Muriel Butler

1921 - 2017

Muriel Marie Butler
96, formerly of Peoria, Ill. and Howard City, Mich., died Monday, June 5, 2017, at Aultman Hospital in Canton, Ohio. She was born March 10, 1921, in Howard City to Ottis and Amelia Paulen. On May 24, 1942, she married her high school sweetheart, Vincient Haviland Butler, in Howard City. From 1947 to 1969, “Marie” and her husband moved several times between cities in the U.S. and Europe including Chicago and De Kalb, Ill., Frankfurt, Bonn, and Hessen, Germany; Nashota, Wisc. and Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey. While abroad, she worked for the U.S. Air Force as a court reporter in Germany and later held her family together functioning as both parents to her four children while her husband, Father Butler, studied, worked, and lived separately from his family. In 1969, they moved back to the U.S. permanently to reside in Peoria, Ill. before retiring to Marie's ancestral farm home in Howard City in 1986, where they lived until moving to Canton, Ohio in 2005 to reside with their youngest daughter, Theresa. During the final years of her life, Marie and her husband were members of the St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Canton. She was a loving spirit who saw the good in everyone she met.
Marie was preceded in death by her husband in June 2007. She is survived by her four children, Heidi Butler Schmidt of Iowa City, Iowa; retired Lt. Cmr. Dean Butler of Stillwater, Minn., Gregory Butler of Walnut Creek, Calif., and Theresa (Butler) Bagavandoss of Canton, Ohio; as well as her seven grandchildren, Mark Butler, Kenneth and Keith Butler, James and Cassandra Butler, and Sumitha and Kavitha Bagavandoss.
A memorial service will be held Sunday, June 11, 2017, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in downtown Canton at 3 p.m. followed by light refreshments and visitation. Funeral services have been entrusted to Hurst Funeral Home in Greenville, MI (616) 754-6616.