Alice Johnson Houghton Miller

Alice Miller, an Annapolis resident, was born on January 25, 1922 to Frank and Gladys Johnson in Washington, DC. She was raised in Washington and graduated from the Wilson High School in 1940. She then attended Harcum Junior College and the Washington School for Secretaries. During World War II she worked for U.S.-ally Iran, in its Washington embassy.

She married a fellow Washingtonian and Western High School graduate, the late Captain James C. (Jay) Houghton, USN (USNA 1941) in 1943, during a short break between his destroyer convoy defense duties in the Atlantic. She was with him in Brownsville, TX during his flight training but returned to Washington while he served in PBY (patrol bomber) aircraft in the Pacific.

Alice accompanied Jay over his thirty-one-year career to every duty station: Rio de Janeiro; the Naval Academy; Jacksonville, FL; London, England; the Pentagon; Moscow, USSR; and London again. As squadron commander’s wife with VP-5 (antisubmarine patrol squadron 5, the Mad Foxes), and as spouse of the Naval Attache in Moscow and later senior assistant Naval Attache in London, Alice’s roles included mentoring support to squadron wives and enlisted, and diplomatic support in our embassies, both of which were of great service to our navy and our country. She lost Jay to cancer in 1980.

Due to God’s grace, and through the comradeship of the USNA Class of 1941, she met her second husband, the late Captain Richards T. (Dick) Miller, USN, who had also lost his wife to cancer. Dick was Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, class of 1941, and their shared Navy friendships brought these two together in marriage in 1984. Alice and Dick lived many years on the South River in a house he had designed, until moving to BayWoods of Annapolis in 2003. Dick passed away on December 7, 2013.

Alice is survived by her daughter, Susan Houghton Hartman (spouse Edward) of Annapolis; her son, Captain Thomas Houghton, USNR (USNA 1968) (Rose) of Severna Park; her step-daughter Linda Miller Carrier (John) of Meridian MS; granddaughters Victoria Houghton Block (Victor) of Ashburn VA and Zoe Hartman Hamilton of Washington DC; and great grandchildren Benjamin and Alice Block, and Asher Hamilton.

A funeral service will be held at 11am September 24 at St. Paul's Anglican Church, Crownsville, MD. Reception to follow. Interment with her first husband will be in Arlington National Cemetery on a date to be announced in the future. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to US Naval Academy.