Norma Millay

Norma Millay (1894 – May 14, 1986) was an American actress and singer, born in Rockland, Maine to Cora Lounella Buzelle and Millay Henry Tolman Millay. She was one of three sisters, all of whom were raised by their mother following their parents' divorce. Cora Millay, herself a poetry writer, maintained a household in which art and music played a central role in the upbringing of her daughters. Norma Millay was the sister of poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Millay began her performing career with the Provincetown Players before transitioning to Broadway, where she appeared in productions spanning 1924 to 1939. Her Broadway credits included Patience, The Saint, Key Largo, Not Herbert, and Me, among other productions. She married painter and actor Charles Ellis, though she continued to perform under her birth name rather than his surname.

Following the death of Edna St. Vincent Millay in 1950, Norma Millay became the sole heir to her sister's estate. This inheritance included Steepletop, a 650-acre farm in Austerlitz, New York, where the poet had lived for the final twenty-five years of her life, as well as rights to all of Edna's creative and intellectual property. In 1973, Millay established the Millay Colony for the Arts on land adjacent to Steepletop, creating a center that offered residencies and workshops to emerging artists.

Millay also undertook efforts to document her sister's life, initially attempting to write a biography herself before enlisting biographer Nancy Milford to complete the project. Milford's resulting work, Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, was published in 2001, fifteen years after Norma Millay's death.