Rhea Bond Miller

Rhea Bond Miller, a quiet saint if ever there was one, departed this life peacefully Sunday, August 19, at her historic Lloyd Florida home.

She was born April 23, 1924, in Sarasota, Florida, the youngest of William and Bertha Bond’s seven children. On August 27, 1944, she married William Durrell Miller, an FSCW history instructor whom she met when she took one of his classes. They raised their eight children through a succession of appointments in his academic career that moved the family between Memphis, Tennessee, Milwaukee Wisconsin, and Lloyd, Florida several times during her life. He passed away December 11, 1995.

Creativity, determination and faith were the hallmarks of her life and brought a series of accomplishments, most of which she characteristically attributed to others or to good fortune. Hundreds of women today write thoughtfully, gracefully and correctly because of her dedication as an English teacher during the sixties at Milwaukee’s Holy Angels Academy. She later earned her Ph.D. at FSU in 1976 in English, edited each of her husband’s six published histories and taught student English teachers at Marquette University. When her family returned to Lloyd Florida in 1983, she took on the task of preserving the remnants of Lloyd, the classic turn-of-the-century rural Florida village founded by her ancestors. Fending off tank farms and other commercial interests that threatened the village’s historic character, Lloyd today includes a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She authored Lloyd, A Village at a Crossroads, to document the community’s past but also to make the case for its preservation. A lifelong poet who found evidence of God’s glory in everything from the wide embrace of live oaks to the suddenness of shooting stars, she published The Witness in 2010, a collection of 70 of her poems that testify to the deep roots of her adopted Catholic faith and her keen ability to find truth and beauty in everyday life.

She is survived by her children, William D. Miller, Jr. (Susan), Wausau WI, Frank (Mary Ellen Powers), Milwaukee WI, Christopher (Margit), Lloyd, Robert, Tallahassee, Richard (Toni), Milwaukee, Carol, Lloyd, and Edmund (Monica), Ann Arbor, MI; 17 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

Her funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 am on Friday, August 24 at St. Margaret Catholic Church, Monticello. A rosary will be prayed Thursday, 7:00 pm, at the same location followed by reception of her friends and family in the parish hall. In lieu of flowers, donations in her name may be sent to Catholic Charities and Tallahassee Youth Orchestra.

Arrangements are under the direction of Culley's MeadowWood Funeral Home in Tallahassee, Florida.