2.12.9.5. Marian Ruth Ternes (1918-1973)

Marian Ruth Ternes was born on 10 December 1918 in Michigan, likely in Detroit, to William Peter Ternes and Elsie Agnes Gerstner. William and his brothers owned Ternes Coal and Lumber Co. in Detroit. Elsie had worked for the company as a bookkeeper. She and William eloped to Windsor, Canada, to marry. Marian's older sister, Ruth Marie Ternes drowned at the family's summer compound on Hickory Island the year before Marian was born. Her middle name may have been in honor of that sister.

When the 1920 census was enumerated, Marian's family lived at 52 Gladstone Avenue in Detroit and her father was the treasurer of the family business. He had also started a real estate development company and was considered one of the most prominent businessmen in the city. Her father died in 1926 at the age of 49, leaving Elsie a widow with five children and expecting a sixth. She married John Frances "Frank" Deacon in 1928 and had one daughter, Marian's half-sister.

By 1930 Marian's new family lived at 772 Chicago Boulevard in Detroit. Frank and Elsie Deacon owned and operated a real estate business. The home was valued at $50,000 and the family had four servants.

Present day 722 Chicago Boulevard, Detroit; courtesy of Google Maps

Elsie died in 1933 of breast cancer, leaving Marian an orphan at 15. Her step-father, Frank, died three years later in California. He had moved west soon after his wife died with a daughter by his first marriage and his daughter by Elsie. By 1940 Marian worked as a stenographer for an auto club. She and her three younger siblings rented rooms with her older sister Evelyn and her husband, James Montague at 18446 San Juan Drive in Detroit.

Marian joined the U.S. Naval Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services (WAVES) on 6 November 1944 and served as part of that organization until 14 January 1946.

Marian married Harold Muir, son of Peter Semple Muir and Mayme Zebio, on 19 February 1949. They had two children in Michigan before moving to California in 1953 where they had their two youngest children.

Marian Ruth (Ternes) Muir died on 5 May 1973 in Placentia, California.

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'722 Chicago Boulevard,' Google Maps
1920 US Federal Census, Census Place: Detroit Ward 2, Wayne, Michigan; Roll: T625_802; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 86; Image: 679
1930 US Federal Census, Census Place: Detroit, Wayne, Michigan; Roll: 1035; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 1076; Image: 852.0; FHL microfilm: 2340770
Alice (Muir) Jennings Genealogy Notebook, page 20
The Daily Times, 9 September 1910
US, California Death Index, 1940-1997, 1973 Muir, Marian R.
US, City Directories, 1822-1995, 1961 Long Beach, CA (Harold and Marian Muir)
US, City Directories, 1822-1995, 1962 Long Beach, CA (Harold and Marian Muir)
US, Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010, 1973 Muir, Marian
US, Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867-1952, 1949 Muir, Harold - Ternes, Marian Ruth
US, School Yearbooks, 1880-2012, 1935 Commerce High School Reveille, page 66
US, Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Number: 362-14-4367; Issue State: Michigan; Issue Date: Before 1951