![\"Betsy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WWWMiller_Photo4-1024x683.jpg\")
Betsy and Gunnar Miller with their children, Daisy, Alison and Clifford. <\/p>\nWhen life gets you down, Betsy Miller always suggests spending time in your happy place.<\/p>\n
For Betsy, that\u2019s her favorite room with windows letting in all the sunlight in her 100-year-old bungalow, which she calls her retirement home in Avondale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we bought this house, it was about to cave in,\u201d she said. \u201cBut my husband knew how to get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Betsy and her husband, Gunner \u2013 \u201cthe sweetest man on the planet\u201d \u2013 purchased the home shortly after they were married more than 60 years ago and began extensive renovations, starting with a new foundation, raised ceilings and converting the attic to a bedroom with a bathroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the neighborhood,\u201d Miller said. \u201cEverybody knows everybody. People who live here tend to stay for a long time. Not much changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Betsy and Gunnar Miller with their children, Daisy, Alison and Clifford. <\/p>\n
Betsy takes her dog, Maddie, out for walks and visits her daughter, Alison, who lives across the street. Her other daughter, Daisy, also lives in town with her husband, Michael Davidson, and their two children, Gunnar and Elinor, who are both in college. Betsy\u2019s son, Clifford, lives in Bali and comes home to visit for a couple of months every so often.<\/p>\n
Betsy is a lifelong Jaxson, growing up in Venetia before it was a part of Jacksonville. However, she left for college, graduating from Florida State University\u2019s School of Home Economics with a focus on interior design.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounded so elegant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Betsy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WWWMiller_Photo3-1024x683.jpg\")
Betsy and Gunnar Miller attend an FSU football game with daughter Daisy Davidson (left) and her children Gunnar and Elinor, and daughter Alison Miller (right).<\/p>\n
She worked for an interior decorator after college, and while she loved it, she didn\u2019t have an artist\u2019s eye for design \u2013 though she decorated every inch of her cherished bungalow.<\/p>\n
Betsy stopped working once her children were born. However, she found an unexpected employment opportunity arose when her children started preschool at St. John\u2019s Presbyterian: She became increasingly interested in what they were learning. So much so, the preschool asked if she wanted a job.<\/p>\n
She worked in the three-year-old, four-year-old and kindergarten classes and this unexpected career path became her passion, leading her to pursue a master\u2019s degree in early childhood development from Jacksonville University.<\/p>\n
After graduating, Betsy worked as an early childhood professional for Episcopal Children\u2019s Services, visiting local schools and teaching teachers how to read to children effectively to help develop their language skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to say I got paid to play,\u201d she said. \u201cChildren learn by having real objects and playing with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She absolutely loved that job and stayed until she retired.<\/p>\n
One of her and Gunnar\u2019s favorite things to do was travel. Some of their frequent trips were to his home state, West Virginia. They also traveled frequently with a friend, Larry Lynch, and a large group of friends. One of Betsy\u2019s favorite trips involved two weeks of ski school in Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was wonderful, and it was the perfect way to get over the harshness of the snow,\u201d Betsy recalled.<\/p>\n
They went back for several years, and eventually skiing became a yearly family vacation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing from Florida, I never dreamed of doing anything like that,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
As season ticket holders during the Bobby Brown era, Betsy and Gunnar also traveled to Tallahassee often for football games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went every weekend to see the Seminoles,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, Betsy became interested in Florida history, and her bookcase overflowed with books she found during trips to used bookstores throughout the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy fascination with Florida started because it was the first part of the United States to be discovered, but it was really one of the last states to be developed,\u201d Betsy said.<\/p>\n
Betsy spoke of architect Addison Mizner, who designed large Spanish-style buildings in South Florida. Locally, he was the architect for the Riverside Church at Park and King.<\/p>\n
One feature that stands out to Miller is the three pecky-cypress doors at the church\u2019s entrance. These trees have unique markings because worms eat them, Miller explained. She knows this because her friend, Dr. Frank Scott, used to travel along the St. Johns River with his father, gathering these trees for his business. Many years later, he took her and Gunnar up and down the river.<\/p>\n
![\"Betsy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WWWMiller_Photo2-1024x683.jpg\")
Betsy dresses up as a grown-up version of Lois Lenski\u2019s \u201cStrawberry Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are not very many people who can say they\u2019ve been on all 310 miles of the St. Johns River,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd Gunner and I did that with Dr. Scott.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, she remains active at her church, Riverside Presbyterian, and enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren, all of whom she is proud.<\/p>\n
Alison followed in her father\u2019s footsteps and became an attorney with the City of Jacksonville\u2019s Parks Department, while Daisy followed in her mother\u2019s footsteps and became a preschool teacher. Meanwhile, Cliff made his own path, filled with travel, as he pursued his certification to teach English as a second language.<\/p>\n
Even though her grandchildren are now off at college, being a grandmother \u2013 or \u201cGran\u201d \u2013 has been wonderful, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really involved with them when they were young,\u201d she said. \u201cThey would come over and spend the night a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now they are grown, but still just as sweet as can be, she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When life gets you down, Betsy Miller always suggests spending time in your happy place. For Betsy, that\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-216555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}