Diane Rolle Miller of Aquebogue, manager of the East End Hospice Thrift Shop in Westhampton Beach, died on December 16. She was 62.
The daughter of Jean Hutchinson Rolle and Walter Rolle of Riverhead, she attended St. John’s Elementary School and Mercy High School. While in high school, she learned to fly, receiving her student pilot’s license at age 17. Flying was a lifetime passion she shared with her father, her brother and her future husband.
After graduating with an associate’s degree in fashion merchandising from Virginia Intermont College, she returned to the East End and a job at Saks Fifth Avenue in Southampton. Starting there as a seamstress, she worked her way up through the ranks to become the operations manager of a series of new stores opened by Saks in cities across the country.
It was while she was based at a store in Dallas, Texas, in 1986 and going flying with her brother Mark that she met her husband-to-be, Kenneth Miller, a certified aircraft mechanic and fellow pilot. A few years later while assigned to a Saks store in Boca Raton, Florida, she and Mr. Miller built an experimental single engine airplane—a Long-E-Z—that they flew around the U.S. to visit friends and relatives.
Ms. Miller left Saks in 1993 and returned to Riverhead to work as office manager for Rolle Brothers, her family’s farm machinery and equipment business. When the company closed in 2005, she worked as office manager for Mattituck Aviation until it folded five years later.
In 2013 she returned to retailing as manager of the East End Hospice Thrift Shop in Westhampton Beach. Her expertise, energy and upbeat personality transformed the shop, turning it into a thriving enterprise, attracting new customers and achieving record sales, according to East End Hospice CEO Priscilla Ruffin. “She made it a friendly, go-to place for shoppers,” Ms. Ruffin said.
Ms. Miller had originally joined hospice in 1999 as a volunteer, serving the organization by visiting patients and working at its annual gala and other fundraising events.
In addition to her devotion to hospice and interest in aviation, Ms. Miller was an avid gardener and cat-lover.
Predeceased by her mother in 1981 and her father in 2009, she is survived by her husband, Kenneth; a brother, Mark Rolle and wife Kay; and nephews Matthew and Michael Rolle.
Funeral services were held on December 22 at St. John the Evangelist Church in Riverhead, followed by interment at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Cutchogue. Arrangements were under the direction of the McLaughlin Heppner Funeral Home in Riverhead. Memorial donations may be made to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978.
on Dec 21, 2015