Margaret R. Miller

Margaret Avent Railey Miller, age 74 died December 2, from complications of Parkinson’s disease, which she had suffered since 1994. She is survived by her husband of 53 years, Carl A. Miller, and three daughters: Cameron Miller Tiedje of Gorham. Maine, Robin Brooke Miller of Atlanta, and Courtney Miller Sanders of Belfast, Maine, and two sons-in-law, John Tiedje, Gorham, ME and Eric Sanders, Belfast, ME. and three grandchildren: Sydney, Chase, and Piper Sanders of Belfast.

Margaret and Carl were classmates at Duke University. They graduated in June, 1957, and married August 3, 1957. After a tour with the US Navy in Honolulu, Hawaii, where their first daughter was born, they returned and established a home in Atlanta. During her active life as a volunteer in Atlanta’s public schools , Margaret was a founding member and president of Northside Atlanta Parents for Public Schools which was instrumental in stabilizing the Northside schools during the years when so many communities were in turmoil trying to achieve successful school desegregation.. She maintained a keen interest in improving public education throughout her life. A career in Promotional Advertising Sales followed the volunteer years and lasted for twenty satisfying years. Health issues forced her retirement in 2001 from US Motivation. When diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1994, she reacted in the same way she had faced all the major “problems” in her life – head on, full steam ahead, totally involved and determined to “fight back” against this devastating disease. Margaret became heavily involved in fundraising for research. For ten years she served on the Executive Board of the American Parkinson Disease Association’s Georgia Chapter located at Emory University. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her honor to Georgia Chapter American Parkinson Disease Assoc. , P.O. Box 49416, Atlanta, GA 30359. The family will receive friends Saturday, December 11th from 4pm to 6pm at H.M. Patterson & Son, Oglethorpe Hill Chapel, 4550 Peachtree Road, NE, Atlanta, Georgia, 30319.