Olive Hilda Miller

Olive Wright Miller MBE OBE (9 November 1921 – 19 May 2020) was a British missionary, journalist and philanthropist. Known as "Cayman's own Mother Teresa", she was the Cayman Islands' first paid journalist and established its first retirement home.

Biography

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Olive Hilda Miller was born in Essex, England, on 9 November 1921.[1] In 1946, Miller travelled to Jamaica as a missionary for the Church of Scotland.[2] During her time as a missionary, she was based in Jamaica, but made periodic trips to the Cayman Islands, where in 1946 she founded a branch of what was to become the Girls Brigade.[3] In 1949 she co-founded and taught at Cayman High School.[2] In 1953 she married Caymanian Ray Miller in England, but they returned to Grand Cayman in 1957. They had a son and a daughter, Kathryn and Nigel.[1]

Miller was the first paid news reporter in the Cayman Islands, starting work in 1964 on the Tradewinds newspaper, which her work helped to establish.[2][3] In October 1965 she moved to the Caymanian Weekly.[3] For eleven years, from 1970 to her retirement in 1981 she worked as Cayman's first government information officer.[3][4]

In 1975 she was a founding member of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations in Cayman.[5] From 1978 she served as a Justice of the peace, specialising in juvenile cases.[1] She was the first manager of The Pines, the first retirement home to be built in the Cayman Islands.[3] She worked there from 1983 until 1991.[6]

In 1980, with Evelyn Andersen, she founded the Pink Ladies Volunteer Corps,[7] and in 1994 organised Cayman's first annual 'Glamorous Granny' competition.[2] In 2011 she published her first book Cayman Rhyme Time, a children's book which features traditional songs from the islands.[3]

Miller died on 19 May 2020 at The Pines.[1][7] On 20 May 2020, the Cayman Islands National Flag was flown at half-mast on all government buildings.[8] She was described by The Cayman Compass as "Cayman's own Mother Teresa".[3]

Awards

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  • Queen's Certificate and Badge of Honour (1967)[9]
  • Member of the Order of the British Empire (1977)[3]
  • Vice-Patron – Brigade International (1983)[2]
  • Listed as one of five "Distinguished Women of History" on the Cayman Islands (2003)[10]
  • Spirit of Excellence Award (2009)[11]
  • Golden Apple Lifetime Achievement Award (2010)[3]
  • Officer of the Order of the British Empire (2018)[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Cayman mourns 'Caymanian icon' Olive Miller". Scotland Times. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  2. ^ a b c d e Ragoonath, Reshma (2020-05-20). "Cayman mourns Olive Miller". Cayman Compass. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Staff (2014-03-11). "Olive Miller: Cayman's own Mother Teresa". Cayman Compass. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  4. ^ Cayman Commerce. Northwestern. 1973.
  5. ^ "Olive Miller OBE remembers how the NCVO began – Caymanian Times". www.caymaniantimes.ky. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  6. ^ "History – The Pines Retirement Home Cayman Islands". www.thepinescayman.com. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  7. ^ a b "About | The Pink Ladies Volunteer Corps". The Pink Ladies Volu. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  8. ^ "Flags fly at half-mast for Olive Miller – Cayman Islands Headline News". Cayman News Service. 2020-05-20. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  9. ^ "Cayman Icon and Matriarch, Mrs Olive Miller, passes". www.caymaniantimes.ky. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  10. ^ "Honouring Distinguished Women". Cayman Islands Government. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  11. ^ Staff (2009-01-27). "Heroes take a bow". Cayman Compass. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  12. ^ "Olive-Miller". Cayman Compass. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
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