Linda A. (Baumert) Miller, formerly of Old River Road, Woodstock; Appleton Manor, New Ipswich, N.H.; and Lunenburg, Mass. died peacefully Friday, May 30, 2025 at her summer home in Newport, Vt, after a lengthy battle with Lou Gehrig’s ALS disease. She was the wife of Howard J. Miller with whom she would have celebrated her 57th anniversary on July 13. Daughter of the late Helen Elizabeth (Romaine) and Frank X. Baumert. She recently had spent her winters at The Villages, Fla. and her summers on Lake Memphremagog, Newport, Vt.
She was born in Plainfield, N.J., Dec. 8, 1947 and shortly thereafter her family moved to Wellesley, Mass. for a few years. The rest of her childhood was spent in West Hartford, Conn., where she attended the local schools and graduated from the Conard High School.
She received her Associates Degree at Bay Path Jr. College in Longmeadow, Mass., and her Bachelor’s Degree at Lesley College in Cambridge, Mass. Mrs. Miller also graduated from the New England School of Anatomy and Funeral Service, in Boston, MA Summa Cum Laude.
She was very active in college and was named among “Who’s Who?” in American Colleges. It was while serving as an officer of the Student Council that she met her future husband, at a college mixer.
Mrs. Miller was a former teacher at Notre Dame Preparatory School in Fitchburg, Mass., and was a partner with her husband in their funeral business, owning and operating funeral homes in Lunenburg, Fitchburg, and Westminster, Mass. for more than 30 years.
Active in community affairs, Mrs. Miller served as President of the Lunenburg Woman’s Club and a member of their Board of Directors for many years; as a member and officer of the Burbank Hospital Guild, Fitchburg, Mass. where she also served as a member of the Burbank Hospital Hospice Advisory Council and served as a member of its Executive Board of Directors.
She was active and held leadership roles in many civic, church, and service organizations.
In 1996, after 30 years as an active partner in the funeral business, Mrs. Miller retired to Woodstock, her husband’s hometown area. Her retirement, however, continued to keep her busy owning, restoring and renting a commercial building at 65 Central Street, Carriageway Court; owning the Gilded Age antique and 19th-century art business, making it possible for her husband and she to travel extensively as international art dealers, acquiring art and antiques. At the same time, physically helping to restore and recreate their 19th-century home Forest Hall.
She was a U.S. Government & National Park Mounted Ranger Volunteer at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park for many years; and with her husband, patrolled for hundreds of hours each year, acting as a goodwill ambassador for our national park.
As a member of the North Country Hounds, Fellow members looked forward to her Hunt Breakfasts and famous sleigh ride brunches, donated by the Millers at the Club’s fundraisers.
Mrs. Miller was an American presidential and British monarch historian and challenged her grandchildren to learn the presidents. All succeeded by the age of 10, one grandchild also able to recite all the vice presidents. She also encouraged most children who crossed her path to learn about American history — neighbors, friends and relatives, children and grandchildren, those she eagerly adopted as grandchildren, grandchildren’s college roommates and their families, and children of workmen. If you were a youngster and lucky enough to paint the Millers’ fences or work odd jobs, you could earn more money by knowing your presidents and their trivia than you would by completing the maintenance tasks.
Mrs. Miller wore many hats, most of them were in support of her husband’s dreams and goals, as his partner and chief assistant. Their business and personal creations and adventures took her on an extraordinary journey as they built a successful funeral business, renovated and redesigned three funeral homes, three antique colonial homes, a commercial building and their properties. Their interests in horses, antique cars and carriages gave them incredible experiences, travels and continuous adventures.
Mrs. Miller was a woman of elegance, beauty, grace and refined simplicity, yet she was as comfortable driving a bulldozer, building fences or training horses, as she was putting on an intimate formal dinner party for 12 or a grand party for 75, or as chief song leader and maple candy maker at the bunkhouse and sleigh parties.
She was an accomplished classical pianist, an artist, and loved to paint.
She belonged to another era and had the values of another time. Her college yearbook quote under her graduation picture was “a merry heart and a helping hand,” true for the rest of her very active life.
She leaves her husband, Howard J. Miller; three sons, Dustin H. of Indianapolis, Douglas E. of St. Augustine, Fla., and Duncan J. of Portland Ore.; seven grandchildren, Brooke, Dallas and Grant of Indianapolis, Peyton and Logan of St. Augustine and Field X. and Simone of Portland, Ore.; a brother W. Alan Baumert of Columbia, Conn.; a sister Betty Ann (Baumert) Miller of Cornish, N.H.; nieces, nephews, and cousins.
A private musical tribute was held in the Brick Church in Hartland.
A private burial ceremony took place in the Miller Family lot in the Village Cemetery in Hartland.
The Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock is assisting the family.
