ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 17, 1996 TAG: 9602190046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND (AP)
SOURCE: DAVID RESS RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
EVEN THOUGH HIS ROCKABILLY days are nearly 40 years behind him, Virginia's newest SCC member still likes to play the guitar and sing.
Clinton Miller is probably the first State Corporation Commissioner to have been banned in Boston.
Not that anyone would guess it now.
After more than two decades as a country lawyer and state delegate representing a sizable chunk of the Shenandoah Valley, Miller is pin-striped, dignified. He has perfected the lawyer lean onto a lectern - hands lightly grasping either side, most of his weight on one foot - as he gazes earnestly up at the bench.
``I'm not Clint Miller, the business candidate; I'm not Clint Miller, the consumer advocate; I'm not Clint Miller, the candidate of any special interest. I'm just Clint Miller,'' he told the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee last month as it considered his nomination to the SCC.
The same Clint Miller, that is, whose rockabilly song ``Bertha Lou'' barely missed the Top 40 back in 1957.
As in:
``You wear your hair in a poodle cut,
You're walking down the street like a semi-truck.
Everybody knows that you're so sweet,
You tickle me from head to my ath-a-lete feet ...
Hey, hey, Bertha Lou, I want to conjugate with you.''
Miller was all of 18 at the time.
``I probably didn't know what conjugate meant when I was doing it,'' he said. ``Back in those days, all the PR people tried to make a big deal about it if a record wasn't played somewhere. Banned in Boston was a mark of distinction.''
But Miller, who is described by former General Assembly colleagues as painstakingly honest and evenhanded, won't leave things like that.
``I'm pretty sure I went to Boston and did bandstand shows'' at television and radio stations, he is careful to add.
Miller was on the road for years, playing rock 'n' roll or country and western shows up and down the East Coast. He did everything from TV shows to sock hops to rock 'n' roll revues with such stars as Buddy Holly, Bobby Darrin and Paul Anka.
``I worked my way through college; that's how I got the money for undergraduate school and law school,'' he said.
``A couple of months before I graduated from high school, I started working on country and western shows in Washington,'' he said. ``I started traveling in the music business. I got my fill. I lived in New York off and on for five or seven years. ... I got a good look at the city, and the `glamour' of the business.''
While in New York, he attended the Stella Adler Theatre School and Columbia University. He finished up his undergraduate work in Washington at The American University and plunged straight into law school.
From there, he went back to Woodstock, the town he grew up in.
And while Miller figured that, as a small-town lawyer, he needed to settle down from his rock 'n' roll ways, he still plays the guitar and sings.
``I love music and legal work,'' Miller said.
Though Woodstock is small, ``even when you're in town, you're out in the country,'' Miller said, adding that he hasn't missed the bright lights and big city at all.
``I do a lot of walking; I like to walk in the mountains, to climb them,'' he said.
Miller's office is a block north of the Shenandoah County Courthouse, and he handles a wide mix of work.
``You take anything that comes in the door: real estate, divorce, bankruptcy, criminal cases, traffic cases - anything,'' he said.
He served in the House of Delegates from 1972 to 1995, when he chose not to seek re-election.
He said he's looking forward to serving on the SCC, one of the most powerful state agencies in the country, regulating utilities, insurance, banking and securities.
Miller is careful, fairly conservative and likes to dig into things before he makes a decision, said Del. John Watkins, R-Chesterfield County.
``He's a classic mountain-and-valley Republican,'' Watkins said.
Miller was one of the most effective legislators in the assembly, said Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke. One token of that, he said, was when the Democratic caucus unanimously approved Miller to be an SCC commissioner.
``He's always a gentleman,'' Woodrum said. ``Extremely bright, intelligent, willing to listen to another point of view. ... He's the kind of guy who, when we didn't agree, I'd always go back and re-examine my position.''
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Called ``a classic mountain-and-valley Republican,''by CNBformer Del. Clinton Miller received bipartisan support for his SCC
appointment.