The estate of Lorene Montgomery Miley donated $434,000 to the Taylorville Memorial Foundation in December 2025, a gift that will help fund the purchase of state-of-the-art medical equipment for Taylorville Memorial Hospital (TMH) over the next several years.
“We learned how Lorene’s generous spirit was always on display during her years in Taylorville,” said Aaron Puchbauer, president and CEO of Taylorville Memorial Hospital. “We appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the continuation of her legacy.”
Miley was born in 1914 and grew up in Grove City, just outside of Taylorville. She received her nursing degree from Memorial School of Nursing in Springfield in 1935.
Upon graduation, she fulfilled a lifelong dream of moving to New York City where she worked as an emergency nurse in the naval shipyards, a supervisor of health in the field of industrial nursing and as a supervisor of nursing in a general hospital.
On a trip back home, she met Clark Miley, an attorney in Taylorville. The two fell in love and were married in 1951. She became a school nurse for Mt. Auburn. She and her husband privately provided coats and financial assistance for students in need.
She also donated regularly to St. Vincent Memorial Hospital, now TMH. When she or her mother required medical assistance, she would only go to St. Vincent’s due to the quality assistance and dedication of the care teams there. Lorene died August 24, 2004.
Foundation director Katie Champion Williams first learned about Lorene Miley when she received an email about the estate’s donation that went into effect after Miley’s last surviving sibling died in 2025.
“It took a moment for the magnitude of the gift to fully sink in,” Williams said. “Lorene’s remarkable generosity and foresight so many years ago to establish this gift will live on through the meaningful impact this equipment will have in serving our patients in this community. We are grateful for her deep affection for the people in this area.”
A separate donation, also totaling $434,000, was also given to the Springfield Memorial Foundation in appreciation for the nursing education Miley received there in the early 1930s.