Earlene Marie (Van Ness) Miner

Earlene Marie (Van Ness) Miner, (82), of Texas City, passed away October 28, 2024, at HCA Houston Healthcare, Webster, Texas.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m., on Saturday, November 2, 2024, at Emken-Linton Funeral Home, 5100 Emmett F. Lowry Expwy., Texas City, TX. Visitation will be at 1:00 p.m., on Saturday, November 2, 2024, at Emken-Linton Funeral Home in Texas City. Burial will follow at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, at the Houston National Cemetery, 10410 Veterans Memorial Drive, Houston, TX 77038. Please arrive 15 minutes earlier if attending the burial.

Earlene was born July 31, 1942, in Corpus Christi, Texas. She joined the U.S. Marine Corps after graduation from Texas City High School in 1960 and met and married a fellow Marine, Wayne, in San Diego, California, in 1961. As a military spouse, Earlene and the Miner family moved every few years and lived in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Cuba, and Okinawa, Japan. She held various jobs to include a bartender, roofer’s assistant, census taker, jewelry store salesperson, and a secretary/administrative officer with the Marine Corps at Camp Butler in Okinawa, Japan, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. She worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center as a secretary and administrative officer from 1984 until retiring in 2007. She was proud of her service to the Marine Corps and to NASA, and was a mother figure to many of the interns and younger engineers within her NASA division whom she affectionately called her “babies.” She enjoyed reading, baking, spending time with her family and friends, and traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada with Wayne in their RV. She also enjoyed spending time with her extended RV family – the RV Mutants.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Morris and Dorothy (Fretwell) Van Ness, and her brother Donald Van Ness, and her in-laws Romeo and Ruth (Dilling) Miner.

Survivors include husband, Master Sergeant Wayne Miner, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired); son, Colonel Christopher Miner, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), and daughter-in-law, Sandra; son, Michael Miner and daughter-in-law, Gemma; granddaughters, Alexandra and Aubree Miner; sister, Freda and her husband Larry Cook; brother-in-law, and sister-in-law, Glen and Anne Miner, and her beloved Goldendoodle, Lexi.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org).