Yesterday’s funeral service celebrating the life of former governor and U.S. senator Zell Miller at Atlanta’s Peachtree Road United Methodist Church was a beautiful service punctuated by remarks from three former U.S. presidents and traditional Christian hymns that the man from Young Harris loved.
The day began in an odd fashion: It was an Uber ride with InsiderAdvantage founder and former state legislator Matt Towery and former state senator Chuck Clay with a driver who knew little English and didn’t know where he was going. As Fate would have it, we ended up in a left turn-lane to go into the church parking lot. Then, suddenly, behind us came a police escort with flashing lights and two former presidents in a heavily protected motorcade. A state trooper, thinking our shiny black vehicle was the lead car in the turn lane, waved us through with police and presidents dutifully following. We all drove right up to the side church door and disembarked! Towery commented: “As (former President) Bill Clinton once told me in a White House meeting: “Go with it.” And we did.
As we mingled with friends and acquaintances, we noticed an interesting cluster of various circles of political power in Georgia. We spotted two one-time “kings of Gwinnett County,” Virgil Williams and Wayne Mason. (Williams was a huge and early Miller donor and later served as his gubernatorial chief of staff.) The Democrat cabal included national political consultant Paul Begala, former Gov. Roy Barnes, attorney (and former U.S. ambassador to Canada) Gordon Giffin, Ed Sims, Keith Mason, former Congressman Buddy Darden, former Congressman John Barrow, longtime state Rep. Calvin Smyre (the “dean of the House) and various one-time Miller staffers.
There was a Republican contingent highlighted by U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (who Miller defeated in the 1990 governor’s race), Gov. Nathan Deal, House Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. Chris Carr and his wife Joan Kirchner Carr
(Isakson’s chief of staff who was once Miller’s top senatorial aide) were there along with other Republicans and conservatives who especially appreciated Miller’s swing to the political right over the past 18 years.
Grandson Bryan Miller gave moving remarks about his “family patriarch,” and listed 14 “lessons” Miller wrote to his family that he learned when he turned 70 years of age. Many drew laughs, such as: “Whiners are terrible people to be around. Don’t be one.” Another “lesson,” no doubt a tribute to his wife Shirley, was “marry your best friend” because “she will become your severest critic.”
Then it came time for remarks from former President George W. Bush, Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Bush noted that he and Miller shared a love of country and a love of baseball. Noting that the proud U.S. Marine spoke on behalf of his re-election at the 2004 GOP National Convention (which shocked many of Miller’s Democrat friends) the Republican declared “he spoke for me then” and “now I’ve come to speak for him.”
Carter, who served in the state Senate with Miller before being elected governor in 1970, spoke about how he deeply appreciated Miller’s advice and support over the decades.
Clinton emotionally stated: “There is probably no one who could speak to you and feels more of a personal debt to Zell Miller, and to Shirley, than I do.” (Miller endorsed his fellow Arkansas governor for president at the 1992 Democratic National Convention.) He credited Miller’s support for his badly-needed win in the Georgia Democratic presidential primary of that year.
As attendees saw the flag-draped coffin and heard the choir in the huge sanctuary, one of the final hymns was titled “Going Home.” It was fitting. The Rev. Don Harp (former longtime pastor of Peachtree Road) noted that wherever Miller traveled he always looked forward to “going back home” to Young Harris– and to that beloved house in the mountains that his sainted mother built out of stone from a nearby creek.
Zell Miller died on March 23 at the age of 86.
Phil Kent is a former editorial page editor of the Augusta Chronicle and CEO and Publisher of InsiderAdvantage Georgia and James magazine.
