Earl Miller

Earl Miller was a New York State Trooper who was a bodyguard and close friend of future First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt during her term as First Lady of New York. 

At twelve years old, Miller left home. He served in the Navy during World War I; during this period, he became the Navy's middleweight boxing champion. He first met Eleanor's husband Franklin, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, when assigned to escort him on a trip to France. Handsome and athletic, Miller had been an alternate for the US Olympic boxing team in the 1920 Summer Olympics at Antwerp, Belgium; he also worked for a time as a circus acrobat. After joining the New York State Police, he taught boxing and judo to cadets. He later served as the personal bodyguard of Governor of New York and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate Al Smith.

In 1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected governor of New York. When Eleanor refused to be driven in the official limousine, preferring to drive herself, Franklin assigned Miller to be her bodyguard. Because Franklin's polio-induced paralysis kept him from regularly touring the state, Eleanor began making state visits and inspections in his place, accompanied by Miller. In the course of these trips, Eleanor and Miller quickly became close.

In World War II, Miller re-enlisted in the Navy, serving as a lieutenant commander. At first a director of physical training for a naval station in Pensacola, Florida, he was later reassigned to New York, where he stayed in Eleanor's apartment. In the 1950s, he moved to Hollywood, Florida.

Miller died on May 9, 1973.