3 Presidents Speak At Zell Miller Memorial

ATLANTA, GA — Three former U.S. presidents joined thousands of others at a memorial service Tuesday morning for Zell Miller, the former governor and United States senator who died Friday at his north Georgia home.

Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton — both of whom Miller supported — and Jimmy Carter, the only Georgian to ever win the presidency, eulogized Miller at the 11 a.m. service at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta.

Draped in an American flag, Miller's casket was escorted into the service Tuesday by state troopers, followed by family members and dignitaries.

The Miller Institute Foundation streamed Tuesday's memorial live online. You can watch it here:

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"He is really one of a kind ...," said Bush, the first president to speak, noting it's rare for anyone to be eulogized by three presidents. "He was a man of honor and a faithful friend."

"He was a country music fan. He loved the rodeo. His favorite restaurant was Waffle House," Bush said. "He also loved Shakespeare."

Miller became the first person in U.S. history to serve as keynote speaker at presidential conventions for two different parties when, as a U.S. senator, he endorsed Bush in 2004. As governor, he had served in the same role for Clinton in 1992.

Carter, who came up in the ranks of Georgia politics at the same time as Miller and had a 55-year friendship checkered with occasional political disagreements, spoke next.

"Maybe if I had got him to speak at my second convention I would have gotten elected, too," Carter joked.

Carter noted Miller's lifelong devotion to education, from serving as a professor at Young Harris College to helping newly elected state senators at the Georgia capitol.

"I would say that Zell, more than any other governor who has served in any state in America, has done more for young people's education," Carter said, noting the HOPE Scholarship's role in sending more Georgia students to college.

Clinton spoke of the "personal debt" he felt toward Miller, who helped him carry Georgia during his first run for the presidency. He remembered staying with the Millers in Atlanta and staying up talking until 3 a.m. Miller gave him some political advice that night, Clinton said.

"He said, 'If you want to be president, you need to call (political advisers) Paul Begala and James Carville and give shorter speeches," Clinton said. "Well, I took 50 percent of the advice."

Georgia would become the first Democratic primary Clinton would win that year, helping boost what was looking like a faltering campaign.

Noting Miller's shift toward supporting Bush, while remaining a lifelong Democrat, Clinton said Miller's decency toward those with whom he disagreed never faltered.

"Too much of that is gone now ...," Clinton said. "He did not believe people who disagreed with him by party were by definition bad people or the objects of destruction ... . His adversaries were not his enemies — except briefly when he'd get mad at you."

Miller's grandson, Bryan Miller, now CEO of the Miller Institute, also spoke, calling his grandfather "one of Georgia's finest public servants."

"He was a mentor to me, both personally and professionally," Miller said. "I gained more wisdom and knowledge from him than any other person I encountered in life."

Miller, 86, died Friday in Young Harris after being treated for Parkinson's disease. Hundreds of people gathered on Monday for a memorial to Miller there. After Tuesday's service, Miller's body will be taken to the state capitol, where he will lie in state until a funeral there is held on Wednesday.

Miller was born in 1932 in Young Harris and his father died when he was 17 days old. He was raised by a single mother in a home that, as the family tells it, was built by his mother in part with stones she gathered from a nearby stream.

He graduated from Young Harris College in 1951 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps shortly afterward. He earned a master's degree in history from the University of Georgia in 1958 and returned to Young Harris where he began a career as an educator.

A lifelong Democrat, Miller served as mayor of Young Harris, in the Blue Ridge mountains near the North Carolina state line. He would go on to serve in the Georgia State Senate from 1961-64 and as lieutenant governor from 1975-91 — making him the longest-serving lieutenant governor in Georgia history.

From 1991-99 he served as Georgia's 79th governor. He was called out of retirement in 2000 when Gov. Roy Barnes appointed him to serve in the U.S. Senate after the death of Sen. Paul Coverdell. He easily won a special election to keep the seat and served in Washington until 2005.

Miller's legacy as governor includes the creation of the lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship and Georgia's voluntary pre-kindergarten program. Today, more than 1.8 million students have gone to college in Georgia on HOPE Scholarships and more than 1.6 million 4-year olds have begun their education through Georgia's Pre-K program.

Miller also was the first Georgia governor to attempt to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag in the early 1990s. That push ultimate proved unsuccessful, and politically damaging, though Miller would go on to win re-election in spite of it — thanks largely to the popularity of HOPE.

Miller's executive state funeral on Wednesday will be at 11 a.m. at the capitol. After the service, his family will hold a final private viewing at McDonald & Son Funeral Home and Crematory.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to the Miller Institute Foundation.

Photos courtesy Miller Institute Foundation