ANN MILLER LEGACY TAPS EMOTIONS AT HER FUNERAL MUSICALS STAR PERSONIFIED HOLLYWOOD GLAMOUR.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

WOODLAND HILLS - Actress Ann Miller, whose million-dollar legs tap-danced her to the height of Hollywood musicals, was buried Wednesday after a final standing ovation by her Hollywood peers.

Some of the last remaining stars of the golden age of Hollywood musicals celebrated the life of the raven-haired star during a funeral Mass at St. Mel Catholic Church.

Miller, a self-proclaimed psychic who once believed she was the reincarnated Queen Hathshepsut of Egypt, converted to Catholicism just before she died Jan. 22 at the age of 81.

``What a way to spend a life - bringing joy and happiness to millions of people,'' said Monsignor Padraic Loftus, pastor of St. Mel, who had baptized the actress on her deathbed.

``As I looked at her there, I felt a deep sense of joy for the privilege of sending her on eager wings into the gates of heaven.''

The funeral was attended by several hundred Hollywood stars, many from the 1930s and '40s, including Anne Jeffries, Kathryn Grayson Crosby, Esther Williams, Marsha Hunt, Jane Withers, Jayne Meadows, Margaret O'Brien and Ann Rutherford.

All said Miller's charm and flamboyance had earned her a special place among the stars.

``We will always have (her) magnificent images on film,'' actor Morgan Woodward said in a eulogy to his friend. ``She could move like a gazelle, could dance faster than a dervish, ... all with a gorgeous figure and the best-looking legs.''

Woodward, who escorted Miller to Hollywood parties and premieres, recalled the actress's 54 fur coats - each numbered for easy selection - and flair for fashion.

``Glamour personified,'' he said. ``A perfect knockout in another perfect gown I'd never seen before.''

A one-time childhood dance prodigy, Miller reached the peak of her film career at MGM in the late 1940s and early '50s with ``On the Town,'' ``Easter Parade'' and ``Kiss Me Kate.''

A machine-gun tapper who claimed a record 500 beats a minute, Miller teamed up with such fleet-footed dancers as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.

``Ann Miller is the fastest tap dancer in the world,'' Astaire had once told a director who attended Wednesday's funeral. ``I couldn't hold a candle to her.''

Miller married steel heir Reese Milner but divorced him after their daughter died just three hours after she was born. Marriages to oilmen William Moss and Arthur Cameron also ended in divorce.

In later years, the Texas native discovered by Lucille Ball astounded audiences with her lightning taps in ``Sugar Babies,'' a show starring Miller and Mickey Rooney. She also wowed audiences dancing in 1970s ads for Heinz's ``Great American Soups.''

She had insured her legs for $1 million.

On a warm Wednesday, eight pallbearers rolled her casket from a waiting hearse into a sanctuary filled with red and yellow roses.

And one by one, her fellow singers and actresses filled the church, some wearing fur coats, some in wide-brimmed hats, some in elegant silk, accompanied by Hollywood tunes including ``Why Do I Love You?'' that Miller had pre-selected for her service.

``A time to live, a time to die, ... a time to mourn, a time to dance,'' a parishioner read after ``Amazing Grace,'' the first of many hymns.

``There's no business like show business. There's no star like Annie Miller,'' said A.C. Lyles, a longtime Paramount producer, in a second eulogy. ``She dressed like a star. She lived like a star.

``No one deserves a farewell and standing ovation more than Annie,'' he added, as the audience rose and faced Miller's casket for a last clapping tribute.

After the service, the stars basked in Miller's memory before she was taken for private burial at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

``I thought it was just beautiful, just what she would have liked, ... uplifting,'''' said O'Brien of Sherman Oaks, who played Beth in the 1949 film ``Little Women.''

Fayard Nicholas, the surviving Nicholas Brothers tap dancer who performed with Miller, was joined by his wife, Katherine Hopkins Nicholas, a ``Sugar Baby'' dancer who performed a ``shim sham shuffle'' - in heels - in honor of their friend.

``Annie's up in heaven, doing a time-step with my brother and Donald O'Connor, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell,'' said Fayard Nicholas, 89, of Toluca Lake, clad in a pink sweater under a coal-black suit.

Stan Freberg, the father of the funny commercial who directed the ``Great American Soup'' commercial in which Miller hoofed it atop a giant can of soup, said he wouldn't have done it without Ann Miller.

``She was the last dancer from the golden age of Hollywood,'' he said.

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Actress Anne Jeffries, right - with comedian-satirist Stan Freberg next to her - is among 1940s stars at Ann Miller's funeral Wednesday at St. Mel Catholic Church.

(2 -- color) A.C. Lyles, a longtime Paramount producer, touches a kiss to an MGM portrait of Ann Miller who was buried Wednesday at St. Mel Catholic Church.

(3 -- color) Memories of Ann Miller, MGM's dance queen in the golden age of musicals, bring smiles to, from left, Anne Jeffries, Connie Stevens and June Haver.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

(4 -- color) Ann Miller, queen of MGM musicals in their golden age, was buried on Wednesday.