Born SELMA MABEL DENKER, in Eldridge, Scott County, Iowa, She was the youngest child to survive infancy of 12 in the family of HANS ASMUS DENKER, born 29 Nov 1856 in Kiel, Germany, He died at the home of Selma, her husband ERNEST THEODORE SCHLOTFELDT and son FAY ERNEST @ 408 E. 15th St. in Davenport on 28 May 1934. Her mother was ERNESTINE ANNA SIEVERT, born 17 Feb 1866 in Davenport, Iowa to HEINRICH F. and CAROLINE ZARNDT SIEVERT. She died from septic pregnancy at the family owned hotel and home in Eldridge,
16 April 1908 with all roads blocked with buggies, wagons and horses of mourners it was reported.

Along with her sisters and 2 older brothers Selma worked around the Denker's railroad hotel and her brothers in the Saloon as they all grew up. She and her sister Rose were also operators at the local telephone company. She later attended Brown Business school in Davenport, as did Ernest.
They were married 20 August 1929 at Plymouth Congregational Church in Daveport.
Ernest died in January of 1935, in the midst of the Depression. This followed her father's death 8 months earlier, leaving her with a 3 1/2 year old son, Fay.
She and older sister Mae, who worked at M.L. Parker Dept. Store in Davenport, found an apartment at 321 E. 15th Street there and from time to time Ernie's sisters Leone and Dayle would also stay and share the rent and the care for young Fay. Dayle and Leone were also licensed beauticians as well as school teachers. They convinced Selma to go to beauty School, which she did. After the school on North Brady Street, she found a job with the school's connected Shop, often working nights. When Fay started school, mother would pay young cousins from the farm, or friends daughters, to stay in the apartment or be at home when both came from school. At other times, Fay learned to be a "Latch-Key" child and let himself in after school and keep himself occupied until Mae or Selma came home from work. She worked hard, and with the help of family was able to survive. A Schlotfeldt family lawyer finally suggested she buy a home that had a permit for a home shop and arranged a loan for one at 2020 LeClaire St.
within 10 blocks of Fay's schools. The loan came from "Aunt" Lenora Hagedorn whose mother was Mary Schlotfeldt, youngest child of Ernie's Gt. Grandfather Hans.
Selma remarried in 1944 to Paul Albert Miller, a Mechanical Engineer with a Bakery Machine manufacturer in Rock Island (Mainly bread slicers). In 1947 their son Robert was born. The bread company job 'went away' as Paul's inherited illness started to show and they decided to move to Paul's family farm on Ashworth Road in West Des Moines. (Fay was 16 and working for Northwestern Bell when the move was planned. He initially rented a room in Davenport from his Aunt Dayle until it was discovered he had to pay tuition to High School because his parents had moved. He then also moved to West Des Moines to finish school.)
Selma was a farm wife then, but was also active in West Des Moines and kept up her beauty license training through thick and thin. (Paul's illness was becoming apparent and she could see again being alone & responsible for another young son.) After Paul's illness hospitalized him, the family farm was sold and she was forced to file a reluctant "divorce" to avoid the burden of costs of his care at the state hospital. She moved into another home shop at 420 11th St. in West Des Moines in 1954 just before son Fay's Air Force discharge in Jan of 1955. Fay lived there and shared costs while he traveled for the company and was there until his marriage in July of 1959.
Selma was again the hard working mother on a survival track for her child. She lived and worked there until Robert's condition required a Care Center and she was no longer able to work. A stroke put her in the same center
in West Des Moines, in the same room as Robert and near friends. Fay and Jan were then in Omaha and Phoenix, Arizona. With Fay, she fairly well managed her own affairs until a year or so before her death. She wanted to outlive Robert, she did that. She wanted to reach her 86th birthday. She did that....by 3 days, shortly after son, Fay, had visited from Arizona for several days. She died among friends and a very caring staff who claimed her as their favorite. A strong business woman, and in today's vernacular, a strong protective "Mother Grizzly".