Obituary of Naomi Rita Miller Hill
Details on the upcoming Memorial/Celebration of Life for Naomi Hill
on Saturday November 9, 2024
We will begin at Fox Funeral Home at 2:00 pm. Please come dressed in your Naomi Hill best, so that we can appropriately celebrate the life of this style icon. A selection of some of her scarves and other items will be available for people to claim as their own and keep.
At 2:45 we will take our seats, and we will have a series of speakers and performers, with a few rousing singalongs. Please watch this space for an update on a livestreaming option for those who need to watch from a distance.* We will be opening the floor to those are there in person to add rememberences if they so choose. Please try to keep remarks to 3-4 minutes.
After the ceremony, we will be receiving folks at 20 Stoneyside Dr, Larchmont. We will be serving snacks, but not dinner, so feel free to stop and have a bite somewhere on your way if you choose. We will be “open for business” as it were until 8 or so.
At Fox Funeral Home, we will have a section set aside for mask-only seating. We also have limited reserved parking available via prior arrangement with Cordelia. (Or you can call the funeral home or Naomi’s old cell phone number.)
* The link will be posted on Cordelia’s and Naomi’s facebook pages and also appear at the Fox Funeral Home website once we have it sometime Friday.
Obituary:
Naomi Rita Miller Hill died in the early morning hours of September 19.
She is survived by her daughter, Cordelia, son-in-law Christopher, and beloved granddaughters Gwen and Glory, as well as her brother Allan, his wife Lorraine and their daughter Jenny.
Daughter of Ruth and Ruby Miller, Naomi was born in 1931 in Brooklyn and spent her early life studying piano at Juilliard as well as modern dance, but her true calling was education.
In 1952, she married Rodman Grant Hill, the love of her life. For many summers after, the two worked together at Camp Willoway. Pioneers in integrated marriage in the 1950s, they joined the March on Washington and always worked for equality. They made their home in Greenwich Village a place for friendship, music, humor and hospitality. In 1969, Rod and Naomi welcomed the birth of their daughter, Cordelia, and moved to Larchmont, NY where they continued the tradition of folk music gatherings for the remaining sixty-five years of their marriage, until Rod’s death in 2017.
Throughout her career, Naomi fought for child-centered education with the firm belief we must meet children where they live. She pushed through administrative, political, and cultural barriers in service of the students she loved and respected. Naomi paved the way for many others’ careers in education through a storied career at PS 87, and then later at Columbia Teachers’ College, NYU School of Education, Dalton School, Mackay School, Quarles School, and finally at Central School in Larchmont NY.
Known for her fantastic taste, Naomi had a passion for clothing and appreciation for aesthetics she inherited from her seamstress grandmother. She had many other passions and in her later decades gave much of her time leading children’s programs at Larchmont Public Library and serving on the Mamaroneck Human Rights Committee.
A memorial service is being planned for Saturday, November 9 at Fox Funeral Home in Larchmont.
Gifts in her memory can be made to any of the many organizations she supported, including Friends of the Larchmont Library, the Mamaroneck Schools Foundation, Planned Parenthood of NY. Smiles Without Borders, and the Heifer Foundation.