Dottie Leonard Miller obit

Christian Industry Veteran Dottie Leonard Miller Passes

 

She was not on the list.

Dorothy “Dottie” Leonard Miller, founder and CEO of Daywind Music Group and New Day Christian Distributors and co-founder of Billy Blue Records, passed away today (Oct. 11). She was 79.

A member of the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, artists and songwriters Miller has worked with have garnered countless Dove Awards, Singing News Fan Awards, BMI Christian Music Awards, Grammy nominations, one Grammy Award and over 125 No. 1 songs.

Raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Miller didn’t discover her professional calling until later in life. While raising two children in Hendersonville, Tennessee as a single mother, she gained business knowledge through clerical work at an accounting firm and a law firm, sales experience selling Jhirmack hair products and political savvy working for the Democratic Party of Tennessee on campaigns for Senator Jim Sasser, President Jimmy Carter and others. She also worked a second job in ER admissions at Hendersonville Hospital to make ends meet.

On a whim, she applied for a receptionist position at Calvary Records in Nashville, which brought her into the music industry. She later worked with radio stations and Christian bookstores to promote Gospel artists like the Hinsons, the Telestials and others.

After a stint with Windchime Records, Miller started New Day Christian Distributors in 1981. The music distribution company was housed in her garage and focused initially on sheet music and albums by independent artists like Mike Adkins and Jimmy Swaggart.

New Day Christian Distributors became a one-stop shop for labels and independent artists in Christian music. When she discovered the need for product of her own, Miller started DayWind Soundtracks with her friend and former boss at Windchime, Ronnie Drake. DayWind Soundtracks began to provide tracks to Christian and Gospel singers around the world to sing to in church.

Later, Miller and Drake started DayWind Records with the Cumberland Boys as its first artist. The label has recorded the top Gospel artists of the past 35 years, including Greater Vision, the Crabb Family, Gold City, Karen Peck and New River, Brian Free and Assurance, Triumphant Quartet, Down East Boys, the Perrys, the Hoppers, Tribute Quartet, the Guardians, Jonathan Wilburn, the Steeles, Joseph Habedank, Scotty Inman, the Blackwood Brothers, the Nelons, Southbound, Lefevre Quartet, The Sound, High Road, Michael English, Truesong, Legacy Five and more.

Miller eventually added Daywind Music Publishing to the fold, as well as two recording studios and a cassette and CD manufacturing facility. She also created ventures Daywind Worship, Spiritus Distribution and Daywind Music Foundation.

In 2019, Miller joined forces with son Ed Leonard and renowned songwriter Jerry Salley to form bluegrass label Billy Blue Records, and later Billy Jam Records and Billy Blue Publishing. Billy Blue artists include Appalachian Road Show, Authentic Unlimited, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Darin and Brooke Aldridge, Tennessee Bluegrass Band, Carolina Blue, Carson Peters and Iron Mountain, Kristy Cox and Grasstime, Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers, Bob Minner, Dave Adkins, Alan Bibey and Grasstowne, Donna Ulisse, Caroline Owens and more.

Miller’s legacy has been honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Gospel Music Association, BMI, the Southern Gospel Music Guild, SingingNews Magazine and Absolutely Gospel Music.

Miller is survived by her daughter, Susan Leonard Sovine and grandchildren, Taylor McKellar and Kennedy Sovine; her son, Ed Leonard, his wife Kathleen, and their children Eddie Leonard, Mary Leonard, Evan Leonard, Aidan Leonard (Caroline Leonard), Rachael Zuckett (Joey Zuckett), Caroline Leonard, Ian Leonard, Liam Leonard and Emily Leonard; her great-grandchildren Leo Zuckett and Eloise Joyce; her sister, Cynthia Paranczak; and her longtime companion, Jere Miller. She was preceded in death by her brother, Bill Golt, and her parents, William and Dorothy Golt.

A celebration of life for Miller will be held at a later date.