Dorothy Ann Miller

On Saturday, May 28, 2022, at 1:30 a.m., Dorothy Ann Miller of Salisbury, MD, passed away at the home of her son in Baltimore. She was 94 years old.

Dorothy, who was called Ditty or Dottie by most people who knew her, was born on the dot at midnight between October 31 and November 1, 1927, in War, West Virginia. Her parents were Georgia Wright (nee Mitchell) and Arthur "Boots" Wright, a lifelong coal miner who raised champion fighting roosters and was well-known for the best moonshine in the region. (He eluded the law until age 68, when he was jailed for it.) Ditty's large family of brothers and sisters included Jack, Buck, June, Margaret, Betty, Harry, John, Joyce, and Robert Eugene. She was descended from the infamous William "Devil Anse" Hatfield of the original Hatfield clan forever feuding with the McCoys.

As a child, she attended Big Creek High School, which would later feature in the movie "October Sky." She used to brag that she had kissed every boy in the county by the time she was fourteen.

She graduated in June 1945 and moved to Washington, DC, to live with her sister Betty and a friend. She went to work for the phone company-Ma Bell-in 1947, where she met her husband, Robert F. Miller, a phone company lineman. She proposed to him in the early spring of that same year. Bob wanted to have a family and she didn't, but she loved him so much that she agreed to it just to be married. Ditty and Bob-known as "Pu"-were the loves of each other's lives.

Before they got married, they went to the Library of Congress for a "book." They got married on a Friday night and were supposed to catch the train early Saturday morning for Niagara Falls, but they missed it. They missed the train again on Sunday. And they missed it again on Monday. The pair finally put down that book and made it to Niagara Falls on Tuesday.

Ditty and Pu spent the early years of their marriage near Capitol Hill, then moved to Hyattsville, MD, to raise their family, the first of which had just been born. They paid less than $13,000 for the newly built home in which they raised four children-Debra, Robert, Martin, and David. Dorothy was a stay-at-home mom while her children were young and was active in the civil rights movement. She took her two oldest children to the 1963 March on Washington to see Martin Luther King Jr.

Once her boys were teenagers, Dorothy went to work at Garfinkel's department store. Her discount afforded her some Geoffrey Beene and Herm?s luxuries, which she shared at every opportunity. She worked there for about fourteen years, in both the Landover Mall and the DC stores.

In 1986, when the kids were all married or in college and living elsewhere-Deb in Connecticut, Bob in Boston, and Marty and David in Baltimore-Ditty and Pu sold their P.G. County home and moved to Salisbury, Maryland, to be near Dorothy's sister Betty and her family. Sister Margaret later joined them.

Her husband Bob died in the summer of 1998. Dorothy lived the 24 years following his death independently in her Salisbury home, where she loved receiving visitors, reading historical romance novels, and complaining about the Republicans. She enjoyed Pat's pizza, Chinese food, instant coffee with cream, and any kind of dessert, especially cake and ice cream. There was always a half-gallon of Turkey Hill vanilla bean in the freezer.

Dorothy had the most delightful personality. She was instantly liked by everyone who met her and loved by everyone who knew her through the last moments of her life. Her last words: "I guess we're all set to go home."

Dorothy is survived by her children: Debra Ann Buettel, Robert J. Miller, Martin W. Miller, and David J. Miller; her grandchildren: Dorothy Doyle, Robert and Walter Buettel, Gabriel Logan Miller, Serena Miller, and Cylas and Eutaw Miller; her loving sister, Betty Webster; and great-grandchildren, cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Per her wishes, she will be cremated. A small, private, outdoor gathering will be held in Salisbury in the near future.