Lillian Miles Lewis, wife of U.S. Representative John Lewis, died Monday, December 31, 2012 at Emory University. She was 73.
“We are saddened by the loss of our dear brother’s beloved wife,” shares Hon. Jimmy Hammock, International President. “The brothers of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity unite in prayer, extending our deepest condolences in this moment of bereavement. Lillian was an avid and dedicated supporter of this great organization and the service Brother Lewis rendered on our behalf.”
Mrs. Lewis’ funeral services will be held on Monday, January 7th at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia.
Close friend Xernona Clayton, the Conclave Atlanta Distinguished Women Award Recipient, said Mrs. Lewis had been ill for an extended period of time but encouraged her husband to continue with his career. “She’d kind of get on him about telling people she was sick,” Clayton said. “She didn’t want that to be the focus. She wanted him to do his work.”
President Barack Obama called Brother Lewis on Monday and expressed his condolences, the White House said.
She attended Los Angeles High School and received an undergraduate degree in English from then-California State College at Los Angeles, and a master’s degree in Library Science at the University of Southern California. Mrs. Lewis developed a lifelong interest in Africa when she taught in a student program in Nigeria in 1960, returning later as a Peace Corps volunteer to teach for two years in Yaba, Nigeria.
Lillian Miles met her future husband when he was already a civil rights legend, and she played a key role in his transition to a career in politics. It was after taking a job as a librarian at Atlanta University that she met her husband at a 1967 New Year’s Eve party at the home of Clayton, a television personality and civil rights activist. Clayton and another movement veteran, Dr. Bernard LaFayette, played matchmaker. The Lewis were married in 1968. In his memoir, “Walking With the Wind,” Brother Lewis recalls his wife helped him decide to run for Congress in 1977 – a race he lost to Wyche Fowler – and became his chief advisor. “She had always been very involved in politics, much more than I. She had been a delegate (supporting Shirley Chisolm) to the Democratic National Convention in 1972, and she was constantly active in a variety of local circles and organizations. She was outgoing, involved, intelligent and great in front of an audience – she could make a speech. She also knew how to organize, how to chair a meeting, the nitty-gritty stuff. When she finally said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s go for it,’ that was enough. We were in,” Lewis wrote.
While Lewis forged his political career, Lillian continued her career as an educator with an international perspective. She was associate director of the Institute for International Affairs and Development at Atlanta University from 1984 to 1989, a job that called on her to help develop a major in international studies, with an emphasis in Africa and the Carribean. In a 1984 Atlanta Journal-Constitution story, she called the assignment “the moment I’ve been waiting for.” From 1989 to 2003, she was director of external affairs in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Clark Atlanta University.
Mrs. Lewis is survived by Brother Lewis and her son, John-Miles Lewis.
