Blue, Muriel

Muriel Joyce BLUE was born on 15 April, 1913, the second child in the family and only daughter of Donald Argyle and Jessie May (nee Balding). Until she was seven, Muriel’s father assisted his two brothers and their mother in the running of a General Store in the main street of Midland Junction. From Midland, two of the Blue brothers transferred in 1920 to a general retailing business on the corner of Adelaide and William Street in Busselton which Muriel’s father ran.

Muriel enjoyed singing around the piano, church-going and associated choir work and playing tennis. She won the ladies’ singles championship one year. When Muriel was 14 her mother died and Muriel’s ambition to be a kindergarten teacher was dashed when her father decided, after a year in Busselton, to buy a general store at Cowaramup. Muriel joined her father in the Cowaramup venture. For four years she helped her father run the store and care for her brother.

Most evenings she did embroidery. In 1934 her father bought and re-named Blue’s Corner News agency in Busselton. The newspaper franchise was added in 1936 and the premises and stock lines expanded. In 1938 Muriel, assisted by her brother Stuart, took over the full responsibility for this business. He died suddenly in 1966 at 46 years of age, leaving three sons.

In 1967 Muriel had sold the newspaper franchise, transferred the wools and haberdashery to other premises and quit the corner news agency she had run for 33 years. From 1968 until 1985 Muriel and Elsie Carmichael ran the ‘Blue Box’.

Muriel never married but was well satisfied with her busy life. For 25 years service to Guiding she was awarded honorary life membership and she was recognized by the Repertory Club for producing and performing. She played golf and tennis and was a regular exhibitor in the knitting and fancy-work section at the Busselton and Southern Districts Agricultural Shows until she became a judge.

In retirement, Muriel read a lot, regularly played cards and was a “minder” at the Courthouse.