Charlotte W. Miller

July 19, 1918 - November 14, 2021

The Palm Beaches lost one of their shining jewels on Sunday, when Charlotte W. Miller left us after 103 years of love, compassion, talent and bottomless good cheer. Her mother died in the Spanish Flu epidemic when Charlotte was only 18 Months old, and her father was a Navy physician stationed in Haiti, so she was raised by her grandmother in an old plantation home in Faison, NC. She attended the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (Now UNC Greensboro), singing on her own weekly radio show. A trip to San Diego after her graduation proved pivotal: she met a dashing young doctor at the Navy Ball, sparks flew, and she married Donald W. Miller six months later. Theirs was to be a remarkable marriage, fulfilling both of them for 73 years. A first son, Donald Jr., was born in 1940, and their first daughter, Mary, arrived in 1943 when Don was at sea during WWII; Mary was 18 months old before she met her father at war's end. Two more children followed, Nancy in 1946 and Rody, arguably the cutest, in 1951, and the family landed in West Palm Beach in 1959.

Charlotte was always a devoted Wife and Mother, but she became a public figure as a founding member and coloratura soprano of the Civic Opera of the Palm Beaches (now Palm Beach Opera). She played the lead in the Opera's first and fourth productions, La Traviata and Manon, and had prominent roles in all of the Opera's productions during its first six years, from 1962-1967. Reviewers gushed: "The artistry of Miller was supreme. Her soft voice, her elegance, her tenderness and touching generosity endeared her deeply to the audience." As Musetta in La Boheme: "What an eye filling beauty Charlotte Miller is,. The most expensive professional coquette would envy the figure, elegance, voice, and diction of Charlotte Miller."

In their later years, Charlotte and Don became familiar figures on dance floors around town, where they were always the first, and finest, dancers in the room, and Charlotte became an Elder of Lakeside Presbyterian Church and a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Club. She faced tragedy by outliving her daughters and her husband but she remained full of grace, generosity, optimism (and style!) throughout her life. She is dearly missed by her sons, 10 grandchildren, and a bunch of great-grandchildren, all of whom know that they have been very well-loved. A public service to remember her at 1:30PM on Sunday, November 21, 2021 will take place at Lakeside Presbyterian Church.

Services for Charlotte W. Miller are in the care of Palm Beach National Chapel. Please share your memories of Charlotte or leave your condolences to her family using this online guestbook.