Mildred L. “Millie” Rahn (1951 – 2024)

Mildred L. (Millie) Rahn, (age 72), of Belmont, Massachusetts, passed away due to cancer on April 9, 2024 in West Friendship, Maryland.

Millie was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania to Herman F. and Clara I. Rahn (nee Hauer) on August 5, 1951. She graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (BA, American Studies) and Memorial University of Newfoundland (MA, Folklore).

Millie was Boston-based working as a folklorist and ethnographer using her skills in foodways, oral histories, university teaching and public programs; also, a writer and reviewer on many topics related to folklife and traditional music. She has developed long and short term projects and events involving living cultural traditions for cultural and educational organizations, government and economic development agencies and the tourism and heritage industries. Millie taught classes most recently for Boston University and Lasell Village in Newton, Massachusetts.

For many years, she directed the Foodways stage for the Lowell Folk Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts. She has curated exhibits for many regional folk festivals, including the American Folk Festival in Bangor, Maine, the Boston Cultural Heritage Festival and the Working Waterfront Festival in New Bedford, MA. Millie also was active in preserving the history of Club 47, a folk music coffeehouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts and performed fieldwork for the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History, University of Maine.

Read more about Millie’s life and work on her profile on wgbh.org and on her obituary on Tribute Archive.