EDITH JOHNSON MILLER

Edith Johnson was a young teenager at Fosdick-Masten High School when she began competing in bicycle racing and speed-skating. She burst onto the national scene in 1960 at age 15 when she won her first (of five) National Women’s Bicycle Championships after winning numerous local junior championships. During the winter, she competed in speed-skating and won three national championships during her career. Her times made her eligible for the 1960 U.S Olympic women’s speed-skating team, but she did not have the financial support to travel to the 1960 Games in Rome. Her fame drew invitations to compete in the world cycling championships in England, but again her dreams of competing were dashed when she couldn’t raise the expense money to compete.

Her father Clyde was her first coach and she used the same Schwinn bike and just two pair of skates throughout her career. In both sports she was the youngest female competitor to win a title. After winning her second national cycling title in 1961, she was featured in Sports Illustrated as a 15-year-old speed-skater with Olympic potential and received the key to the city from Buffalo mayor Frank Sedita.

Edith was respected by many of her male bike-racing colleagues, even the ones she beat in local and regional competitions. She later became an accomplished commercial artist and married John Miller. They raised two children and welcomed four grandchildren before her untimely death in 2004 at age 59.