It was love at first sight, Mary Carol Miller said, when as a teenager she first set her eyes on Cotesworth, the antebellum plantation house in Carroll County.
“When I saw that house — there’s just some things you never get over,” Miller said with a reminiscent look on her face.
The lavish home, built by U.S. Sen. J.Z. George 170 years ago, immediately sparked Miller’s interest in preserving historic buildings and keeping alive the stories that the old walls hold.
Miller, 59, is known as a writer, local historian, community volunteer and historic preservationist. Her prolific efforts were recently recognized at the March meeting of the Chakchiuma Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, where she was presented two national awards by the chapter.
“I am more honored than I can even say, and I’m honored for this to come from this group. This is such a fine group of women,” Miller said. “I am literally speechless.”
Miller, unaware that the chapter had nominated her for the two prestigious awards, attended the meeting as a guest speaker. Her planned presentation was about the book “Greenwood: Mississippi Memories Vol. I,” which she co-wrote with Allan Hammons and Donny Whitehead, and the upcoming second volume of the book that recently began printing.
“If you see a tiny lady with a stethoscope around her neck, staging a sit-in to protect some building downtown, you can be sure it is our guest speaker,” DAR member Marion Howard said as she introduced Miller to the other members and guests at the meeting.
Howard’s introduction soon took a turn Miller did not expect, as the chapter member announced the awards to the crowd and the recipient.
“Mary Carol is deeply involved with in the community, and we depend on her for her architectural influence and her knowledge of Greenwood,” said Howard. “Her knowledge is respected.”
Miller and Howard have run across each other many times in the community — and not just because they live across the street from each other.
Both are active volunteers with Main Street Greenwood, the Museum of the Mississippi Delta and the renovation efforts for the old Greenwood Public Library.
Seeing how Miller’s knowledge was “critical” in the community, Howard mentioned the historic preservationist’s name to the Chakchiuma Chapter’s nominating committee for the national awards.
“Lecturing for the museum and writing a grant for the city — these things are so needed in Greenwood,” Howard said. “The committee was 100 percent in agreement to nominate her.”
Miller is the Chakchiuma Chapter’s first national award recipient. Only about 20 of these awards are presented annually throughout the United States.
“This is very important to our chapter. We have never reached this high,” said Howard. “I feel like we have reached a pinnacle in our organization, and we have really been able to fully recognize her work and do it in the proper way.”
The road to Miller’s position as a local historian and writer was not always known to her.
Miller is a Greenwood native, but college, medical school, marriage and children took her to other places — including two years in Scotland — for 34 years before she returned to her hometown in 2005.
Her mother was Sara Criss, who lived in Greenwood for 85 of her 88 years.
Throughout Miller’s life, she said, her mother had two jobs — one at the Chamber of Commerce and the other as bureau chief for the Memphis newspaper The Commercial Appeal. Both of her jobs allowed Criss to know the ins and outs of the community.
“She grew up here. She knew everybody and had a huge family,” said Miller. “She found Greenwood so endlessly fascinating.”
In fact, Miller recalled that as a child, her mother would tell bedtime stories to her about people from Greenwood — local characters going all the way back to Criss’ great-grandmother.
“She knew a huge collection of stories. Some were funny, and some were sad,” said Miller. “They were just a great resource of Greenwood history. If I have any insight into Greenwood’s history, it’s because I grew up immersed in it.”
It wasn’t until Miller was in her mid-30s that she began what she calls “a hobby that turned into more.”
“I was bound and determined not to write, because I saw what my mother went through with a deadline every day,” said Miller.
Already having a thorough knowledge of Greenwood, Miller steadily studied architecture, history and, particularly, antebellum homes from the time she first saw Cotesworth to adulthood. At the time Miller was first published, she was not practicing medicine and she said “needed something to get into.” She turned to her longtime interest.
She began submitting magazine articles. Although at first she received many rejections, she soon began her hobby and side career as a successful freelance writer.
“When it finally clicked in, it clicked in big time. I was writing articles right and left,” said Miller.
The first story she ever published was about the history of the Star of the West ship, which she lectured on at the museum about a year ago during the “War Comes to the Mississippi Delta” exhibit.
In 1996, one of her articles, “Lost Mansion,” led to a book that was published by University Press. That was the first of 11 books that Miller has authored.
“I was very fortunate, and it turned into an avocation and then to publishing and, then, to something that is not a job — it’s a productive avocation,” said Miller. “I am one of those fortunate people who gets to work with something they love.”
Looking through her work, from her first published story to the second volume of the Greenwood books, it’s evident that the town where Miller grew up has been her muse.
“We live in a beautiful town with a lot of beautiful architecture and a committed group of people willing to work for that historical architecure,” Miller said. “It’s a fascinating place to live, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else now.”
nContact Ruthie Robison at 581-7233 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
