Miller, Hope (Deuprèe) Ridings 1906(?)–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born c. 1906, in Bonham, TX; died of congestive heart failure April 29, 2005, in Washington, DC. Journalist, editor, and author. Miller was best known as the former society page writer for the Washington Post who later published several books about Washington, DC, social life. A bright student who graduated from high school at the age of fifteen and completed her English degree at the University of Texas at age nineteen, Miller also earned a master's degree from Columbia University. Her first journalism job was at a small newspaper in Sherman, Texas, where she started a book page. Next, she headed the English department for a junior college in Paris, Texas. After she married, she and her husband moved to New York City and she took up journalism as a freelance writer. When they moved to Washington, DC, in 1934, Miller was hired by the Washington Post to write for the city desk. She became society editor in 1938. At the time, society reporting in Washington largely consisted of writing about parties and talking about who was attending and what they were wearing. Miller was credited with changing this approach by focusing on the people, what was going on behind the scenes, and, during World War II, covering such subjects as military life and volunteerism. Leaving the Post in 1944, Miller continued her Washington reporting as a correspondent for Town and Country, Promenade, and, during the late 1940s, as a columnist for the McNaught Syndicate. After a period as a public relations consultant, she joined Diplomat magazine as an associate editor in 1952, serving as its editor-in-chief from 1955 to 1967. From 1967 to 1971 Miller was a production consultant for Metromedia Television in Washington, DC. Beginning in 1969, she also published several Washington insider books, including Embassy Row: The Life and Times of Diplomatic Washington (1969), Great Houses of Washington, DC (1969), and Scandals in the Highest Office: Facts and Fictions in the Private Lives of Our Presidents (1973). Miller's later writings focused on antiques. She was Washington editor for Antique Monthly from 1976 until 1989, and continued to write articles on the subject into the 1990s. A former president of the National Women's Press Club, Miller belonged to an older, white-gloved, and dignified school of journalism, yet she helped modernize her profession by making great strides for women journalists, both as a writer and as an editor who encouraged women reporters like herself to further their careers.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2005, p. B11.

Washington Post, May 5, 2005, p. B6.