Ressi Marie Miller-McKinney (Granroth)

Our hearts broke when Ressi Marie Miller-McKinney (Granroth), 49, passed away on April 13, 2025 at home after a heroic battle with cancer. She was the wife of Richard McKinney. They shared twelve beautiful years together.

Born in Albany Oregon on January 2, 1976 she was the daughter of Charles and Joanne Granroth and sister of Andrea Granroth. Ressi is survived by her parents, sister and husband as well as her three children Marlee, Olin and Waylon Miller. Ressi was preceded in death by her grandparents Donald and Alice Jenkins of Negaunee Michigan and Russell and Toini Granroth of Tapiola Michigan. She graduated from Western Oregon University with a masters in teaching. She taught language arts for twenty one years almost entirely at West Salem High School for the Salem Keizer School District. She will be remembered for her caring, kindness and compassion that she shared with her students, colleagues and their families through out her career.

A celebration of Ressi's life is being planned for later this summer in Oregon. You can always celebrate her life wherever you may be and as often as needed with sunflowers and star gazer lilies. They were her favorite flowers and are a perfect metaphor for who she was. She lived her life with bold optimism that always followed the sun and had a delicate sensitivity that left a divine mark on everyone she touched.