Bessie Miller wanted to beat the record for Minnesota’s oldest woman set by Anna Stoehr from Plainview, Minnesota’s at 114.

“She kind of took a big gulp and said, ‘I want to beat her,’ like she wasn’t too sure of that, but she threw it out there,” said her daughter Betty Neus.

Miller passed away Dec. 24, 2014, at 101 years, 4 months and 21 days old. While she was about 13 years shy of of that goal, Miller’s age was impressive for more than just surpassing the century mark — she also thwarted two bouts of cancer.

Miller was born Aug. 3, 1913 on the family farm in Mitchell County, Iowa. She and her family later moved to Austin. After she married Bill Miller, the two lived in an upstairs apartment before moving into one of the Hormel homes. Bessie and her family later moved to 1407 Ninth Ave. NW, where she lived out the rest of her life.

In 1995, Miller was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in her leg. She was 82 at the time. She battled the disease into remission, but it reappeared in her back in 2002, when she was 89. During the second bout with cancer, Miller was hospitalized three times and underwent several rounds of chemotherapy.

But it took about 13 years before Miller’s body gave up the fight, although Neus said her mother never stopped fighting.

“She fought it right up until the very end,” Neus said. “She loved life and she wanted to stay here.”

Neus recalled her mother’s stay in a nursing home for about eight months in 2002. Miller was tired of waiting for the staff to help her do things such as use the restroom, so determination and stubbornness made her get up

and gain her strength back.

“She got strong enough to transfer, and we brought her home,” Neus said. “She was home in her home up until the day she died.”

During her lifetime, Miller went through the floods of the past decades, walked over the footbridge that went over the railroad tracks and the corner grocery stores that no longer exist. She went through the Hormel strike of 1933, as well as the P-9 strike of 1985.

Her family recalled her strong principles and the way she saw the world in black and white. Yet despite her stubbornness, she enjoyed spending time with family. She played cards every night for 22 years with Neus and went out to dinner every Tuesday with another daughter, Donna Haas. She enjoyed family get-togethers and loved parties.

“We had a party on Christmas Eve day — the day she died — and as soon as we all left, as soon as the party was done, she left too,” Neus said.

Miller was a member of the Methodist Church since she was 14 years old. She enjoyed reading, embroidering and puzzles, among other things. She continued to get the daily paper, even when she couldn’t read anymore, and her family would read it for her. In her later years she loved car rides, taking any opportunity to drive around while family or friends ran errands.

“I think it was very inspirational that she lived to be that age and she still had that zest for life,” Neus said.

Although nobody might ever know Miller’s secret to her long life, family recalled her healthy eating habits. She never smoke or drank, either. But mostly, she found happiness where she was.

Neus quoted the paster at her mother’s funeral, saying her mother had simple pleasures and she found her niche in her home. She found out how to live her life to the fullest where she was at.