She grew up at a state fish hatchery and animal reserve in St. Paul. She loved all animals and enjoyed time spent with Eleanore, their “pet” moose as well as other wild, displaced or injured animals. She attended Mills Art College after high school and then began working as a commercial artist at the local newspaper. In June of 1948 she married O.D. Hawkins of Columbia, MO. During their courtship and engagement, she wrote 300 letters to him, painting pictures of pin-up girls or sometimes herself, on every envelope. O.D. saved all of them and the Smithsonian has said they would like them to add to their collection. Muriel wrote all of the letters to O.D. when he was in the Navy, during World War II, serving on the Submarine, USS Pampanito. The ship is currently open to visitors in San Francisco. There is a large story board at the visitors center at Fisherman’s Wharf, close to the boat, that depicts images of some of the envelopes and tells the story of Muriel and O.D. The curators wanted to highlight their love story as a gentle side of war. Pictures of the painted envelopes have also been featured in some books about the Pampanito.
You may see a picture of a page included in the book, “USS PAMPANITO A Submarine and Her Crew” in the “Memories” section located towards the bottom of Muriel’s obituary. Some of the pictures were a bit more of a pin-up style and often the hit of mail call on the ship.
After Muriel and O.D. married, Muriel worked as an artist at the University of Missouri. More than 25 years after they moved from Missouri some alumni mail came with a pen and ink drawing of the campus that she thought to be her work. She quickly found the original and was touched to know they still used it. Muriel and O.D. moved to Schenectady, NY from Missouri and also lived a short while in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1956, O.D. had a work opportunity to move back to the Midwest where they settled in West Des Moines and Muriel worked as a homemaker.
Muriel enjoyed painting, sketching, pen and ink, and working in other art mediums her entire life. She was a member of Associated Artists of Central Iowa for many years and very active in showing her artwork in the community. After painting a beautiful picture of Terrace Hill, she was commissioned by the purchaser to do a painting of Hoyt Sherman Place as well. She took pictures of many nature scenes and then would often paint them. She was very creative and didn’t have just one style of painting.