Today would have been Del Miller’s 92nd birthday. Her friends and family will celebrate her life and mourn her loss.
Del passed away peacefully at her home in Fort Bragg, CA, on January 5, 2022.
She was born Dolores Mary Vanderbeck to Walter Norman Vanderbeck and Phyllis Emily Hart on March 17, 1930 in
Newark, New Jersey.
Del grew up in NJ, and attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute of Liberal and Technical Learning in Lafayette, LA, 1948-1950. Two lifelong interests (acting and all things French) may have started there. Del was a member of Le Cercle Francais club and performed in drama productions before completing a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951 at Columbia University in New York City.
On May 15, 1954, Del married her childhood sweetheart Walter Davis Miller. They headed west to sunny Santa Barbara, where they lived for 25 years. A move to Lake Tahoe, NV, in the 1980s reminded them why they left cold, snowy New Jersey. So in 1991 they moved back to their beloved ocean in Fort Bragg, CA.
Del was a voracious reader. She taught typing and shorthand business classes, and worked as a bookkeeper and personal organizer. Christmas was her most favorite thing in the world.
Del will be missed by her sons Christopher (Betsy Susman Miller) and Jonathan (Karen Baker Miller.) Walt died July 17, 2015 so they now are together again, forever.
