Ellen Miller, though not a teacher herself, has a family full of educators.

So it seems fitting that the 78-year-old retiree would enjoy reading to elementary school children.

And after working weekends as a home aide and cooking and cleaning for a 102-year-old woman, Miller enjoys the balance 9 and 10 year olds give her.

That’s why the great-grandmother volunteered to read to two fourth-grade classes at McLaurin Elementary School last fall.

“A lady who goes to my church was asking us if someone wanted to go and read to the classes,” Miller said. “Another lady there does it all the time, so I said, ‘OK.’ I enjoyed it.”

Miller chose a book out of a box in the school’s library and said she and the students could relate to the book’s message.

“Reading is good, and it’s an important part of their life,” Miller said. “I think if a child is a reader, he accomplishes more in life.”

Miller, who said she read to her own children — now 51, 50 and 49 — when they were young, said television has replaced most children’s reading time.

“That’s a bad thing,” she said. “We used to have to entertain ourselves.”

Reading isn’t Miller’s only volunteer activity.

The former Dunleith tour guide and South Natchez High administrative assistant cooks for 50 people at Morgantown Baptist church every fifth Wednesday.

But Miller said she’d like to read at the school again sometime soon.

“They told me I could just come anytime I wanted to,” she said. “They enjoyed me sharing my experiences and different things about myself, and it gave the teachers a little breathing time.”