Maud Muriel (Miller) Dressler (1918 - 2000)

Born 4 Jul 1918 in Witcher, Kanawha, West Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Edward Oscar Greenlee — married 24 Sep 1935 (to before 1946) in Putnam, West Virginia, United States

Wife of Lester Ray Dressler Jr — married 1946 in Kanawha, West Virginia, United States

Died 27 Feb 2000 at age 81 in St. Albans, Kanawha, West Virginia, United States

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Biography

Muriel (Miller) Dressler is Notable.

Muriel (Miller) Dressler was born in Appalachia, in West Virginia.

Muriel was a poet.

Poet Muriel Miller Dressler (July 4, 1918-February 27, 2000) was born in Witcher, Kanawha County, West Virginia.^[1] Both sides of her family went back several generations in the Kanawha Valley.

Muriel never finished high school and liked to say that her real education came at the heels of her mother as they planted and hoed the fields, listening to recitations of Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton and the Bible.

She felt that outside writers tended to embroider and sensationalize Appalachia and her goal as a writer was to record the truth of the region. Her first poem, Appalachia, came about in 1970 when published in the Morris Harvey College periodical Poems From the Hills and has become her signature piece. This particular work won her the Appalachian Golden Medallion from the University of Charleston, West Virginia. Muriel was a popular college speaker into the mid 1980s when she suffered a massive heart attack after which she tended to be a bit reclusive. She spent several days in residence at Harvard in 1977.

Her first collection of poems, Appalachia, My Land, was published in 1973. In 1977 her second collection was published, titled, Appalachia. Both became immediately popular.

She met the creator and narrator of the tv series The Waltons, Earl Henry Hamner Jr (1923-2016), in 1975. He used one of her poems, Elegy for Jody, as the basis for a 1986 television special, Morning Star, Evening Star.

Her collection of papers resides at West Virginia University in Morgantown.

Maud Muriel Miller was the daughter of Joseph Frobell Miller (1873–1963) and Fannie A Underwood (1876–1948).^[2]

Muriel (17) married Edward Oscar Greenlee (23) (born on April 3, 1912 in Point Pleasant, Mason, West Virginia) on September 24, 1935 in Putnam, West Virginia.^[3] Their son was Joseph E Greenlee (1936–1988).

Muriel (27) married Lester Ray Dressler (25) (born on July 11, 1920 in Cabin Creek, Kanawha) in 1946 in Kanawha.^[4]

Muriel died on February 27, 2000 in St. Albans, Kanawha, aged 81.

Sources

1. ↑ Birth:"West Virginia, U.S., Births Index, 1804-1938"
   FHL Film Number: 521731
   Ancestry Record 2537 #60927 (accessed 21 May 2024)
   Maud Murrell Miller born in 1918 in Kanawha.
2. ↑ "United States Census, 1920", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN2R-NCX : Sat Mar 09 21:07:41 UTC 2024), Entry for Joseph Miller and Fannie Miller, 1920.
3. ↑ "West Virginia, County Marriage Records, 1776-1971", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2ZF-LK37 : Thu Mar 07 22:42:43 UTC 2024), Entry for Edward Oscar Greenlee and Maude Muriel Miller, 24 September 1935.
4. ↑ "West Virginia Marriages, 1780-1970," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F17Q-M6J : 30 May 2018), Lester Ray Dressler and Muriel Miller Greenlee, 1946; citing Kanawha, , county clerks, West Virginia; FHL microfilm 521,724.

See also:

• "United States Census, 1930", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XMH9-GYZ : Sat Mar 09 22:49:07 UTC 2024), Entry for Joe Miller and Fanny Miller, 1930.
• "United States Census, 1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K7Z7-VVK : Fri Mar 08 00:23:22 UTC 2024), Entry for Muriel Greenlee and Joseph E Greenlee, 1940.
• "United States Census, 1950", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FQ3-28TK : Thu Oct 05 19:31:47 UTC 2023), Entry for Lester Dressler and Muriel Dressler, 12 April 1950.
• The West Virginia Encyclopedia, https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1957