Chattanooga - A Great City

by Mildred Perry Miller
(East Ridge, Tennessee )

Where Chattanooga is concerned, I have nothing on my chest but praise and adulation.

In 1945, at the age of 19, I moved here to attend the University of Chattanooga as a Junior.

I had been a student at Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, Tennessee for the first
two years of my college experience.

My reason for coming to Chattanooga was Dr. Werner Wolff and his
beautiful European wife, Madame Emmy Land-Wolff with
whom I was to study singing and music in general.

I grew up in a small north Georgia town situated in
the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and for
all practical purposes, Chattanooga seemed as large as
New York City to me.

Right away I was entranced with the
two great mountains, Lookout and Signal, and before too
long I was enamored by Chickamauga Lake and other
lakes around the area, and when I saw a sign saying
Chattanooga was the "Scenic City of the South", I
most certainly concurred.

Ensconced in a girls' dorm at the University, I began
my musical studies and had not been in town a week
when I was invited to join the choir of the First
Presbyterian Church that was directed by Dr. Wolff
and accompanied by Carl Scheibe, a magnificent organist and the person who organized for the first
time, The Chattanooga Organist Guild.

Mr. Scheibe
was a teacher at Baylor School, but soon after my arrival, he opened a studio at Lansford's
and began teaching voice, piano, and organ, and a
great teacher he was, but his tour de force was the
ability to accompany in such a way that one could
sing more attractively than ever before.

The people of the University, the First Presbyterian
Church, and Ochs Temple, plus the Chattanooga Opera Company all welcomed me with wide open
arms and I was soon singing all over town, to my
great joy and satisfaction.

I was invited to sing
in many, many churches and schools and at all kinds
of shindigs and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

In those
days all I wanted to do was to sing, and fortunately,
I had teachers and mentors who seemed to know it all
and were willing to share it with me.

Then, in 1952 I married, had four children, returned
to the University for a Master's Degree in Education.

I had a wonderful time raising my delightful offspring
and caring for my wonderful husband, Herbert Hobson Miller, who, at the age of 55 started out on a new
business enterprise, Signal Barber Supply, and made a
tremendous success of it.

Herbert made enough money so that
our children could attend the best schools, travel, have private music lessons, and just about anything
Chattanooga had to offer. He also gave money and his time to amateur baseball so that our three sons could have a sport to keep them happy, along with hundreds of
other young men.

I could write a long book about the virtues of Chattanooga and the kindnesses I have received here, and still receive from friends, musicians, my church, and anywhere I go.

I have only one thing to say to this town and her people after having been so kindly received here and so lovingly treated...Thank you, Chattanooga, and I love you!