Pamela Jayne Miller

Pamela Sewall Jayne Miller, devoted wife, dedicated mother, indefatigable organizer, and lifelong horticulturalist, died peacefully July 22. She was 89 years old.

She was born August 15, 1931 in New York City and grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut and Small Point, Maine. She attended Westover School, Briarcliff Junior College and then Barnard College before joining General Dwight Eisenhower’s 1952 presidential campaign as a receptionist at the campaign’s Manhattan headquarters. Following Eisenhower’s election, she remained in New York City to work for NBC studios.

She married Donald F. Miller in 1954 and moved to Greenwich, CT in 1956, where the couple lived out their lives. Upon settling in Greenwich, Mrs. Miller dedicated herself to raising her children, caring for her homes on Parsonage Road, North Street, and Lyon Farm, and contributing to the Greenwich community through her horticultural interests. A devoted wife, she and Mr. Miller enjoyed 63 years of marriage, working side-by-side supporting their family and tending their homes and gardens, until his death in 2017.

An attentive and untiring mother, she supported her four boys through countless school activities and sporting events at the Greenwich Country Day School and Greenwich Skating Club. Even as her sons progressed to college, graduate studies, and eventual marriage and professional lives, she and Mr. Miller remained keenly interested and involved in their lives. She had an uncanny knack for remembering details of her children’s friends, activities, and interests. She reveled in planning family holiday gatherings and in organizing family trips to Florida, Europe, the Caribbean, and Galapagos Islands.

Mrs. Miller enjoyed memberships at the Greenwich Field Club and Round Hill Club, and was an enthusiastic participant at large social gatherings as well as intimate dinners with friends and family. She loved to host parties on the terrace at her North Street home, preparing her own meals and decorations, and displaying her thoughtfully cultivated gardens and landscape.

She joined Hortulus, the Greenwich horticultural club, in 1963. Through her nearly 60 years of membership, she dedicated her prodigious energies to horticultural projects and competitions, as well as organizing innumerable club activities. She was a frequent prizewinner for daffodil and vegetable displays. Through her long tenure, she served as Chair of most every committee in Hortulus, and was president from 1985-1987. In connection with Hortulus, she was a longtime Board member of The Mews. As well, through the 1990s she served in several national administrative roles for the Garden Club of America. She received the Hortulus Presidents Prize in 1994, the Beezie Brownell award in 1998, and was awarded the Garden Club of America Medal of Merit in 2008.

Born into the Sewall shipbuilding family of Bath, Maine, she spent every summer of her life with her extended family near Bath at Small Point beach. As her children grew and moved away to their own lives, she enthusiastically welcomed her sons and daughters-inlaw and her many grandchildren every August to her Small Point home. Here she gloried in full family gatherings, large multigenerational meals, and family picnics on the beach. She always loved the chaos of a full house.

In her final years, she received thoughtful, dedicated care at EdgeHill in Stamford, CT.

She was predeceased by her brother Kennon Jayne of New Canaan, CT. She is survived by four sons and daughters-in-law: Sumner B. Miller and Jacquelyn Miller of Baltimore, MD; Drs. Kennon S. Miller and Jennifer Newkirk of Providence, RI; Dr. Donald M. Miller and Evelyn S. Miller of Hanover, NH; Malcolm E. Miller and Tina C. Miller of New Canaan, CT; nine grandchildren; two stepgrandchildren and a step great-grandson.

There will be a memorial service at St. Barnabas church on Lake Avenue in the autumn. Mrs. Miller will be buried next to her husband Donald F. Miller and her extended Sewall family in the family plot in Bath, Maine.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of Pamela J. Miller may be made to The Mews in Greenwich (https://themewsingreenwich.org/donations).