I believe God endows individuals with creativity but that He also allows these creative traits to run in families.
I would characterize my late grandfather (on my dad’s side) Daniel Miles as a writer and humorist. He had a clever way with words, a keen—almost mischievous—sense of humor, and a soul for singing. He loved to share his musical talents (especially in an Irish brogue) at family reunions and the like. His writings about growing up and his days serving aboard the USS Soestdyk and the USS Leviathan during WWI have been a family treasure for generations, and some were featured in a publication of the Siuslaw Pioneer (local to Florence, Oregon) in the 1970’s. Grandpa was a woodworker, who enjoyed creating unique lamps, tables, bowls, candlesticks, and the like from natural hardwoods. When I was little, he and my dad put their construction skills together to build a “cat house” (yes, for a feline) for our housecat at the time, Cricket Elvis.
My Grandma Millie, with whom Grandpa Dan built a family, was a hard-working, industrious lady who canned, baked, and made homemade root beer. Those may have been the areas where her creativity shined. Since she passed away before my parents even met one another, I never got to meet her and know first-hand what she was like.
On my mom’s side, I didn’t learn much about my grandfather, Harold Whitman, whom I never met, but I knew that music ran in his family, and I think my mom said he had a nice singing voice.
My Grandma Eva was not a singer but played the accordion, as my mom did also. She also knew how to embroider and sew.
My mother, Shirley, was very musical. She was in Glee Club in high school and traveled as a teen, for a time, with the USO, entertaining American military troops under the banner “The Stars of Tomorrow.” She had a passion for music and sang all her life. She especially loved bluesy, soulful songs. My dad, Merle Miles, was also a singer. He was involved in a choral group in college and did solos for events. My dad, a tenor, and my mom, an alto, harmonized beautifully together and sometimes sang for church or family gatherings. Their signature duet was “How Great Thou Art.”
Both my parents were writers. My mom wrote mostly songs and stories. My dad wrote a lot of poetry, as well as scientific or theoretical pieces. In addition to musical and literary talents, my mom could draw fairly well—and also embroidered. But singing was her first love.
It’s no wonder that I also love to sing. In fact, I grew up listening to my parents belting out tunes along with their favorite records (now referred to as “vinyls”). Mom liked the Eagles, CCR, Elvis, Patsy Cline, even Engelbert Humperdinck. Dad favored the country greats—Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Hank Williams, Jim Reeves—along with Eddie Arnold and Mario Lanza. Their musical genres had some overlap though. My mom also liked country—and both enjoyed John Phillip Sousa; in fact, playing his orchestral music at increased volume became a way to get me out of bed in junior high.
My dad was the one who introduced me to the joy of rhyming—and helped me to compose some of the punniest spelling sentences in history. He was an avid punner and a “big kid” at heart. But he was also extremely intellectual and scientifically inventive.
I picked up my dad’s penchant and ability for rhyme and complex sentence structure. My mom was my inspiration for story-writing. Both composed worshipful, God-exalting poetry/lyrics as well, which I definitely share a heart (and pen) for.
As far as visual arts, I cannot credit only my mom and her genes. There was something artsy going on in my dad’s side of the family too. My Aunt Elsie was a skilled chalk artist, creating lifelike scenes incorporating trees, water, grasses, and sunsets. She could also create wood fans from cedar, a craftsman skill she learned from her father, my Grandpa Dan. I know of at least one of my first cousins, Judy, who is a proficient artist as well—a skill she employed in creating wall artwork for her children when they were young.
Because of the influence and “lungs” of my parents, I began singing at a young age. At age 10, I did my first church solo, something I continued to do for years. At age 15, my parents and I would sometimes eat at our local (Mapleton, Oregon) Frank’s Diner. In the bar, in the back of the restaurant, Frank’s would host live bands. Once, when this happened, my parents asked the proprietors for permission, then gave me their blessing to sing with the band! I was thrilled. I remember that I sang “Harper Valley PTA,” “Old Time Rock ‘n Roll,” and did a duet with one of the band members on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” Churchy it was not, but it increased my confidence in my vocal abilities, and I even sang a surprise solo for the groom (Byron) at my own wedding.
But even though I love to sing—and will be one of the first to jump up at the chance to do karaoke—writing is my first love. My third grade reading teacher, Mr. Rehnberg, may never know what his words meant and how they sparked something in me the day he wrote on my spelling story paper the words “Beautiful story, Teresa.” I had composed a story of a girl who was poor but desperately wanted a flannel nightgown for Christmas. In the story, she is visited by the flannel fairy, who grants her wish. It was titled “Farla and the Flannel Nightgown.” My teacher’s comments solidified my love of putting words together on paper—and that flame has never died down.
I used to draw quite a bit in my youth. I even made my own paper dolls and paper doll clothes. But it wasn’t something I stuck with or pursued…until we moved to Albuquerque. I had made a card for someone on which I had decided to try my hand at creating a collage-pieced bird. I loved it so much that I tried it again…and again…and again. Until I finally decided to try starting a little business, Busy Bird Creations. It hasn’t really taken off yet, but I remain hopeful and continue to look for sales and networking venues. I have gotten better and better at using ephemera, magazines, different types of paper, and touches of paint in order to create the desired effect—and beyond birds I have done houses, giraffes, a crab, a cat—but my specialty is birds.
I would love to know more family history—but not necessarily to learn who begat whom and all that. I want to find out what artistic talents are out there amongst my existing relatives—or present in our ancestry—that I do no know about.
My children received a “double dose,” if you will, because my husband’s grandmother was a painter and a quilt-maker. She also did some writing. She was quick-witted and loved art. She passed the “artistic gene” on to her daughters Nancy (my mother-in-law) and Christine, who draw and paint. Nancy also sews—and made several outfits for my girls way back when.
It’s always fascinating to observe patterns in families. Some patterns fade over time, while others persist. The pursuit of artistic expression is one pattern I long to see persisting in my descendants.
© 2025 Teresa Miles Kephart
