The ‘First Lady' of harness racing dies

Goshen — Mary Lib and Delvin Miller - Mary Lib Miller, the ‘First Lady’ of harness racing and the widow of Hall of Famer Delvin G. Miller, died Sept. 1, 2009, at her home in Bay Hill, Orlando, Fla. Mary Elizabeth ‘Mary Lib’ Frazier was born Dec. 6, 1920 in Winston-Salem, N.C. After graduation from high school she was employed by the 8th Air Force, where she met her first husband John McCrary Jr., who was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. In March 1946, she married Delvin Glenn Miller, a harness horse trainer/driver and a friend of McCrary’s, with whom she had corresponded during Miller’s deployment in the China-Burma-India Theater after he sent her a letter of condolences upon hearing of his buddy’s death. The world of horse racing was new to her; she confessed to never having been to a harness race. Mrs. Miller later said that the first horse she remembered seeing was pulling an ice wagon. She learned very quickly, however, locking herself away and studying the weekly trotting magazines that were delivered to their home. “We had to get two subscriptions, so Delvin could read one.” The Millers divided the first few years of their marriage with the harness racing season, based from his family home in Western Pennsylvania, and winter quarters in Winston-Salem, where he trained a private harness racing stable and breeding operation for tobacco magnate William N. Reynolds’ Tanglewood Farm. Mrs. Miller became a great friend of Mr. Reynolds, their patron, who gave her the 1933 Hambletonian trophy, a silver platter, won by his filly Mary Reynolds. She later donated the precious artifact to the Harness Museum & Hall of Famein Goshen, N.Y., where she and her late husband were trustees for many decades. In 1947, the Millers purchased Meadow Lands Farm in Meadow Lands, Pa., 25 miles south of Pittsburgh, converting the former dairy farm into a major Standardbred breeding operation with the purchase of their prolific stallion Adios, her favorite horse, a year later. Mrs. Miller always felt a special bond with the great stallion and greeted him in his paddock every morning from her kitchen window. She even rode him and fed him a daily apple, in fact, peeling it for him. She maintained that in her new life, surrounded by horses, “He was the only horse I wasn’t afraid of.” The couple renovated the circa 1830 farm house with antiques and artwork, especially 19th century Currier & Ives prints, while Mr. Miller collected harness racing memorabilia and trophies over the span of an unparalleled career. She also collected, among other “minutiae,” commemorative enameled spoons in their global travels which she said, “pack easy and don’t break.” Their home was renowned throughout the trotting world as a center of hospitality for their many friends locally and from all over the world, with Mrs. Miller as the vivacious and seemingly inexhaustible hostess, “no matter who or what hour Delvin brought somebody home.” Visitors included celebrities as diverse as Stan Musial, Perry Como, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Chet Atkins, Joe DiMaggio, Art Rooney, “Buffalo Bob” Smith (television pioneer with the Howdy Doody show), Jimmy Cagney and Eddie Arcaro. She was also a “hands-on” mistress of Meadow Lands Farm, attending to every detail, in doors and out, creating a renowned showplace as well as a working horse farm. In 1963 Mr. Miller founded The Meadows race track a short distance from the farm, which hosted the Adios Stake every August (now the Delvin Miller Adios) and Grand Circuit racing for a week in honor of their great horse. The Millers’ Adios Week barn parties provided great hospitality for out-of-town guests, as well as local horsemen and farm employees, and created wonderful memories, such as Mr. Atkins playing guitar, accompanied by Mr. Musial’s harmonica. The farm was sold in 1986 and the Millers moved their “northern” home to their Meadowcroft project at Bancroft Farm near Avella, Pa., 36 miles southeast of Pittsburgh near the West Virginia state line, which had been owned by the Miller family since the late 1700s.