2.12.3.6. Margaret Elizabeth Muir (1924-1988)

Margaret Elizabeth Muir was born on 26 September 1924 in East St. Louis, Illinois, to Robert Muir and Elizabeth "Liz" Fausz. She was their fourth and youngest child. Her father was a coal miner and union agitator, and was working primarily in West Virginia at the time of Margaret's birth.

When the 1930 census was enumerated, Margaret her two sisters, mother, and maternal grandmother lived at 436 North 80th Street in East St. Louis, a house her father owned, and her mother worked as a cook for a private family. Margaret's parents divorced sometime before 1940. When the 1940 census was enumerated, Margaret and her mother boarded with Mr. P. J. Walker at his home on 473 North 80th Street. Margaret's mother died later that year.

Two years later, at the age of 18, Margaret married Cecil Roy Hess on 24 October 1942 in Buchanan County, Virginia. Cecil was the son of Charles Robert Hess and Jessie Mae Fitzgerald and the older brother of Winfred Jerome Hess, who later married Margaret's niece, Bonnie Ann Muir. Cecil was a miner at the time of their marriage. The couple had five children before they separated in April 1958. Margaret was pregnant with their youngest child at the time of the separation. She was granted an absolute divorce decree on 1 December 1959 on the grounds of desertion by the Tazewell County Circuit Court.

Margaret Elizabeth (Muir) Hess; courtesy of Faye (Muir) West

Margaret and the children moved to Grundy, Virginia, and lived and worked at the Mountain Mission School. Her youngest son was killed in an automobile accident in 1975.

Margaret Elizabeth (Muir) Hess died on 14 June 1988 at Richlands, Virginia. She was likely interred at Greenhills Memory Gardens in Claypool Hill, Virginia.

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'Margaret Elizabeth Hess,' personal collection of Faye (Muir) West
1930 US Federal Census, Census Place: Centerville, St Clair, Illinois; Roll: 555; Page: 40B; Enumeration District: 34; Image: 984.0; FHL microfilm: 2340290
1940 US Federal Census, Census Place: Signal Hill, St Clair, Illinois; Roll: T627_879; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 82-35
Alice (Muir) Jennings Genealogy Notebook, pages 8 and 13
US, Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, Number: 224-32-4337
US, Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Number: 224-32-4337; Issue State: Virginia; Issue Date: Before 1951
US, Virginia Death Records, 1912-2014, 1988 Hess, Margaret Elizabeth
US, Virginia Divorce Records, 1918-2014, 1959 Hess, Roy Cecil - Hess, Margaret Elizabeth
US, Virginia Marriage Records, 1936-2014, 1942 Hess, Roy Cecil - Muir, Margaret Elizabeth