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Published on: 10/13/2005
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His father, Stephen Grady Miller, died when the infant Miller was seventeen days old; his widowed mother, Birdie, raised her son alone.Miller's mother built a home for herself and her children with rocks that she hauled out of a nearby stream, and that house became symbolic of Miller's rugged independence.After graduating from Young Harris College, Miller continued his education at Emory University in Atlanta but found shortly after arriving that his studies lacked focus.
Miller enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1953 and from then on would attribute his successes to both the discipline he learned as a marine and the independence he learned from his mother.He married Shirley Carver in 1954, and the couple had two sons.In 1956 Miller enrolled at the University of Georgia, where he earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree in history, with historian E. Merton Coulter serving as his mentor.In 1959 he took a teaching position at Young Harris College and returned to his hometown as a professor of history and political science.
Early Political Career
While still a faculty member, Miller was elected mayor of Young Harris, a post he held for one term (1959-60).Miller was next elected to two terms as a state senator, representing first the Fortieth District (1961-63) and then the Fiftieth District (1963-65).A few years later, he took leave from his teaching responsibilities to serve as executive secretary for Lester Maddox during Maddox's governorship (1968-71).Maddox was elected on a pro-segregation platform, but Miller has been credited with exerting a moderating influence on the governor.
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Miller encouraged Maddox to make African American appointments in his administration and to focus on building the state's higher education system, advice that Maddox followed.
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During the 1970s, Miller was twice named a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, once in 1972 and again in 1976.In 1971 he was appointed executive director of the Democratic Party in Georgia and served in this capacity until 1973, when he became a member of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles.Miller served on the board until 1975.
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Miller spent sixteen years as lieutenant governor of Georgia, longer than anyone else.In 1980, bolstered by winning his second race for statewide office, he ran for the U.S. Senate but lost the Democratic primary to incumbent senator Herman Talmadge.During the campaign, Miller raised questions about Talmadge's past support for segregation and his ethical standards, which led some observers to believe that Miller was a political liberal.During the campaign, Miller raised questions about Talmadge's past support for segregation and his ethical standards, which led some observers to believe that Miller was a political liberal.
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In the November general election, Talmadge lost to Republican Mack Mattingly, and several Democratic leaders blamed Miller for having weakened Talmadge's position during the primary race.
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Miller was sometimes able to rally bipartisan support for his side, and as lieutenant governor he appointed some Republicans to committee chairmanships.
In 1990 Miller ran for governor.In the Democratic primary, he faced competition from former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young and state senator Roy Barnes.Miller and Young were ultimately forced into a runoff, from which Miller emerged as the Democratic nominee.Miller and Young were ultimately forced into a runoff, from which Miller emerged as the Democratic nominee.
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Young was the first African American to mount a strong bid for governor and was generally seen as more liberal than Miller.
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During his campaign Miller focused on education, emphasizing the need for a state lottery to increase funding for education.He also favored tough criminal sentencing for repeat criminal offenders.Miller pledged that if elected governor, he would serve for only one term.
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Miller also signed legislation that gave Georgia the toughest repeat offender sentencing guidelines in the nation.
In 1992 Miller was critically important to Arkansas governor Bill Clinton's campaign to secure the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination.
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Miller and Clinton seemed to be natural allies-both were active, moderate governors of southern states who had won office by promising to improve education.
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Clinton's 1992 campaign strategists had worked for Miller in 1990.
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Placards reading "Give'm Hell, Zell" were distributed among the delegates as Miller gave a speech that was critical of U.S. president George H. W. Bush's administration.Later that year, Miller again actively campaigned for Clinton, who carried Georgia in his win of the November presidential election.
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After such successes in state and national politics, it surprised few when Miller announced that he would seek a second gubernatorial term.
Miller's reelection campaign in 1994 was not easy.In spite of his successes, Miller had made political enemies.Miller had tried, unsuccessfully, to have the Confederate battle emblem removed from the state flag.The governor's close connection to President Clinton was also detrimental to Miller as the president's popularity sagged.
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Finally, the fact that Miller had retreated on his pledge to serve only one term as governor irked some voters.
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Miller ultimately prevailed but only by a narrow margin-Miller received 51.05 percent of the votes, and Millner received 48.95 percent, a margin of just 32,555 votes.
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In the last year of his governorship, Miller secured private funding to distribute classical music CDs to the family of every baby born in the state. (Research indicates that playing classical music to newborns may increase their intelligence.) Miller also ordered state agencies to make budget cuts and redistributions-unusual for a state in good financial shape.His reasoning was that state agencies likely had become wasteful in their spending during the prosperous 1990s.Miller left office in early 1999 with an 85 percent approval rating from Georgians-a record high for a Georgia governor and a rating that made him the most popular governor in the nation.
Author
Despite the demands of holding political office, Miller found time to write several books about Georgia.His first book, The Mountains within Me (1976), is partly a memoir of his early years, partly a history of Young Harris (both college and community), and partly a broader examination of the culture, folkways, and politics of the north Georgia mountains.Twenty years later, while governor, he wrote another partially autobiographical work, Corps Values: Everything You Need to Know I Learned in the Marines (1996).Each of its twelve chapters is devoted to a particular trait he developed during his years in the Marine Corps, such as "Courage," "Neatness," "Discipline," and "Pride."
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two books, Miller wrote two other books about the state.
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In 1999 Miller reassumed his teaching career with affiliations at Young Harris College, the University of Georgia, and Emory University.The following year Governor Roy Barnes appointed Miller to the U.S. Senate after Senator Paul Coverdell died.
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Miller's appointment was to fill the seat for four months, an interim period of time between Senator Coverdell's death and the next scheduled federal election.
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Miller ran for the seat in the November election and won it for the remaining four years of the six-year term.
Miller pledged to carry on the conservative tradition of the late Senator Coverdell, who was a Republican.
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However, Miller proved to be a frustration to the Democrats for the rest of his term.
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As his Senate career progressed, Miller was often at odds with his party's leadership and increasingly supportive of Republican initiatives.In 2004 he published a critique of the national Democratic Party leadership, A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat, which became a national best-seller in the months before the presidential election that year.
Miller's support of President Bush led to his being invited to address the 2004 Republican National Convention as a keynote speaker.
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In the days after the speech Miller campaigned for Bush in a number of venues.
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In January 2005 Miller retired from the Se
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