Dorothy "Dodo/Blammy" B. Miller

Dorothy Booth Miller, famously known to the Harbor Springs community and generations of family and friends as "Blammy" and “Dodo”, passed away peacefully at her home on June 26, 2026. She was an extraordinary, generous, funny, beloved matriarch, and a joyful presence in Harbor Springs for nearly 50 years.

Born on October 13, 1930, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, she grew up on the campus of the Cranbrook Educational Community, which was founded by her grandparents George Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth. Throughout her life, she embodied the Booth values of inclusion, stewardship, and service. Guided by her calling to become a teacher and her commitment to the well-being of families and children, she attended Wheelock College in Boston.

With her curiosity and a love of learning, she was naturally adventurous and brave. She loved music, the arts, skiing, and tennis, and participated in equestrian sports, fencing (Michigan State Champion), and field hockey as a youth. Having instilled these values in all of her children, they purchased a three-wheeled bike for her in celebration of her 90th birthday. She promptly put it to regular use, riding loops around Perry Farm, even in winter, taking her last earthly ride less than three weeks before her death, rubber duckie horn and silver bell in tow.

Blammy was always, unwaveringly, about the children. Not just her own children and grandchildren, but also her friends' children and grandchildren. She taught Kids Club at First Presbyterian Church and coached 1st-grade soccer players in Harbor Springs. She sponsored two children through Compassion International, one in Rwanda and one in India, personally traveling to visit each while in her 70s and 80s. She never met a young fundraiser she didn't support: Girl Scouts, student councils, sports teams, school bands, 8th-grade trips, and more. Whatever they were selling, she was buying.

She was a member of the University Women’s Club, the National Society of Colonial Dames, Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Harbor Springs Garden Club. Gifted with a beautiful voice, she sang with the Northern Michigan Chorale, the Little Traverse Choral Society, Bay View Vespers, the First Presbyterian Church Revels choir, and Night of the Northern Stars. An avid animal lover, she raised her kids with a variety of pets, including gerbils, cats, dogs, and a parrot. She supported the Little Traverse Humane Society and Northwings Birds of Prey Rehabilitation.

She found tremendous joy in hosting unforgettable holidays and birthdays for every generation of her family, and was, without question, the Queen of Christmas. She steadfastly upheld traditions of all kinds: gathering everyone for candy house-making, then displaying the small city of frosting-smeared, jujube-shingled milk cartons on her kitchen shelf for a month or more. On Christmas Eve, she was a committed tinsel thrower, not a placer, for expediency. She prepared piles of bacon and pancakes for the family, sometimes sitting on the floor (with the kids, of course), using her steadfast electric cast-iron skillet. She was the architect and conductor of the little train town that looped beneath the tree. Not infrequently, Blammy could be found lying on the floor in her Christmas apron, repairing an unacceptable derailment caused by a cat, dog, or (gasp!) a rogue strand of tinsel that may or may not have dropped there via her tinsel application method.

In 1996, she reunited with her Kingswood Cranbrook high school sweetheart, Stephen C. Miller. They married at her home in Harbor Springs, beginning a joyful, full circle chapter late in life.

She is survived by her children Jeffrey Sloane Ford (Karen), James Warren Ford (Laurie), of Harbor Springs; Marjie Bird (Salt Lake City); and Barbara Caines (Chicago); her brother Peter Booth (Colorado Springs); 12 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husbands, Horace C. Ford, Herbert W. Lester, and Stephen C. Miller.

Appropriately, her memorial will be held at Nub’s Nob ski area, where she immersed her family in the all-season, all-weather adventures of Northern Michigan, with their beloved Hidden Hamlet A Frame as basecamp. She is the reason why her family loves and finds awe in nature and the outdoors. Her celebration will take place on Saturday, July 18, at 4:30 PM.

The family is so very grateful to Blissful Home Care and Hospice of Michigan for the compassionate, attentive, loving presence and tireless care they extended to Blammy.

To honor Blammy's generous spirit, consider a contribution to any charitable organization serving children, animals, or the natural world.