Local Business Owner, Musician, Photographer Remembered

Haeyoon Miller, founder and CEO of Pix and Flips, a children’s gyms in Costa Mesa, died Thursday after a eucalyptus tree fell and crushed her car as she waited at the stop light at Irvine Avenue and Westcliff Drive. She was 29.

A memorial service and viewing will be held at Sept. 22 at the Harbor Lawn Mount Olive Memorial Park in Costa Mesa. The viewing will be from 4 to 8 p.m. and the service will start at 6 p.m. Miller will be buried at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar.

Also: City Begins Analysis of Tree That Killed Driver

The Tustin woman also worked as an executive assistant for Secured Funding Corporation.

She loved gymnastics, acrobatics, travel and photography, close friend and co-worker George Osorio wrote in an email. She was also a accomplished violinist and had played at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Born Jan. 18, 1982, in Seoul, South Korea, she moved to New Jersey as a child and attended Juilliard Academy. She started playing violin at age 3 and began performing shortly after.

Her family moved to San Clemente in 1998 and Miller, then Haeyoon Chung, attended San Clemente High School.

She went on to University of Southern California, studying music, but dropped out before graduating to get married and start a family.

She divorced in 2004 and started taking photography classes and enrolled in the U.S. Gymnastics Center in Aliso Viejo. She and her gymnastics coach, Osorio, became very close and opened Pix and Flips together in 2010.

Travel was also a passion of Miller’s, Osorio wrote, she loved outdoor parks and wilderness areas. She beautifully photographed all of her trips to Utah, Vermont, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and around California, he said.

Some of her photos have been posted on her Yoonieverse Photography facebook page.

Her family lives all over, her mother is in the LA area, her father in South Korea and her sister is in Finland.

Through her travels she made many friends all over the U.S., Osorio wrote, she made quite an impact on a lot of people.

“Haeyoon was one of the kindest people on earth and her kindness will be sorely missed,” Osorio wrote. “We all miss you, Yoonie. I’m sure God has reserved a special place for you in heaven.”