The First Lady of Flowers

HAWTHORNE  It was St. Patrick’s Day 1982, a day that changed Cathy Miller’s life forever. She was one of the thousands of pilgrims filling Paul VI Hall at St. Peter’s Square for St. Pope John Paul II’s weekly papal audience. She was with her husband, Charles, who surprised her with the trip to Italy to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary and in her possession, she held a shadow box. In it was a dried floral arrangement she created specifically for the pope.

Call it divine intervention, the Holy Spirit or simply a prayer answered, the Pope took notice and walked toward Miller during the audience. “After the Pope had reached for my dried-flower frame with out-stretched arms, I humbly said, ‘Dear Holy Father, I grew and dried these flowers just for you,’ ” said Miller. “He gratefully received the shadow box and looking directly into my eyes replied, ‘This is so beautiful, they are real.’ Respectfully I told him, ‘Thank you, Holy Father, they were real but have been dried.’ The pope reiterated, ‘But they are real. Bless you, your family and your flowers.’ ”

Miller, a parishioner of St. Anthony here who celebrated her 90th birthday just last week, considers that moment the reason for having success in her dried floral arrangement creations. Miller said, “Doing this, I’ve lived a very exciting life.”

Her floral arrangements have even caught the attention of some U.S. presidents. In 1976, Miller’s creations were featured in Family Circle magazine, a monthly publication with stories on home decor and women’s topics. The late Rex Scouten, who served as White House Chief Usher and later White House Curator, took interest in Miller’s work because of the article. With 132 rooms in the White House, it became challenging for the staff to keep up with fresh flowers.

Starting in 1979 with President Jimmy Carter and then for each of the next four U.S. presidents, she has made more than 60 dried arrangements for the White House. Just recently, First Lady Melania Trump sent Miller a letter about her floral arrangements showing her interest in them. Through the years, she would receive letters from the White House thanking her for her work or other correspondences. Having just turned 90, she also just received a birthday card from President Carter, also a nonagenarian.

First Ladies Nancy Regan and Barbara Bush, who both acknowledged the work of Miller, were cited in her book, “Harvesting, Preserving and Arranging Dried Flowers,” which was published in 1997. For Miller, publishing a book was the crowning moment in her career. When the book was published, she did tours to promote it including signings at Barnes and Noble bookstores. She also made 32 television appearances and was featured in many magazines.

Her career in dried flower arrangements began in 1972 when she and her husband bought a farm in Ridgefield Springs, N.Y. near Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Miller, who always loved flowers, would grow acres and acres of flowers but she was sad that eventually they would die. So she figured out ways to dry the flowers to extend the beauty they provided. “These flowers are all God’s creation,” she said. “I am simply prolonging their lives.”

They sold the farm about three years ago and now in her Hawthorne home she has boxes and boxes of dried flowers ready to be made into arrangements.

Today her work is mostly for charity. She headlines many fundraisers for parishes, nursing homes and women’s groups and presents flower lectures and demos on how to preserve garden flowers.

Her family has been supportive in this endeavor, which in addition to her husband, Charles, who turned 90 this week, are her daughters, Mary and Catherine, and her granddaughter, Tavia. She also has two great-grandchildren.

While floral arrangements are Miller’s first love, she is also a musician. Her parents both had musical talents. In fact, her father John Peragllo Sr., founded the Peragallo Pipe Organ Company in Paterson in 1918. Around the Diocese and around the world, Peragallo organs can be found in churches and cathedrals. Of note, the organ in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was made and refurbished by the company. The company also renovated the organ in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Miller also has a movie credit in the 1987 movie, “Lean on Me,” a biographical film on Joe Clark, the principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, who was played by Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman. She was the lyricist for Eastside High School’s alma mater, “Fair Eastside,” which is prominently featured in the movie. Miller wrote the song during her senior year in high school. She remembers the thrill of attending the movie premiere with her family.

Looking back on her life, she attributes her many blessings to God and is grateful to her family as the foundation for the things she loves in her life — faith, family, music and flowers. Miller said, “My mother believed there’s nothing you can’t accomplish in life as long as you go for it and work hard. But she always added, ‘ask God to help.’”