logan Moe lives with his mother Rae Lynn Moe in Mitchell, SD, and Elizabeth Shisler currently lives in Virginia with his granddaughter Zariah. Don met his current wife Tracy in west Fargo, ND, during one of his stops while trucking over-the-road. She enjoyed riding with him in his trucking escapees for many years, until they finally settled down in Spearfish, SD. His wife used to dream about going OTR in a semi across the U.S. and she stated that Don made their dreams come true. He then started working with local trucking companies, the last one being Straight Forward Services (Rapid City), which he greatly enjoyed doing. He hauled a lot of road construction materials at numerous sites in WY and SD for them. The couple finally got married on May 2, 1996, in Spearfish, after 7 years together. At age 39, Don was an extremely nervous bridegroom! His sister teased him, “Why get married now, when you have met the requirements of common law marriage?” This past weekend would have been 30 years of marriage for the couple.

Don had the pleasure of attending his 50th class reunion this past summer in June of 2025 in Pierre. He had to wheel around in a wheelchair by then, however, since he was now legless. He had a 400 lb. motorized wheelchair which he enjoyed running around in. He would zip around in circles in his Vale home, tooting his little horn every time he saw a family member indoors! Their van had a lift that helped transport his heavy wheelchair. That way he enjoyed eating out with his immediate family. His favorite restaurants were Golden Corral, the Jade Chinese restaurant, and Perkins. (The theme here, obviously, was mainly buffets, all you could eat!)

He had been a heavy smoker for 52 years. He began when he was 10 years old, sneaking smokes from his father’s packs. The habit began due to peer pressure, which was sure to please the cigarette companies. He should have quit smoking 20 years ago when the doctors insisted on it, but he didn’t want to. “It was the only vice I had,” Don explained. “Well, guess what,” his sister, replied, “those were the only legs you had.” Don chuckled at this, accepting the fact that it was his fault for his health issues, even though he protested “but I was just the sucker behind the cigarette!” Don maintained a hearty sense of humor during the last decade of his life, throughout dozens and dozens of surgeries. He teased nurses at numerous appointments. He loved to startle them, when they were preparing to touch him for a procedure, such as a blood draw, he would suddenly shout “ow, ow, OW!!! They would jerk back, asking what was hurting, and he nonchalantly grinned, replying, “nothing, just practicing...” LOL. He eventually developed Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) because of his past bad habit. This disease slowly erodes arteries and veins in the body. Don had numerous surgeries to replace such arteries and veins, first beginning in his legs, then all the way up to his aortobifemoral vein in his chest. Tissues began painfully dying in his legs several years ago due to his PAD, resulting in the loss of his legs mid-thigh. Tracy teased him, stating Don was only half the man he used to be. He thought that was humorous and used it himself. Sadly, there was no way to stop this deterioration of the veins and arteries. His main arteries in his chest finally burst from the artery deterioration this past January, causing his death just months before his 69th birthday.

Don is survived by: His spouse: Tracy Rose Ekstrom Miller (Vale, SD); two daughters: Rae Lyn Moe (Mitchell, SD); Elizabeth Shisler (Newport News, VA) two grandchildren, Landon Moe (Mitchell, SD); Zariah Shisler (Newport News, VA) two sisters: Patricia Lee Miller (Vale, SD) and Deanne Marie Miller Rydland (Pierre, SD); one younger (by only a minute!) twin brother Daniel Gene Miller (Whitewood, SD); and four nephews and five nieces across five states. Preceded in death were Don’s parents (Pierre, SD); his youngest brother Robert Dale Miller (Pierre, SD); his oldest brother Samuel Allen Miller (Butte, MT); and his eldest sister Pamela Alyce Miller Tokach (Mandan, ND).

Condolences may sent to the family at www.kinkadefunerals.com