Muriel Wilson Obituary

Wilson, Muriel Braxton life-long Chicagoan, Muriel B. Wilson, 88 died after an extended illness March 23, 2010. A funeral service for Muriel will be held on Saturday, June 12th at 10:30 a.m., at The Church of Saint Paul and the Redeemer at 4945 S. Dorchester; on Saturday afternoon, a Memorial Celebration of her life will be held from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Carter Woodson Regional Library at 95th and Halsted. A Reception will follow. All of Muriel's friends and acquaintances are welcome to attend. The eldest daughter of Dr. Fred Jesse Braxton and Hattie Wardell Henley, Muriel was born February 21, 1922. She attended Forrestville and Willard Elementary Schools and DuSable and Parker High Schools. She then attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning a Bachelors degree in Art. She embarked on a long career teaching art with the Chicago Public Schools, initially at Altgeld Gardens, then Englewood and South Shore High Schools and finishing up at Senn High School. Muriel won accolades from students, and as a member of the Chicago Teacher's Union walked picket lines in support. In 1942, Muriel married Hugh Floyd Wilson; after his service in Italy with the 92nd Infantry Division, he and Muriel raised three sons, Hugh, Frederic, and Arthur. Hugh passed away in 1997; he and Muriel enjoyed 55 years of shared life. While continuing to teach, in the 1960's, Muriel returned to school part-time, earning a Master of Science degree in Visual Education from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972 with a thesis that focused on Black arts and crafts in the south before the Civil War. She described the neglected artistic achievements of blacks in sub-Saharan pre-colonial Africa, and later, under the hardships of slavery. Her research highlighted the work of recognized antebellum black artists such as Joshua Johnston and Julien Hudson and recovered the work of gifted, but now anonymous, slave artisans. As she did in her teaching, she wanted to motivate black youth by offering them a glimpse of their hidden heritage and their long suppressed potential. In researching this topic, she traveled extensively through the southern U.S. In 1984, in her early sixties, Muriel earned another degree, a Master of Arts in History from Roosevelt University. Her MA thesis chronicled the downtown origins of the black community from the founding of the city by Jean Baptist Point DuSable through the abolitionist era, the Civil War, and the postwar "reconstruction." Muriel noted the racism of the Democratic Party, and the post Civil War betrayals of the Republican Party. She described the discrimination and segregation blacks endured in Chicago, including an extremely suspicious fire that was used as an excuse to force black property owners to vacate prime downtown real estate and locate to the south-side of Chicago. All the while, she continued teaching, finally retiring in 1985. In 1979, Muriel and Dr. Adeline Harris founded the Afro-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago which remains active today. She was involved in several Society research projects, most recently inaugurating a project to locate and catalog the genealogical and historical resources of the early Illinois African American churches. From 1994 to 1996, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Illinois State Historical Society where she advocated for research into black history. Her own research has been occasionally noted in the acknowledgments of books, and some of her papers are held in the Vivian Harsh Collection of the Carter Woodson Branch of the Chicago Public Library. In later life, Muriel traveled extensively, for research and pleasure. She attended conferences of the Illinois State Historical Society. She also traveled to visit her sons and their families; and with Frederic and his family to Sweden for genealogical research on her grandmother and to Norway. Her last and most recent trip was in 2009 for a Jazz cruise in the Caribbean. Muriel will be missed as the matriarch of her extended family and for the guidance and assistance she gave to many. She sang in her church choir and gave to numerous charities; her contributions to and passion for the Afro-American Genealogical and Historical Society, the Illinois State Historical Society, and the DuSable Museum of African American History will be missed. Muriel was preceded in death by her brothers, Fred and Paul and husband, Hugh. She is survived by son, Hugh and daughter–in-law, Katherine, son, Frederic and daughter-in-law, Nora, son, Arthur and daughter-in-law, Anne, and her grandchildren, Nathaniel, Matthew, James, Sarah, Jessica, and Benjamin, she also leaves her sister, Roberta and spouse, Lloyd McKeethen, their son, Patrick and daughter-in-law, Nita and children, Alyssia and Eric and Muriel's niece and nephew, Paula and Gregory Braxton. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to Afro-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago.