A Nurse Who Never Stopped Giving: A Surprise $868,000 Donation
Born in 1914, Lorene Montgomery Miley was a small town girl with big city dreams. A nursing career became her ticket out of tiny Grove City, Illinois, to New York City.
After graduating from Springfield’s Memorial School of Nursing in 1935, Lorene headed to the east coast, working as an emergency nurse in naval shipyards, a supervisor of health in industrial nursing and as a nursing supervisor at a general hospital.
On a trip home, she met bachelor Clark H. Miley, a Taylorville attorney with a twinkle in his eye, who asked why a girl like her was still single.
“Because I’m having so much fun!” she told him.
She returned to New York, but the two fell in love through long letters, and Lorene came home for good in 1950, working as a nurse in an area school. She and Clark married in 1951, and together for many years, they privately gave back to their community, providing coats, financial assistance and college help for students in need.
That quiet generosity extended far beyond what most people knew.
In December 2025, more than two decades after Lorene’s death in 2004, her estate delivered a stunning surprise: approximately $434,000 each given to the Springfield Memorial Foundation and the Taylorville Memorial Foundation, nearly $900,000 in total. Neither hospital had ever heard from her about a future gift.
The only person who wasn’t surprised was Dorris Schroyer, 87, Lorene’s friend and executor of her estate.
“She was the most generous person,” Dorris said. “But she did not toot her own horn. I can tell you that!”
For the two foundation directors, the gift was extraordinary.
“The fact that Lorene left this sizable gift in a very quiet gesture of kindness and gratitude, without once connecting with the hospital, is priceless,” said Pam Hulten, director of the Springfield Memorial Foundation.
Taylorville Memorial Foundation director Katie Champion Williams put it simply: “My only regret is that I never had the opportunity to meet her.”
Both hospitals plan to use the funds to purchase new equipment benefiting patients for years to come – a final act of care from a nurse who never stopped giving.
For Dorris, revisiting her friend’s legacy has been a wonderful trip down memory lane. The two shared many adventures together in Lorene’s later years.
“She took an interest in everyone,” Dorris said. “She was just a kind and generous person. And a lot of fun.”
Some things never changed.
Learn More
Interested in learning more about how you can give back? Visit memorial.health for more information about our five local hospital foundations and the work they do to improve the health of the communities they serve.