Houston Swing Dance Society

Help Mark Norma Miller's Place in Jazz History


Norma Miller would have turned 100 years old on December 2nd. As a celebration of her life and legacy we would like to raise the remaining $10,000 needed to purchase a memorial headstone worthy of a “Queen of Swing” to mark her burial place among the jazz greats at Woodlawn Cemetery.


Born in Harlem on December 2nd, 1919, Norma Miller is one of the only jazz women buried at Woodlawn Cemetery’s famous Jazz Corner in New York. Along with Frankie Manning, she is the only other original Savoy Ballroom lindy hopper laid to rest among
many of the musicians she danced to and worked with. It is important to bring attention to her grave as both a female and a jazz
dancer.

By raising funds for an attractive headstone, the Frankie Manning Foundation  hopes to educate the world about this amazing woman and the history she was part of. We want to honor her with a monument that will be a companion to Frankie Manning’s
headstone, nearby at Woodlawn.



So far, the Frankie Manning Foundation has collected donations amounting to approximately half of the total cost of the headstone. This GoFundMe campaign is to raise the other half, $10,000 USD. Your tax deductible donation to this campaign will go directly toward the cost of the headstone.

Please make a donation today to honor Norma Miller on her 100th birthday with a headstone that marks her rightful place in jazz history.


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Woodlawn Cemetery’s Jazz Corner
Woodlawn Cemetery is the final resting place for many famous artists. Frankie Manning, and now Norma Miller, are both very much at  home with nearby graves of the likes of Duke Ellington, Illinois Jacquet, Miles Davis, Celia Cruz and Lionel Hampton (whose stone, appropriately, bears the inscription, “Flying Home.”)

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

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Norma Miller
1919-2019

Read Obituary in The New York Times 

“Norma Miller, who danced the Lindy Hop on Harlem sidewalks as a child, and as a teenager dazzled crowds on international tours in the 1930s and early ′40s . . .”

Read Obituary in The Washington Post 

“Norma Miller, a dancer, comedian and big-band singer whose acrobatic flips, slides, leaps and twists helped popularize the Lindy Hop dance craze of the 1930s and ’40s, earning her the title “Queen of Swing . . .”

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The Frankie Manning Foundation Fund is a restricted fund administered by the Houston Swing Dance Society (a nonprofit charitable organization recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS in accordance with Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)), HSDS
Federal Tax ID: 76-0532098