Diana Sabo Miller

Diana Sabo Miller took her final earthly journey, backpacking into the Hereafter Wilderness on March 24.  Services will be held at Union Congregational Church in Buffalo at 2:00 pm on Saturday, June 7. Her interment will be in Wilderness Basin in the Bighorns by her family.

Diana Jean Miller was born on February 26, 1940, in Fort Dodge, Iowa to James and Myrtle Sabo. When she was 4 years old, the family moved to Gilmore City, Iowa, where she completed her elementary and high school education. In 1963, she married Keith Bernard from Gilmore City. The couple’s primary residences were in Brainard, and Deerwood, Minnesota. Diana worked as an RN in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Brainard until the couple’s divorce in 1978.  She returned to school at the University of Minnesota in 1980 to obtain her Adult Nurse Practitioner education and was nationally board certified.

In 1981, she moved with her three sons to Buffalo, Wyoming, where she accepted a position with the Johnson County Public Health Nursing office. During her 13 years of service there she helped initiate a program to educate and provide services to teens and young adults on human sexuality, prevention of unintended pregnancies, contraception and STDs. Ultimately, she accepted a position with NOWCAP Family Planning, providing clinics in both Sheridan and Gillette. When NOWCAP discontinued their programs statewide, she was instrumental in founding and serving Family Planning of the Bighorns (currently Reproductive Healthcare of the Big Horns) for 20 years.

In 1982, she met and joined her life and the lives of her children to Rev. Dr. Robert F. Miller, pastor of Union Congregational Church in Buffalo. Bob has been her partner in adventure and backpacking companion for 42 years.

The couple moved to Helena, MT in 1995 where Bob served as pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church while Diana worked as Nurse Practitioner for Planned Parenthood of Helena. During those years, Diana sang both as a chorale member and solo artist with the Helena Symphony Chorale.

Missing their beloved Bighorn Mountains, the couple returned to Sheridan, WY in 1999 where Bob continued his ministry at First Congregational Church until his retirement in 2009. Diana served part-time as a Nurse Practitioner at both Sheridan Women’s Health and Reproductive Healthcare of the Big Horns until her retirement in 2013.

Her passions included vocal and classical music, Golden Retrievers, raising and tagging Monarch Butterflies, pysanki egg art, fine arts, her Czech heritage and hiking in the Bighorns with Bob. She is survived by her husband Robert, sons Scott D. Bernard of Concord, NH and Jacques D. Bernard of Deer Lodge, MT and a daughter Gina M. Bernard of Bemidji, MN. as well as two granddaughters: Madison Bernard of Maple Grove, MN and Parker Bernard of Superior, WI plus her sister Janet Dumont of Red Rocks, AZ and brother James Sabo of Gilmore City, IA.  She was preceded in death by her parents and a younger sister, Kathrine Detert.