Obituary
Dr. Elizabeth (Russell) Miller
February 26th, 1939 – January 2nd, 2022
Passed peacefully away in Toronto, Ontario.
Predeceased by husband George Miller (May 27th 1997), parents Dora (Oake) Russell (1986) and Ted Russell (1977).
Leaving to mourn, son Dennis (Emi) and her beloved grandchildren Nick and Charlotte; sisters Rhona, June (Treadway), Peg (George); brother Kelly (Tonya); and nieces and nephews around the world Bill, Debbie, Paula, Bob, David, Ken, Carolyn, Gail, Karen, Laura, Naomi, and Tamsyn.
Stoneyhouse Street is a small street in the residential subdivision that is part of and just south of Churchill Park in St. John’s, NL. After they moved back to St. John’s in 1943, that street became the domicile of Ted and Dora Russell, their four daughters, Rhona, Elizabeth, June and Peggy, and their son Kelly. With both of her parents being accomplished writers, in a variety of genres, it is not surprising that at least one of their children would become a writer. Elizabeth Russell, later Elizabeth Miller, attended Memorial University, where she fulfilled the requirements for a BA, a BA(Ed), an MA and a PhD. Her PhD dissertation, completed in 1987, was a critical biography of the Canadian writer Norman Duncan, who penned some of the finest short stories ever written about Newfoundland. She had been a member of the Department of English Language and Literature at Memorial for some years before attaining her PhD, teaching in the areas of Newfoundland writing and writers of the Romantic era. It was through such Romantic era writers as Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Polidori, who wrote the first novel to contain the character who became known as Dracula, that she became interested in Count Dracula herself. Throughout the decades that followed, she became a recognized expert on Bram Stoker, and Dracula, the character he made larger than life in so many ways.
Betty Miller believed that Stoker was a serious writer and Dracula was a character worthy of study. Between 1997 and 2012 she wrote or edited and published seven books on Dracula, the latter, entitled The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker, on which her co-editor was Dacre Stoker, grand-nephew of Bram Stoker. She was also the impetus behind 20-plus articles on aspects of Stoker and Dracula; she delivered lectures at universities, learned studies, conferences, ballet productions and private functions, as well as becoming involved in several television documentaries and scores of newspaper and magazine articles on the two.
However, even though Count Dracula could be very addictive, he claimed only a portion Betty Miller’s literary passion; she never lost her interest in and promotion of Newfoundland writers, many of whom had become obsolete; she published works herself on both her father’s and her mother’s writings, as well as The Outport in Twentieth-Century Newfoundland Literature (1983); The Frayed Edge: Norman Duncan’s Newfoundland (1992); Arms and the Newfoundlander: Poetry of the Great War (1994); Tempered Days: A Century of Newfoundland Short Fiction with George Casey (1996). She also supervised a number of masters theses and PhD dissertations on Newfoundland writers.
Her interest in Dracula was a venture into a new area of scholarship; however, she soon started receiving international accolades for her writings on Dracula, and people began to take notice. First, she was created Baroness of the House of Dracula by the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, in Romania in 1995. Then there was two Lord Ruthven Awards for best non-fiction book in the vampire subgenre for Dracula: Sense & Nonsense in 2000 and again in 2008 for Bram Stoker’s Notes for Dracula; and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dracula Society in 2012. She was not forgotten, as many are, in her home country: she received the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching from Memorial University in 1992 and was named Professor Emerita following her retirement from that institution in 2005.
Loved by her students, respected by her colleagues, a serious researcher and writer in two literary genres, a nationally and internationally recognized academic: it will take more than garlic, sunlight, a silver bullet, a crucifix and holy water or a wooden stake of hawthorn or ash to kill (or even lessen slightly) Betty Miller’s reputation as scholar, intellectual, collaborator, professional, family member and friend.
A Celebration of Life will be held at a future date to be announced. To be notified of this event, please contact Kelly Russell at unclebayman@gmail.com
In lieu of flowers, please note, Elizabeth was passionate about supporting Social Programs for vulnerable women and girls. The family would be honoured for you to do so in her name.
Naomi House www.gifttool.com/donations/Donate?ID=2116&AID=2755&fbclid=IwAR0QHJytixXuZYseAUkYhU8RinsW3Uln69l7BnK0V46-zchGQ2KQ31uQ7ko
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Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Elizabeth Miller 2022..
Death notice for the town of: St-John’s, Province: T-N
My name is Wanda and I first met Betty when I became a member of the Newfoundland Chapter of the Dracula Society. She was a wonderful and witty lady and I have fond memories of my time spent with her. I am only now finding out about her death. My thoughts go out to her family and friends.