Former U.S. Sen., Georgia Gov. Zell Miller dies at age 86
Zell Miller, a former two-term governor and U.S. senator who gave birth to Georgia’s HOPE scholarship, has died at the age of 86.
Miller was a keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention — and a Republican National Convention. A veteran politician who really wanted to be a minor-league shortstop. A man unswervingly loyal to his mountain roots who came to be seen as a traitor by many in his political family. A statesman who never strayed from his basic principles, yet seemed utterly unpredictable.
Miller helped resuscitate Bill Clinton’s failing 1992 Democratic presidential campaign and ended up becoming one of the Republican party’s most vocal supporters. In his 80s, he suffered from several illnesses, including Parkinson’s disease and late last year his family sent word that he would no longer be making any public appearances.
“I learned more from Zell Miller both professionally and personally than from anyone else I have encountered,” his grandson, Bryan Miller said Friday. “He was more than my grandfather. He was my dear friend and mentor.”
Funeral announcements weren’t immediately announced, but as word of Miller’s passing spread under the Gold Dome, politicians from both sides of the aisle quickly offered their kind words and memories.
“One of the greatest governors of the 20th century in this state, he gave Georgia hope and many many young people for generations will benefit from his vision,” said House Speaker David Ralston, a Republican.
Describing HOPE as a program that has been “emulated but never surpassed by other states,” former President Jimmy Carter released a statement highlighting his “good friend” Miller’s long record of public service and straightforward personality.
“Growing up in the hills of North Georgia gave Zell a straight-talking approach to politics that left no one in doubt of his views on any subject, and his U.S. Marine background also gave him a patriotic love of both his state and his nation,” said Carter, who served in the state Senate with Miller and as a Mercer University trustee with him. “His love for his family and appreciation for the principles that shaped our nation are a model for anyone interested in service to others.”
Rep. Calvin Smyre, a Columbus Democrat, called Miller “a true statesman” — one who could turn a memorable phrase.
“‘If you ever see a turtle sitting on a fence post,’” Smyre recalled Miller saying as they worked to pass HOPE. “‘you know that he or she didn’t get up there by themselves. Somebody helped put them there.’”
Like the Appalachian Mountains that dominated his North Georgia vistas, Miller rose improbably high and presented numerous faces to the world: The Polonius-quoting college professor who also wrote a country-western song with the down-home title “You Can’t Ration Nothing (That I Ain’t Done Without).”
The onetime Expert Marksman Marine who later armed every Georgia newborn with a classical music CD. The unsuccessful 1980 Senate candidate dubbed “Zig Zag Zell” who roared back to become the state’s most popular governor — only to see much of what he’d accomplished drowned out by the din of his late-life political drama.
“We’ll probably not see his likes again,” Merle Black, the Asa G. Candler professor of politics and government emeritus at Emory University, observed several years ago. Black called Miller’s eight years as governor the high point of his career, but added, “the most interesting part of his career was at the end.”
If that’s what he’s most remembered for, Miller reflected in what he called (cribbing from Lord Byron) the “yellow leaf days” of his life, so be it. In the end, nothing mattered so much to him as the beginning.
“Coming from a single parent, not having a lot of money, no electricity until I was 7, no running water until I was in high school … I’m proud that out of that could come someone who could make it to the governor’s office,” Miller said during a 2006 interview with the JournalConstitution. “How I got from where I came from is very important to me.”