M.K. Leela Miller died at home in Paradise Valley in the early hours of October 27, 2015.

She was a forty-two-year resident of Vashon Island.

Leela is remembered as a feminist,

potter, world traveler, masterful collector /scrounger, musician and, an avid gardener.

Leela was born in Santa Barbara,

California on December 25, 1947 to Dorothy Patten Miller and Benjamin Gage Miller and completed her primary education at San Dominico School in San Rafael, CA. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology at University of Washington. Leela was a student and instructor at Pottery Northwest and was known by her Girl Scout counselor name, Traf. Her passion for ceramic arts and counterculture brought her to Vashon Island in 1973. She was a founding member of the first pottery collective on Vashon which has bloomed into a robust community of artisans.

In 1979 she began her stewardship of her property and the construction of her home on the east slope of Paradise Valley, on a portion of the former Dugan family farm, near the headwaters of Judd Creek.

After a brief period of study of midwifery, Leela ultimately received her Master’s degree in psychotherapy and counseling from Antioch University in the late 1980’s and began her career as a psychotherapist in private practice in Seattle and on Vashon Island. She was an avid reader with an encyclopedic knowledge of plants, textiles and beads. In her later years she devoted herself to the practices of bhakti yoga, meditation and chanting.

Leela is survived by her daughter Marta Gage Lange Lamarra and son-in-law Francesco Lamarra, her brother John Miller and sister-in –law Sue Miller, her nephews Benjamin and Samuel Miller and her sister Nancy Miller. She is preceded in death by her sister Martha Ann Miller and her parents Dorothy

& Benjamin Miller.

Her family wishes to acknowledge and thank the palliative and hospice care team that supported Leela in her final days as well as all the health care providers, community members and friends that treated and cared for her during her illness. We are forever grateful.

Should you wish, in lieu of flowers, a contribution to Hospice of Seattle

Foundation is most appreciated.

“Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

~ Rumi

Paid Obituary.