Rosalie Miller passed away on February 19, 2026 at the age of 97. She taught music and piano to many generations of students in Rockland County at St. Catharine’s School and Dominican University in Blauvelt, the original Tappan Zee High School in Piermont, the Academy of the Holy Child in Suffern and the original Rockland Country Day School in South Nyack, as well as privately from her home in Blauvelt. Like Maria in the Sound of Music she was a "firm but kind" teacher, which is appropriate since she went to the Trapp Family Music Camp in Vermont when she was young! And she ended up marrying a widower with 4 children, having 4 more children, and bringing music into their home.
She played the organ and sang at countless masses, weddings and funerals at St Catharine’s in Blauvelt, St. Mary's in Haverstraw and St. John the Baptist in Piermont for over 50 years. She sang with the Rockland County Choral Society and Rockland Lyric Theatre as well.
She was blessed with many musical gifts, including perfect pitch, a beautiful soprano voice, prodigious organ and piano playing talent and choral directing skills, and she generously shared her gifts with the community, her family and friends.
We her children would like to honor her by establishing a lasting musical legacy in the form a scholarship, dedicated music space, musical instrument donation, or musical education charity. We have not yet identified a specific memorial because of the recency of her passing, but are working on it.
Her final hours were filled with music, with a hospice musical therapist playing and singing her favorite folk, jazz, broadway, classical and religious pieces on guitar, and listening to the many songs of God's love and comfort she played at masses and funerals through the years.
All funds collected will be used for this memorial. No funds will be used for funeral expenses, which we have covered. We will update all donors on the final memorial. If we are unable identify a suitable musical legacy, all funds will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association in Rosalie's name. Thank for your considering supporting us in honoring Rosalie's musical legacy. Feel free to share this link privately with close family and friends, but we ask that you do not post it on social media - we would like to keep it for those who knew and loved her personally.
Grace, Dolores, Gregory, Christopher, Matthew, Bill, Mary Beth and Joseph