Born on February 14, 1921, she was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Gerdes (Theodora McCaren) of New York and Oyster Bay, NY. Mrs. Fates-Tessier graduated from the Chapin School in New York, Vassar (class of 1943), and Yale Law School (1945). For over 15 years she was an active volunteer and chairman of radiology volunteers at Huntington Hospital in Huntington, NY, and volunteered for several years as a public defender for the family court in Westbury, NY. She had been a member of the Piping Rock Club, the Cold Spring Harbor Beach Club, the North Country Garden Club, and the Garden Club of America, and was a life member of the Colony Club as well as the Colonial Dames of America. She was an active member of St. John’s Church in Cold Spring Harbor, NY, and sang in the church choir, which she and her late husband Dudley L. Miller founded in the early ’50s. For many years she and Dudley were members of the Blue Hill Troupe in New York City. Her professional affiliations included membership in the Bar Association of New York. In 2002, she retired to Peconic Landing on the North Fork of Long Island, where she met and married Mr. Tessier in 2004.

 

In addition to Mr. Tessier, survivors include her children, D. Livingston Miller Jr. of Greenwich, Mrs. George H. Howard 3d (Alexandra C. Miller) of Laurel Hollow, NY, and John’s Island, FL, and Courtlandt G. Miller of New York and Palm Beach; three stepchildren from her marriage to the late Harold L. Fates of Cold Spring Harbor, who died in 2002; five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her sister, Mrs. Winthrop Short (Janet Gerdes), who died in 2004.