OCR Text |
Show ANOTHER IN THE SERIES ON THE CANDIDATES FOR '64 hawk Power Corporation. He is fond of dogs. When . the family had two cocker spaniels, Sugar 'and Jingles, he let them, to his wife's dismay, climb all over him and the furniture as well. Boyhood friends remember Bill Miller as a youngster. At St. Patrick's bright, going-placelementary school, where he was close to the top of his class, he wrote a composition .saying he wanted to be a trial lawyer. At Lockport High School, he showed a flair for public speaking. As an only child, he enjoyed a special closeness with his motherWheshe died in 1962, he wept sion because he wanted more time with his family. "I had seen my older daughters grow up without me," he says. "I was the father who wasn't home, and I didn't want this to happen with my younger children." house The Millers have two homes a in Bethesda, Md., which looks like a Southern manplace on Lake Ontario jn sion, and Olcott, N. Y. "When Daddy comes home," Libby says, "we treat him like a king. Mother feels that, even more than most persons, he needs someone to give him rest and a warm home life. She'll get the papers for him and his slippers, even give him a rubdown to relax him." Miller is interested in every detail of his wife's and his daughters' appearance. He has watched his wife, at their daughters' behest, step out of subdued colors into brighter shades, and he is delighted when people take her, with her page-bo- y hair style and her size-nin- e figure, for her daugh- es 13-roo- m unashamedly. Both his parents protected him "closely. "Daddy doesn't swim," Libby says. "His parents were afraid of the, water and communicated their fear to him. He's not too fond of boats. " Our friends have boats. Two summers ago, we outboard. But he made him get us one a dislikes choppiness and seldom goes into the boat. When he does, we go slowly." "Being an only child," says his wife, "has made Bill overly solicitouTof the children. He's always afraid they'll hurt themselves. He is also more indulgent than I. With the years, however, he has come to see the value of a little more discipline of brothers and and understands the sisters, which was not evident to him at first." Lonely as a boy, his distaste for being alone still -runs so deep that when his family is away he closes down the house and moves into a hotel. As a boy, too, he developed strong family sentiment. Even today, when a relative dies, he gets on a plane and goes home for the funeral. 16-fo- ot : ters' sister. When they're with other people, he addresses her as "Steph." Within the family, however, she is nun tu uiui. one cans mill xyauuiy . give-and-ta- Never Away in Spirit Even though he is frequently separated from the family, he is omnipresent in their lives. Mrs. Miller told me, "We're always saying, 'We'll wait till Daddy comes home to decide.'" Or, as Libby puts it: "I feel close to Daddy, not because of memories of what we did together, but because I have been able to go to him with my problems, if only by telephone. He gets to the root of the trouble and sees the solution clearly. He's man and applies his legal mind to a domestic decisions." "Always quick with a quip, Miller said of his "second family"; "We're giving Libby and Mary course in child psychology.1 a home-stud- y Miller's tastes in food are simple. Steak, chicken, mashed potatoes, and tomato juice do very nicely. The Dream: To Be a Lawyer His father, Edward, whom everybody called get-it-do- ne than go out with him to a restaurant. He smokes t i J! i ana arinKS moaeraxeiy. ms serious reading is largely confined to newspapers and books about political science. For relaxation, he reads novels and whodunits and watches the Late Late Show - - - '' and Lawrence Welk on television. His sports are golf and table tennis. "On the linn-Arnla iiva A Xirli ATI Vl A smnTs 1 s Itrt doesn't. He also rubs it in when I lose," says his close friend, Harry G. Slater, of the Niagara Mo r m) ke ' "Dutch," was at one time an assistant sheriff. He had a job in the local jail when Bill was born. His mother, Elizabeth, taught in a small country school before her marriage and, when Bill was a baby, opened a millinery store in Lockport. Neither his parents nor any other members of that generation of his family had been to college. But some of his cousins had, and his parents were determined that Bill, too, would go to college and fulfill his dream, and theirs, of becoming a lawyer. They worked hard to earn money for their son's education. Bill himself showed youthful enterprise by opening a chain of stands that sold lemonade and Fourth-o- f July firecrackers. And when he did go to college, he worked summers and part-tim- e during the school year. Despite these limitations on his time for extracurricular activities, he became captain of the ' -- debating team at Notre Dame University. Later, at Albany's Union University Law, School, where he won a prize for forensic ability, he not only worked hard but played hard. One morning, after being out with the boys the night before, he came to class unprepared. By the time he was called on, however, he had absorbed the content of the legal cases from previous recitations. He was able to acquit himself so well that the professor told the .class: "If you ali studied as hard as Bill Miller, you'd get some place, too." After graduating from law school in 1938, Miller did begin going places fast. He worked briefly as a legal apprentice in Buffalo and then became the partner of an established lawyer. He practiced law in Lockport from 1938 to 1941. Shortly after being admitted to the bar, he was appointed U. S. Com- missioner f or the Western Districf of New York, a post he held until July, 1942. From Soldier to Husband In 1942riie enlisted as a private in the Jnf antry. After extensive service in military intelligence, he was selected for the officers' candidate school of the Judge Advocate General's Office and upon graduation was commissioned a first lieutenant because of his superior grades. In 1945, he was named an assistant prosecutor at the Nuremberg war-crim- trials. e - - - 1 ne was in- private law practice for two years and then was appointed to tiacK in ix)CKport in - - iMO, fill a vacancy as district attorney in Niagara County. He was elected to a term of his own later that year. In 1950 he went to Washington as a freshman Congressman. A routine breach-o- f --contract case in 1941 led to his marriage. When he went to the home of his client, Mrs. Mary Wagner, to "discuss the case,Jie met her daughter Stephanie. Because g "she was a really girl," she should be a witness. He won the case and decided to win the witness, too! He paid his client and her daughter another visit, explaining that he happened to be in the vicinity on other business and tookhe opportunity to bring them the good news about winning. "We spent the evening chatting," Mrs. Miller reminisces. "He said he was going to Boston for 10 days but when he got back he would like to take me out. He was still Mr. Miller to me; but when he returned, we had our first date. It was at the weekly buffet supper and dance at the Buffalo, Country Club. Suave as he thought he was, he missed the turn to Buffalo on our way. (Continued on page 6) 19-year-- old he-decid- nifty-lookin- ed - Family Weekly, September 20, 19 W |