Ernie Mae Crafton Miller

Ernest "Ernie" Mae Crafton (baritone, sax, Prairie View CoEds) backstage at the Apollo Theater, July 31, 1945.

Ernest Mae Miller was born February 7, 1927 in Austin, Texas. She was the youngest of three daughters born to Otto and Lizzie Anderson Crafton.

Ernest Mae's maternal great grandmothers, Mrs. Margaret Pollard and Mrs. Henrietta Willis and her maternal 2nd great-grandmother Martha Eggeleston were three of the eighteen founding members of the church. In 1885, Mrs. Henrietta Willis, who was also the mother of Laurine C. Anderson, a well known and respected educator in Texas, named the church, Ebenezer, meaning "Stone of Help"; a philosophy which Ernest Mae's family exemplified through their unselfish deeds in the community.

Ernest Mae attended the Austin Independent Schools. After graduating from the old L.C. Anderson High School, named for her beloved grandfather, she attended Prairie View State College of which her grandfather served as the third president and his brother Ernest for which she was named, served as the second president. While at Prairie View, she joined the Prairie View State College Co-Ed all girl orchestra playing the baritone saxophone. The orchestra traveled during World War II performing at various military bases along the east coast.

While on tour in New York at the Apollo Theater, she met her first husband, James (Spizzy) Canfield. To this union one son, Kenneth Laurine was born. After her divorce, Ernest Mae returned to Austin to stay.

In 1948, Ernest Mae met and married Hammitt Miller of Rockdale, TX. To this union, five sons were born, Duane, Emmitt (Juicy), Terrance (Paul), Phillip (Duff), and Gordon.

Affectionately known as "Ernie Mae", one of Austin's favorite musician, she has performed in the most prestigious hotels in Austin, such as The Driskill Hotel, the Commodore Perry, the Hyatt Regency and the Radisson to name a few. She also performed at dinner lounges debuting at the New Orleans where she recorded two albums; then she went on to play at Steak Island, Don's Depot and The Cedars.

A columnist for the Austin American-Statesman once wrote, "Ernest Mae was the woman who knows more about a song than all the mockingbirds which sing in the beautiful, musical heart of Texas where her voice and piano first took wing. She can soar to the hilltops when her song is happy and she can alight in a river bottom of almost humid tears when the composer is sad and blue. Wherever she goes, she takes her listeners along in an empathy encompassing every note from the lilting falsetto to her husky sobs. Somehow, everyone hypnotically is hers. It is difficult to solve the magic with which Ernie Mae captivates her audience. Like the mockingbird, her secret lies in her ability to make one recollect the best of so many tuneful years and to collect the reminiscences, into an infinite repertoire. She is as timeless as the mockingbirds of Texas. If you are in your eighties or twenties, tunes can be adored from some lost decade – especially if Ernie Mae sings them."

Ernest Mae was preceded in death by her parents; husband of twenty-eight years, Hammitt Miller; son Emmitt and her eldest beloved sister Marjorie Crafton.

Sources: King-Tears Mortuary, Austin, Texas