2.12.3.5. Henrietta Muir (1920-2008)

According to the 2008 obituary about Henrietta Muir, she was born on 14 January 1920 in Tralee, West Virginia, an unincorporated place in Wyoming County, to Robert Muir and his second wife, Elizabeth "Liz" Fausz. Tralee was a coal camp established to house miners who worked for the local coal company.

When the 1930 census was enumerated Henrietta lived with her mother and two sisters at 436 North 80th Street, a home owned by her father, in East St. Louis. Her father and brother were not living with the family, and her mother worked as a cook for private family. Henrietta had a son she named Joseph Kenneth Muir in 1938 at the age of 18. Henrietta's mother died in 1940 and I have been unable to find Henrietta in the 1940 census.

She never married and worked on Project Manhattan at the plant in Hanford, Washington, during World War II. After the war, she returned to Illinois and worked for Continental Can Co. most of her working life. In the late 1940s and throughout 1950s she lived at 428 North 82nd Street, a few blocks from the house her father owned.

Grandma Jennings, Henrietta's half sister, and I stayed with Henrietta for a few days in 1975. I absolutely fell in love with her and her zest for life. She took us sightseeing and we lost her car at the St. Louis Arch because we were all so busy talking, we didn't note where we had parked. But my favorite experience was visiting Aunt Hen's local bar, where she stopped in often for a beer after work. Everyone knew her name!

After Henrietta retired in 1982 she moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, and lived near Grandma Jennings. They enjoyed going to the senior club and dances together, but most of all playing cards. In 1984 Grandma, Aunt Hen, my cousin, Joyce and I went on a Caribbean cruise. Grandma and Aunt Hen met us in Miami and we stopped in Haiti, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Mexico.

On our Caribbean cruise, from left to right, Alice (Muir) Jennings, Schalene
Jennings, and Henrietta Muir; personal collection

In 1998 she returned to Illinois and moved into the Bowes Health Center and then Asta Care Center, both in Elgin, which was close to her son and his family. She died on 23 February 2008 at Asta Care Center and was buried at the Caseyville Cemetery in Caseyville, Illinois.

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'Our Caribbean Cruise,' personal collection
1930 US Federal Census, Census Place: Centerville, St Clair, Illinois; Roll: 555; Page: 40B; Enumeration District: 34; Image: 984.0; FHL microfilm: 2340290
Alice (Muir) Jennings Genealogy Notebook, pages 8 and 13
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 29 March 2008
US, City Directories, 1822-1995, 1948 East St. Louis, IL (Muir, Henrietta)
US, City Directories, 1822-1995, 1950 East St. Louis, IL (Muir, Henrietta)
US, City Directories, 1822-1995, 1957 East St. Louis, IL (Muir, Henrietta Mrs.)
US, Missouri, St. Louis Public Library Obituary Index, 1880-2011, 2008 Muir, Henrietta
US, Public Records Index, Volume 1, 1974 East St. Louis, IL (Muir, Henrietta)
US, Social Security Death Index, 1835-2014, Name: Henrietta Muir, Issue State: Illinois; Issue Date: Before 1951