Last week I fell five months short in my attempt to identify a 100-year-old numismatist. The onementioned this week made the century mark with seven months to spare.

Harriet Miller was born in Somerset, Pennsylvania, on July 26, 1911, the daughter of Aden KentMiller (1883-1948) and Elsie Statler Miller (1889-1982). Alden was the manager of a farmsupply store.

She graduated from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

She was married in Somerset, Pennsylvania, on April 21, 1935, to Floyd Penn Keefer (1903-1970). Floyd was a banker. They had no children.

Mrs. Keefer was active as a leader in her church and was frequently honored for her activitieswith a notice in the local paper. On January 24, 1953, Harriet began to contribute a religiouscolumn, "Life is for Living" to the Somerset Daily American. This ran more than 32 yearsthrough October 12, 1985. In 1977 she published a collection of articles as a book with the sametitle, Life is For Living. She also wrote 50 Year History of the Somerset County Sunday SchoolAssociation.

As a free-lance writer, she branched out to promote coin collecting. On June 10. 1966, her first"Coin Corner" appeared in the paper. This continued under the byline of Harriet Keefer throughFebruary 29, 1972. Her articles mentioned new coin issues and new medal issues. She did notgenerally write about historical events in numismatics.

The two columns marked her as a celebrity for her paper. The Daily American frequently ran herphoto and published an article for accomplishments that most numismatists might considertrivial.In 1971 she began contributing "The Other Side of the Coin" to the Daytona Beach SundayNews-Journal (not available on newspapers.com).

In 1971 her newspaper printed her photo and reported that she was given an Honorary CharterMembership in the Franklin Mint Collectors Society. With that membership came a 24-karat goldon sterling medal. This honor would probably not be worthy of mention in any other paper.

In March of 1971, the Franklin Mint Collectors Society closed the charter membership periodwith more than 82,000 members. The Society and Mrs. Keefer were both good at self-promotion.

Her first husband died in February of 1970 at age 66. She was remarried on December 20, 1971,to Philip Restifo (1899-1990). They relocated to Daytona Beach, Florida, and enjoyed travel. In1973 they took a tour of Europe. The following year, they took a Caribbean cruise. In 1975 theyvisited Hawaii.

Harriet was frequently mentioned in her paper. In 1972, the paper ran her photo and reportedthat she received an American Numismatic Association Educational award for a presentationmade to the Greater Daytona Beach Coin Club. Any ANA member club can request such anaward for any guest speaker. I did not find any record that Harriet was an ANA member underany of her names.

The article also mentioned that she was a charter member of the Somerset County Coin Club andhad been collecting coins for 35 years.

Her "Coin Corner" carried the new byline of Harriet Restifo on March 7, 1972, and continuedthrough August 31, 1978.

Mrs. Restifo joined the Numismatic Literary Guild in 1973. In the issue of Jun 13, 1974, theDaily American announced that she was an entrant in competition for an award from theNumismatic Literary Guild. Note: she was an entrant in the competition, not a winner. The articlestated, "Her column. Coin Corner has the longest publication record of any such column in thecountry,"

An article in the November 1, 1977, issue of the Daily American stated,

The paper may have believed she had the publication record. However, a column by TedHammer had been running since 1953 and continued for 23 years, Jim Buck's column began in1954 and ran for 25 years, Leon Lindheim, had been writing since 1960 and his column ran for34 years, Jim Packard's column ran 1963 to 1979, Lee Stegemeyer had a column from 1965 to1985, and Morris Rothblum had a column from 1966 to 1991.

Harriet did not have the longest running column. However, with two columns a week for about634 weeks, she would be near the top for number of columns. Jim Buck produced about 1300weekly columns over more than 25 years. Leon Lindheim's column ran for 34 years but hemissed some weeks. I will let someone else count his columns.

Harriet died at home in Ormond Beach, Florida, on February 16, 2012, and is buried in VolusiaMemorial Park in Ormond Beach. The Somerset American did not mention her one-hundredthbirthday or publish an obituary at the time of her death.