Ladies Must Live

Alice Duer Miller was an American author who lived from July 28, 1874, to August 22, 1942. During the American suffrage movement, her feminist verses changed people's political views. Similarly, her verse book The White Cliffs changed people's political views when the U.S. joined World War II. She also wrote books and movie scripts. Alice Duer Miller was born on July 28, 1874, in Staten Island, New York. She came from a rich and well-known family. She lived in Weehawken, NJ, with her parents and two sisters as a child. Lizzie Wilson Meads and James Gore King Duer had a daughter named her. The family lost a lot of money when Baring Bank went out of business. Olivia Wilson Meads was her mother. Her father was Orlando Meads from Albany, New York. William Alexander Duer was her great-grandfather and the head of Columbia College. William Duer was her great-great-grandfather. He was an American lawyer, businessman, and con artist from New York City. He had been in both the Continental Congress and the meeting that made the New York Constitution. It was in 1778 that he signed the Articles of Confederation for the United States.