07/11/12: Community, family and faith

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

Steve Earley | The Virginian-Pilot

THE HANDS waved gently in the air.

Such was the scene Monday evening, as several hundred people packed the chapel for the wake service for state Sen. Yvonne B. Miller, who died last week. There were so many, in fact, that services had to be streamed to the social hall for the overflow crowd. I’m told that almost a thousand people showed up.

Young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Democrat and Republican — all gathered to pay homage to their mentor. For to reduce Miller to her time in the legislature is to ignore all of the other facets of this woman whose stamp has been left on so many lives.

Of all of the speakers, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, a longtime friend of Miller’s, summed her up the best. “Sen. Miller moved up,” Warner said, “but never moved on.” The longest-serving woman in the Virginia legislature never forgot where she came from.

You’ve no doubt heard her bio: She grew up poor as the eldest of 13, first in her family to graduate from high school, and the first to graduate from college. She began her teaching career at Young’s Park Elementary School. Even after she moved up to Norfolk State University, she never forgot the kids at that school, now known as P.B. Young Sr. Elementary. She visited often, donated school supplies and sponsored a math contest.

Miller spent more than 37 years at Norfolk State, becoming a professor and head of the Department of Early Childhood/Elementary Education. She retired in 1999 and was named professor emeritus in 2000. In retirement, she remained involved with the university. The calendar on her website shows her as scheduled to speak at a scholarship luncheon next month.

She toiled tirelessly in the legislature for the causes near and dear to her heart, education foremost among them but also civil rights. For many years, she introduced legislation to restore voting rights to felons.

I had the privilege of serving as her treasurer during her last campaign. Over the course of my brief tenure, I had the opportunity to see just how much community, family and faith grounded her in everything she undertook. As chairman of the Senate transportation committee, she was one of the most powerful people in the legislature, but she never used that power for political gain. Rather, she continued to advocate for the least among us.

Nearing the end of Monday’s wake service, we were asked to wave our hands if we had been touched by the work of Sen. Miller. I looked around the chapel — every hand was in the air.

Young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Democrat and Republican — all hands were waving, an acknowledgement of the lives enriched by the small woman with the big voice.