Elva Ruby Connes Miller was born 5 Oct 1907 in Joplin, Missouri
(the third of seven children born to Edward Connes and Ada Martin).
She married John Richardson Miller, a professional investor, thirty years her
senior on January 17, 1934 and moved to Claremont, CA in 1935.
At first, she recorded private-press Vanity Records
in Claremont, then EI Monte, and finally, in Los-Angeles where she was accompanied
by pianist and organist Fred Bock. Bock, (her manager) was the link with
Capitol Records. The studio was experimenting in new sounds and needed a woman
to record. Capitol Records called her and asked her to sing for them.
"I'd never attempted popular songs," said Mrs. Miller.
"The studio men just popped the music in my hands and I started."
"The laughter on the record is unpremeditated, that's when I forgot the words,"
states Mrs. Miller. Other sounds include whistling, which she enjoys. She fills
her mouth with ice before whistling, to get a better sound.
As to the stories that her husband, John, paid for the recording sessions at
Capitol, Mrs. Miller strongly denied this. "Of course, my husband supported my
hobby of recording songs - he's paid all the bills since we were married in 1934.
But he didn't buy me a career."
By 1968 her celebrity had faded but Mrs. Miller continued to perform sporadically,
playing many benefits, including one to raise funds to build a hospital in her
hometown Jetmore, KS. When the hospital was built, she personally furnished the
nurse's lounge. She also devoted much time to raising her niece, Audrey.
Subsequent self-issued singles on her "Mrs. Miller" label went into oblivion.
She retired officially in 1973, resigning from the Screen Actors' Guild in
honorable standing, and eventually settled into a condo at 9535 Reseda Blvd in
Northridge, CA (the Valley). Unfortunately, in January 1994, the huge Northridge
Quake destroyed the complex. Old age took its toll. Elva relocated to the Garden
Terrace Retirement Center, in Vista, CA, where she died in 1997, at the age of 90.
She is interred at the Pomona Mausoleum, near her beloved Claremont.
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