Mina Miller

Mina Miller Edison (born Mina Miller; July 6, 1865 – August 24, 1947) was an American community activist and the second wife of inventor and industrialist Thomas Edison. She was a community activist in Fort Myers, Florida, known for her work advancing the use of public spaces and education initiatives.

Early life Mina Miller was born on July 6, 1865, in Akron, Ohio to inventor and industrialist Lewis Miller and homemaker Mary Valinda Alexander. She was the seventh of eleven children. Through her lifelong involvement with the Chatauqua Institution, of which her father was a founder and leader, Mina spent the summers at Chautauqua from the age of 9 to her marriage to Edison. There a young Mina came in contact with many progressive orators, male and female who were interested in education reform, temperance, and women's suffrage. She graduated from Akron High School in 1883 and then went on to study at Mrs. Johnson's Finishing Seminary in Boston.

Marriage to Thomas Edison and children Mina Miller met Thomas Edison at the home of the inventor Ezra Gilliland, a mutual friend of her father and Edison, in Boston in 1885. After he taught her Morse code, he used it to ask her to marry him. They married on February 24, 1886. At age twenty, the new Mrs. Edison became a stepmother to Edison's three children, Marion Estelle Edison (1873–1965), nicknamed "Dot"; Thomas Alva Edison Jr. (1876–1935), nicknamed "Dash"; and William Leslie Edison (1878–1937). This was not an easy task. In 1907 she became an early member of the Playground Association of America (now called the National Recreation and Park Association as of 1964) and in 1913 joined its board of directors.

She started the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation in memory of her husband.

She died aged 82 on August 24, 1947, in Glenmont, the Edison family home in New Jersey.