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Mabel Hurni
| Last Name: | Hurni |
|---|---|
| First Name: | Mabel E. |
| Dates: |
20.2.1910 (Date of Birth)
2.6.2007 (Date of Death)
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| Biography/History: | Mabel E. Hurni was born 20 February 1910 in Oak Creek, Nebraska. She was the first of four children born to John Hurni (1870-1962) of Berne, Switzerland and Emilie Peterson (1886-1964) of Papillon, Nebraska. John Hurni had immigrated to the U.S. in 1886, settling in Nebraska, where he took up ranching. He married Emilie Peterson (or Petersen) in 1909. A year or two after Mabel’s birth, the family acquired a ranch in the vicinity of Helena, Montana, where Mabel’s three siblings were born and where John and Emilie spent the remainder of their lives. Mabel’s siblings were Grace (Blair) (1913-2010), John (1918-2011), and Ethel (Summerfelt) (1924-2002). Little is known of Mabel Hurni’s early years, but in 1934, she appears in the Great Falls, Montana City Directory, where she is listed as a student nurse at the Deaconess Hospital. In 1937, she appears as a nurse at Deaconess. By the 1940 census, Mabel was working as a therapy technician at the Great Falls Clinic. At some point after 1940 (possibly in 1945), Mabel Hurni joined the U. S. Navy’s Hospital Corps as a physical therapist. No records of service during World War II were found, but the 1946 Bremerton, Washington City Directory lists her as being in the United States Navy. She was likely assigned to the Bremerton Naval Hospital at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Post-war U. S. Select Military Registers of Navy and Reserve Officers track Mabel Hurni’s rise though the ranks from Lieutenant Junior Grade in 1949 to Lieutenant Commander in 1959. She appeared in the register again in 1967 with the rank of Lt. Commander. Before 1950 (possibly 1949), she had taken an assignment as a physical therapist at the Veterans Hospital in Spokane. By 1956, she had achieved the position of chief physical therapist. While records of Mabel Hurni’s professional life exist, nothing could be found online to illuminate her interest in and talent for millinery, as evidenced by the many hats she donated to the museum in 1978. She seems to have retired in 1975 at the age of 65 and remained in Spokane. Mabel’s sister Grace Blair and her husband John Drummond Blair had moved to Spokane in the 1950s and lived there at least through 1997, when John Blair died. Grace died in 2010 in Tacoma, Washington. Mabel Hurni, who apparently never married, passed away on 2 June 2007 in Spokane, although no obituary, nor death notice was found in the local papers. Find-a-Grave has no entry for her burial location, nor does the Nationwide Gravesite Locator of the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Sources include documents available on Ancestry.com including birth and death records, Social Security records, U. S. Census data, military registers, and various city directories; also the Nationwide Gravesite Locator database of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. |
| Related Objects: |
2590.17 (Hat, Woman's Black Velvet and Rose Hat, 1961)
2590.21 (Stretcher, Hat, White Net Hat Frame)
2590.22 (Block, Hat, Base, Hat Block)
2590.23 (Block, Hat, Milliner's Hat Block)
2590.24 (Block, Hat, Milliner's Hat Block, Pillbox)
2590.25 (Block, Hat, Hat Block for Cage and Net Work)
2590.27 (Trim, Textile, Millinery Materials, 1945-1965)
2590.6 (Hat, Pillbox, Woman's Daisy Pillbox Hat, 1954)
2590.8 (Hat, Woman's Gold and Fur Hat, 1958)
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