Miller typically traveled alone over summer term vacations while Jennie stayed at home and with the two daughters. In the summer of 1910 he was in the Grecian Isles aboard the yacht Athena, lecturing for the Society of University Travel. Jennie, elder daughter Edith and younger daughter Marjorie were visiting the Tallulah River in North Georgia as they did each summer to escape the New Orleans heat. On the evening of May 29, near the town of Tallulah Falls, Marjorie (a strong swimmer) was swept away by the current and drowned. Her father had just set sail from Naples and was notified by a cablegram that said simply "COME HOME AT ONCE." The body was recovered days later and Miller notified of the tragedy only upon his arrival in New York.
