Eleanor Addison Williams Lanahan Miles, a civic activist and friend to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, died Saturday of complications from pneumonia at White Banks, her Queenstown home. She was 96.
A stylish woman who favored tailored suits, Mrs. Miles remained active into her 90s. She sat on the boards of charitable and civic organizations.
She had served on the Women's Board at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1946 to 1954, and the boards of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Opera. She was president of the Mount Vernon Club from 1965 to 1968 and a Red Cross volunteer.
"She was an extremely accomplished woman who was prominent for several generations," said the Rev. Michael J. Roach, pastor of St. Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church in Manchester. "She was free of self-absorption and promotion and that's why she was a thoroughbred."
Said W. Wallace Lanahan Jr. of Ruxton, her stepson: "She had the ability to relate to people and cared for them. She also brought to her activities, whether charitable or social, a tremendous efficiency. She was a very efficient organizer."
Mrs. Miles was most renowned as Baltimore's premiere hostess, entertaining celebrities and royalty. She was hostess to the Windsors during their visits to Maryland, said her niece, Julia Bell Browne Sause of Centreville.
She first met Wallis Warfield Simpson, the future Duchess of Windsor, in the 1920s when they hunted for foxes in Warrenton, Va. She was with the Windsors at Antibes near Cannes on the French Riviera in 1949 when the duke learned of the engagement of his niece, Princess Elizabeth, to Prince Philip.
Clarisse Mechanic, a friend for more than 50 years, recalled attending a dinner party for the Windsors that Mrs. Miles gave at the Belvedere Hotel in the 1950s.
"Eleanor had stayed at their home and they were really inseparable," Mrs. Mechanic said yesterday. "It was a very formal black-tie dinner with the women dressed in long gowns and I can remember how beautiful Wallis was. She had such beautiful eyes."
The former Eleanor Addison Williams was born in a St. Paul Street residence that faced Mount Vernon Place. Her paternal grandfather, George Hawkins Williams, was elected to the state Senate in 1875 and served two terms as its president. Her maternal grandfather, John Sterett Gittings, "was among the first to develop the concept of rowhouses," Mrs. Sause said.
Mrs. Miles -- with her parents and two sisters -- spent winters in Baltimore and summers in Virginia, the Long Green Valley or overseas, said Mrs. Sause.
"She was staying with her sisters on the Isle of Wight and they were supposed to sail on the Titanic's maiden voyage. But at the last minute, things were changed," the niece said.
Mrs. Miles was educated at St. Timothy's School in Catonsville.
In 1923, she married William Wallace Lanahan, a banker who was head of the Baltimore brokerage firm of W. W. Lanahan & Co. The couple entertained often at their Dulaney Valley home, Long Crandon, which is now part of the Stella Maris Hospice complex.
Mrs. Miles became active in the Democratic Party and attended the 1932 national convention in Chicago to support a movement to draft Maryland Gov. Albert C. Ritchie for president. She received national attention when her photograph was taken as she stood on an unstable podium, waving the state flag for more than an hour.
She was an award-winning gardener and grew more than 125 varieties of daffodils.
A son, Thomas Lanahan, died serving in World War II and her husband suffered a fatal heart attack in 1948.
In 1952, she married Clarence W. Miles, a founder of the Baltimore law firm Miles and Stockbridge. Mr. Miles, who died in 1977, helped bring the St. Louis Browns here in 1954 to become the Orioles.
The couple moved from Baltimore to Blakeford in Queenstown in the mid-1950s, a 1,200-acre estate on the Chester River. The house, which dated to 1834, was destroyed by fire in 1970.
Services for Mrs. Miles will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Charles and Saratoga streets.
In addition to her stepson and niece, Mrs. Miles is survived by a nephew, C. Willing Browne III of Denver; and four grandnephews.
Sun staff writers Jacques S. Kelly and Frederick N. Rasmussen contributed to this article.
Pub Date: 3/23/99