MILLER: Annie Laurie Ann Vardaman--d;12/8/2006
Miller, Annie Laurie Vardaman (Ann)
Annie Laurie (Ann) Vardaman Miller died at her home Saturday, Aug. 12, 2006,
in Waco,TX with family and friends at her side. A gathering of friends and
family will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, at the Baylor Hughes
Dillard Alumni Center located on University Parks Drive. A memorial service
will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, at First Baptist Church. Ann was born
in Dallas, TX where she attended North Dallas High School. She finished
Baylor University in three years, summa laude, majoring in English and
serving as the assistant to Dr. A. J. Armstrong. She married her professor,
Dr. Robert T. Miller; they moved to Austin TX for a year and several summers
so he could finish his Ph.D. degree. While there, Ann worked in the Texas
Legislature and did graduate work at the University of Texas. For almost
half a century Ann taught at Baylor University, where she was Professor of
English; in 1986 she was designated as Master Teacher of Literature. Twice
she and her husband took leave of absences: in the 1960s to Washington, D.
C., where Bob served as Administrative Assistant to Congressman W. R. "Bob"
Poage and again in Japan, where Bob was Exchange Professor of Constitutional
Law at Seinan Gakuin University. There, Ann was named Visiting Professor of
English. For a decade Ann and Bob taught in the Baylor in the British Isles
program at Westminster School within the Westminster Abbey complex in
London, where each summer some 150 Baylor students and faculty lived and
studied. In addition to her literature courses, Ann and two other professors
taught for ten years an interdisciplinary seminar in the Medical Humanities.
Baylor awarded Professor Miller a Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2003. Ann
was designated as an Outstanding Professor by the student body, by Student
Congress, and by Baylor University; in addition, she was designated an
outstanding professor nine times by Mortar Board. She was a published poet
and contributed articles both to in-house publications such as The Baylor
Line and to journals as prestigious as Studies in Short Fiction. Her library
reveals a literary trinity: Dickinson, Chekhov, Yeats. Since her student
days, Ann has been a member of the First Baptist Church of Waco. She later
taught college Sunday school classes and sponsored for fifteen years what
was then called Baptist Training Union. An honorary member of Kappa Kappa
Gamma, she and her husband sponsored that organization for ten years. The
facts are there. But the personality who was Ann Miller can hardly be
contained in a list of facts and accomplishments. It can be said that she
knew her Bible, loved her church, and adored her husband and children, for
she did. But she was in love with life itself--and said so--and loved it as
fully as she could until the end, even in the midst of what must have been
unbearable pain. And she loved words passionately. Born to rhyme, she wrote
about the things dearest to her, mainly the university, things she
incorporated into her life and then translated into her poetry. And she
loved beauty--the kind "to blow the heart wide open," as Seamus Heaney
says--whether she found it in a Tropicana rose, in "little acts of kindness
and of love," or above all in people. Neither age nor gender mattered; she
built close ties and strong friendships with those she chose to know. She
was a pied piper for students, not to a Koppen Cave of destruction but to a
higher purpose and the realization of self. But for those who truly knew
her, she was that pearl beyond price--a trusted, generous, and loyal friend.
She is survived by her two children, Robert T. Miller Jr. and wife, April F.
Miller, of Bedford, Texas, and Laurie Anne Vardaman Miller Smith and
husband, Patrick M. Smith, of Fresno, Calif.; brother, Dr. James W.
Vardaman, and wife, Elizabeth, of Waco; sisters-in-law, Mrs. George W.
Truett (Patricia) Vardaman, of Indian Hills, Colorado; Mrs. Calvin T. (Ruth)
Vardaman of San Antonio; and Mrs. E. Jerry (Dr. Alfalene) Vardaman of
Starkville, Miss. Other survivors include grandchildren, Zeus M. Smith of
Los Angeles, Sol R. Smith and wife, Randi, of Austin, Miranda Smith and
Wilder Smith of Los Angeles; and great-granddaughters, Solstice and Luna
Smith of Austin; sister-in-law, Mrs. J.G. (Letha) Majors of Denton; nephews,
George Truett Vardaman Jr. of Laguna Niguel, Calif., and Lowell Miller of
Denton; nieces, Mrs. Randy (Pamela V.) Fincher of Aurora, Colo., Mrs. James
(Sandee V.) Stone of Austin, Mrs. Dan (Debbie V.) Hughes of Lake Hills,
Texas, Mrs. John (Dr. Carol V.) Tingle of Jackson, Miss., Dr. Celeste
Vardaman of Dallas, Mrs. Tim (Bridget V.) Ashmore of Portland, Ore., Kirsten
V. Turner of Waco; and Mrs. Greg (Page V.) Cupper of Seattle, Wash.; and
"co-grandmother", Mrs. Marshall (Betty Ledbetter) Smith of Waco. In lieu of
flowers, memorials may be made to the Ann V. Miller Endowed Scholarship Fund
in the George W. Truett Seminary, the Robert T. and Ann V. Miller Endowed
Scholarship Fund in Music, or the Baylor University Alumni Association:
Baylor University, One Bear Place #97050, Waco, TX 76798.
August 16, 2006
Unfortunately I had but one course under Ann Miller during my years at
Baylor, and that was in the early 1960's. However, she is one of the few
professors I remember as truly inspiring and dynamic, and her class far
exceeded the norm. She was a beautiful genius and a brilliant teacher --
someone who challenged her students to think, to analyze, and to love
literature. She had the most infectious smile, and even though she was
demanding, I looked forward to her class every day. In my memory she will
forever be young and a professor who really had a refreshingly positive
impact on her students. I was blessed and honored to have had her so
delightfully teach me how to appreciate life as well as literature. God
bless you, her family, and give each of you the inspiration of her legacy.
Maurina Corley (Cameron, TX )
[email protected]
August 16, 2006
What a jewel of a person! My deepest sympathy goes out to the family. She
made a tremendous impact on my young mind. Her literature classes and
involvement with the Baylor in the British Isles program are such fond
memories for me and so many others. What a treat to experience London and
the British Isles with someone like Ann Miller !
Allison Guthrie (Denton, TX )
[email protected]
August 16, 2006
Some people will never die. Ann is one of those. I consider it a great
serendipitous pleasure to have been included in Ann's circle of friends and
admirers after she began life as "terminal." For those who were closest to
her I offer the consolation that not only will her memory live, but yours
will too. Her friends and family were never long out of her conversation and
love. What a treat to have known her.
Shirley Gaines
Shirley Gaines (Temple, TX )
[email protected]
August 16, 2006
The life lessons learned from Ann Miller will continue to teach and educate
all who encountered her spirit for education, and love for literature. Her
love for Baylor University equals the call she had to help students apply
themselves and achieve more than they believed possible.
Please know of my thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.
Jim Huey (Fort Worth, TX )
August 15, 2006
What a rare and wonderful blessing it was to get to stand in her shadow for
awhile; a shadow cast by the excellence of her teaching, her friendship, her
wisdom and insight, her very life. It is a stunning realization to me that
it has been 34 years since I was there on campus, taking her short story
class. It is a deep regret that it has been a "good many" years since we
last conversed, and now, have last conversed in this realm. And it troubled
me upon reading of her death that I should not have let so much life get in
the way of my corresponding with her. But I'm comforted knowing that we
never talked without my letting her know how very much she meant to me...how
could any of us not tell her?...sometimes it just shown in our eyes because
we revered her so. And I know, had I taken the time, even in the past few
years, to correspond with her, Ann Miller would have remembered me, not
because of who I am, but because of who she was. And I believe she
remembered each of us. Remarkable does not begin to even half say it.
We were richly, richly blessed beyond telling.
Charlotte Turner (Clifton, TX )
August 15, 2006
Please accept my deepest sympathies
jacqueline gallmon (fresno, CA )
August 14, 2006
Laurie and Robert,
I wrote your mom over a year ago, giving her thanks for who she was and what
it meant to me...I said, in part ....
"So, Ann, I may not give lilt and rhyme to language in the way a good
student of literature should, I nonetheless benefited from your standards of
excellence, passion for sounds, and deeper questions about our human
condition. Most important, though, I became liberated by your comfort in a
world tentatively occupied by women of your generation.
While I know your house and spirit is filled with accolades and trophies
attesting to your wisdom and exceptional skills as teacher and poet, allow
my appreciation of you to occupy a tiny back row on the trophy shelf. For
without the vision of womanhood you represented or the possibilities that
you embodied, I might easily have been institutionalized-and that, to speak
in the words of Jack Kilgore--is not a laughing matter. While I can blame my
dad for cultivating in me weird intellectual interests, missionary passions,
and humor bent toward irony, I can only thank you for having given me a path
to toward normalcy with such afflictions."
So Laurie and Robert, with a mom and dad whose sensibilities seem greater
than anything any of us can sustain, I offer to you the comfort I felt at my
dad's death -- the comfort that so many other people will be a part of the
living legacy, in this case of your parents Ann and Robert. May you have the
same comfort that I did in knowing that many live out their legacy in many
modest, but ernest ways. Peace and good wishes, Sally Kilgore
Sally Kilgore (Nashville, TN )
[email protected]
August 14, 2006
"The bells rang every hour from the tower in the trees..."
Ann Miller was a wonderful teacher. I will never forget her.
Becky Key Norsworthy (Anchorage, AK )
[email protected]
August 14, 2006
Ann Miller was truly a very lovely lady.
Margaret Kramer (Waco, TX )
August 14, 2006
The first time I met Ann Miller, I was in awe. I was, as I found out later,
under her spell. I loved listening to her stories, all told in proper
English and a Southern drawl. The next time I met Ann Miller, she was called
"Mamai," and she hid my shoes. She spoke at our wedding. She made me feel
comfortable in Waco and welcome in her family. In Waco, I rarely met anyone
who wasn't influenced by her. She was one of the first people to meet my
daughter. Both of my daughters loved her fiercely.
Mamai, I love you. You will be missed forever, and I will remember you every
day.
Randi Smith (Austin, TX )
[email protected]
August 14, 2006
When I was four, my brother and I went over to our grandparents' house to
spend some time. Grandmama had a few small gifts for us. One of these was a
stuffed bunny that was given to my brother, Zeus.
Zeus had this ability to make me feel like I could never be truly happy
unless I had what it was that he had. I needed a bunny too.
It was raining out, and our grandparents drove us to Cox's where they bought
the original bunny. My gradpa, Robert Miller, ran inside holding his hat
tight to his head. He came back out with an identical rabbit--the last one
in the store.
When we got back to their house, there was another issue to be delt with.
How were we going to tell these two rabbits apart? Grandmama--as we called
her--took a yellow highlighter and put a yellow stripe on the tag of Zeus'
rabbit. The only problem was that yellow was my favorite color, and I
couldn't bare to see it on Zeus' rabbit. Being the problem solver that she
was--and knowing by this point in the afternoon that switching animals
wasn't an option--she took her highlighter and colored my rabbit's tag,
front and back, solid yellow. We couldn't have been happier with the
situation after that.
Whenever we went over to her house, she had the day planned. She had
activities and games and things to show us. Being a grandmother wasn't what
she majored in, and it certainly wasn't what she taught all those years. But
she was always very proud of the activities that she had planned, as she
went through great trouble to map the entire day out, back then. I know it
must have been hard for her to drop her day's plans to secure us a second
rabbit.
I always think of this story when I think of how good she was as a
grandmother. She was proud of our small children, and I wish that could grow
up having her in their lives. I'm just greatful that we moved back to Texas
so that she got to know them a little.
Sol Smith (Austin, TX )
[email protected]
August 14, 2006
Robert, Kirsten and Dr.Vardaman;
Many, including myself, are saddened to hear of your loss.
During my 36 year acquaintance with Mrs. Miller she could consistantly be
described as affable, gracious and charitable, coupled with resolute and
spirited, a true Lady, an Enchantress (I think anyway)who will be missed.
Once, during a private conversation, I quizzed her about some of her
favorite works. A single line from one of which we spoke offers a fitting
epitaph:
'She hath a heart as sound as a bell'.
Be well friends...
Brooks Williams (Waco, TX )
[email protected]