Daniel Miller and the courtship of Myrtle Stanbro

1/3/10 My grandmother Polly Leah Bainbridge , my mother Cathryn Ann Slone and I Karina Dale Cottrell all sat around talking as we were waiting for Private flight to come in. He had been visiting his wife Private in New Mexico. They are moving there because Iyanzame got a great job working for the military teaching Portuguese.

During the night a few really great stories were told, one of which being how Daniel M. Miller (White Bear) chose and courted his wife.

A very young Daniel was at home and saw some new kids playing in the street outside. He spotted one particular girl, ran to his mother and brought her to the screen door so she could see the girl. He pointed to a girl we now know is Myrtle Miller Stanbro, and declared THAT was the girl he was going to marry. He didn't know her, or her name. He also didn't know she lived in Collinsville, which is just over the mountain from Claremore, where Daniel lived. It could also be over the hill if your coming from Collinsville, but thats a different story.

When he was older he went and tracked her down, he asked her father for permission to court her, and John Stanbro said yes. John really liked Daniel and was a firm advocate of the pair. Daniel would often walk miles from Claremore to Collinsville to take Myrtle out and visit with her family. He sometimes arrived later in the evening, probably due to work and other obligations, but they could always see him coming in the dark from his red glowing cigarette bouncing in the blackness of the night as he walked toward the house.

Myrtle liked Daniel quite a bit, but she also had a crush on this very handsome popular boy in her town that all the girls just swooned over. One night this very handsome boy came to Myrtles house and asked John if he could take her out on a date. John, being highly prejudice in his great love for Daniel declared that it was far far too late for Myrtle to be going out. The boy left and Myrtle was devastated.

Little did she know as the boy was leaving, and she was in her room crying and upset, Daniel was making his way to her house. A few minutes later John saw Daniels red glowing cigarette bouncing away as he rounded the corner to come down the driveway. John quickly told his wife Alma to get Myrtle ready to go! Her mom and her sisters jumped in and started dressing Myrtle and getting her ready to go out with Daniel.

As Daniel came up and hellos were exchanged, he politely asked permission to take Myrtle out. John happily told him that would be fine, and she would be ready very soon. Myrtle was very, very unhappy to go, but she went anyways.

Obviously the pair made it through the turmoil, but Myrtle said that was almost the end of them altogether. She was just THAT mad. She later found out that the handsome boy she had a crush on turned out to be not so great of a person and she was even more grateful for the love of her life, Daniel Miller.