Miriam Kantsiper Center

Miriam Kantsiper Center died February 17 at 10:00AM in her home surrounded by her family after suffering a stroke one week earlier. She was born in Savannah on Charlton Street on August 10, 1926 to Minnie and Isadore Kantsiper, Belarussian immigrants who met in Savannah. Her childhood was filled with friends and family. She had many aunts and uncles from her mother’s side (Richman) that doted on her. She would collect clothes from her aunts and sell them on Saturdays at the train tracks at 37 th and East Broad to fund her purchase of new dresses, beginning a lifelong devotion to fashion and style. That love expanded with her trips by steamship to visit her relatives on her father’s side in New Caanan, Connecticut. On those voyages, she brought along her dance costume and performed for the passengers and crew. She and her beloved sister Sara were sitting in the now defunct Bijou Theatre when the manager announced that Pearl Harbor had been bombed and all military personnel were to report to their stations immediately. Until then, she had no idea what Pearl Harbor was. During the war, she volunteered to help the war effort and was very active in the USO, dancing with the soldiers and sailors.

After the war, she urged her sister to invite the handsome man they bumped into on Broughton Street to her upcoming wedding. Subsequently, she married that man, Leo Center at 19 and had three boys, the oldest, Henry, died at the age of 15, the worst tragedy of her life. She established a successful real estate business, the first in Savannah to be woman owned. She sponsored an all-female Little League team which won the league championship two years in a row, after which all female teams were banned. She was also the first female chairperson of the Metropolitan Planning Commission.

At age 50, she packed up her car and belongings and moved to Malibu and then Ojai, California where she delved into studies of spiritual psychology establishing the Daughters of Destiny, a group devoted to helping women heal traumatized lives and develop a greater sense of self-empowerment. The group’s success inspired Center to establish a branch in Atlanta upon moving there in 1998 and in Savannah when she returned to her hometown a couple of years later.

At 74, Miriam launched her career as an author in 2000 with the publication of her novel, Scarlett O’Hara Can Go To Hell. At age eighty she became a playwright with the completion of her play about her friend Johnny Mercer, Johnny and Me. The play was performed in multiple venues throughout the region. Miriam had a lifelong interest in politics and civic issues. As a realtor, she broke down racial barriers to home ownership. In politics she worked on countless campaigns starting with Carl Sanders Gubernatorial race. She helped her husband, Leo get elected multiple times to Savannah City Council but failed in her own attempts at State Senator and City Council. For her lifetime of accomplishments, in 2020 she received The Savannah Woman of Vision Award from the Savannah College of Art and Design and is memorialized with a commissioned cameo on the wall of SCAD’s Arnold Hall which was previously the Richard Arnold School where Miriam studied as a teen, one of many of the college’s buildings that she had a personal connection with. The award established by SCAD Founder, Paula Wallace, is to recognize “accomplished women of peerless valor, altruism, and intellect who have made an invaluable impact in the Savannah community and across the U.S.”

She is survived by her fiancé, John Patterson, her  sons and their  wives, Tony Center and April Martin, Scott Center and Tatsiana Shakhmuts, grandchildren Kristy Center, Jeffrey Center, Sofia Center, Leo Center, and great grandson, Caden Center. Her friends and admirers span multiple generations which helped keep her and those around her forever young.

Pall bearers are Coco Papy, Chela Gutirrez, Harry Center, Jessica Lebos, Caden Center, Lyndsey Cowart, Tanisha Dingle, and Jakarra Bryan. Honorary Pall Bearers include Paula Wallace, Jin Hi Soucy Rand, Alison Nguyen, Abbe Kanter, Donna Kanter, Lisa Kanter, Arthur Peagler, Rick Traub, Barbara Essig, Bobby and Sheila Phillips, Gloria Tucker, Eve Bluett, Harriet Zabuskey, Z Rosenzweig, Arlene Ratner, Rosemary Daniel, Paula Bowers, and Harold Black.

The service will be 10:00 Thursday, February 19 graveside at Bonaventure and will be live streamed by Gamble Funeral Home. The family will sit Shiva at 102 E 55 th immediately after the funeral until 5:00 PM and again on Friday, February 20 from 10:00 until 3:00

In lieu of flowers, please contribute to Magen David Adom (https://secure.afmda.org/) or Hospice Savannah (hospicesavannah.org) ; and Henry W. Center Education Fund at the JEA.

Graveside services will be live streamed via Zoom:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/5052277485?pwd=TUVSU3ZMS2FXS09IcnJJbURtZWJHUT09&omn=85262037000