Donor RegistryGranbury Street Renaming Honors Organ Donor Deputy Larry Miller
Dedication event recognizes his family and organ recipients
GRANBURY, Texas – On Saturday, December 15, Hood County will rename North Gordon Street in Granbury to Deputy Larry Miller Drive in honor of Deputy Miller’s dedication and ultimate sacrifice while serving the citizens of Hood County. The renaming will officially take place at a ceremony led by Hood County Sheriff Gene Mayo, who successfully approached the Granbury City Council for the street renaming.
Deputy Miller’s youngest daughter, Laura, will speak at the event and his wife, Anna, will recognize Miller’s heart and kidney recipients – Joey Garner and Catalina Hernandez – with special gifts featuring a law enforcement star emblazoned with Deputy Miller’s badge number.
Deputy Larry Miller, 39, was killed in the line of duty on January 26, 1992, in the 900 block of Highway 377 while responding to an emergency call involving a fire. Deputy Miller was traveling eastbound on a rainy night when his car was struck by a vehicle. He was transported to Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. There, a LifeGift representative approached his wife, Anna Miller, and family members with the opportunity to donate his organs and tissues. The family agreed, donating his heart, kidneys, liver, bone, skin and eyes to save the lives of others.
Deputy Miller served 20 years in the United States Air Force and retired in 1990. He served as a Sergeant and then a Captain for the Cities of West Worth Village and the Town of Marshall Creek before coming to Hood County, where he worked as a Deputy Sheriff from October 1990 until his death in January 1992.
Longview resident Joey Garner, now 36, received Deputy Miller’s heart at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston on January 27, 1992. Having corresponded with Anna Miller and her family by phone and mail for several years, Garner first met the Miller family face-to-face just four weeks ago. Houston resident Catalina Hernandez, now 47, received Deputy Miller’s right kidney on January 27, 1992. She also began corresponding with the Miller family about four years ago and met them in person for the first time on November 24.
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Celebrating 20 years of saving lives, LifeGift is a not-for-profit organ procurement organization, which recovers organs and tissue for individuals needing transplants in 109 Texas counties in North, Southeast, and West Texas. For more information, visit http://www.lifegift.org. To register as an organ and tissue donor, visit http://www.DonateLifeTexas.org.