Muriel Butts.Courtesy of family
Muriel Bridgette Butts: Grande dame. Army wife. Acadian. Thrifter. Born July 17, 1922, in Truro, N.S.; died Nov. 25, 2020, in London, Ont., from Parkinson’s disease; aged 98.
Muriel Burke grew up in Truro, N.S., the second-oldest of seven siblings. Times were tight but the Burke home was filled with music.
Muriel earned her teacher’s licence at the Truro Old Normal College and taught in Kentville. Here she met Blaise Butts – a handsome captain in the Royal Canadian Regiment. They fell in love and married when she turned 21. Muriel said if you were an army wife, you had to be prepared to move – she did about 15 times. The couple raised three boys – David, Crispin and Michael – as the family was posted in Camp Borden, Ottawa, London, England and, eventually, London, Ont. David remembers at least six of those moves. He believes it gave all of them, especially his mother, resilience.
Muriel’s true home was in Wedgeport, N.S., where the LeBlancs, her mother’s family, have Acadian roots that sink deeper than their lobster traps. She spent her summers there and welcomed family and friends into her 1885 home. There were three things on the must-do list: visit the Sport Tuna Fishing Museum, eat copious quantities of rappie pie and most importantly, shop at Guy’s Frenchys, a chain of thrift shops.
Muriel Butts, 15, poses with the day's catch at the 1937 Wedgeport Tuna Tournament.Courtesy of family
The antiquing bug bit Muriel in London, England, where Blaise was stationed from 1959-61. Her upstairs neighbour, a lady of means, showed Muriel the best auction houses and antiques markets, including Bermondsey and Portobello. By the time the family settled in London, Ont., in 1967, she had started Old Treasures, an antiques business she maintained, with significant family support, well into her 90s.
Muriel loved buying silver, linens, cut glass and china. Vintage clothes were another specialty. Buying trips to Europe meant suitcases came back stuffed with plates. Inventory was tucked under her bed and in every closet. Her homes, including her final room in long-term care, were packed with Victoriana. She hunted for deals endlessly but did not like to haggle and was known to sell quality goods at a fair price. If someone got pushy about the price at an antiques show, she politely told them to shop around. They usually came back. If they’d been very rude, she hid the item and said that someone else had bought the piece.
Her sisters, Dorothy Cronin and Kaye Adams, who lived nearby, frequently polished silver and ironed tablecloths for her shows. They were called the silver sisters by a local antiques dealer – three elegant and immaculate grey-haired women who turned heads, especially when they were together.
In 1969, Blaise died of a heart attack at the age of 47. With two boys still at home, she did more supply teaching. Muriel also stayed active within the military community and served as vice-chair for military widows with the Armed Forces Pensioners’ Association of Canada. She helped many get the pension they deserved. Muriel travelled with this group to Asia and enjoyed decades of friendship and service to military families.
Further heartache arrived in 1998 when she lost her son Crispin. It was a great blow, but that stiff upper lip, developed as an army wife, prevailed. She found solace in her grandsons and in Wedgeport. Her stature as a member of an old family, love of local history and community celebrations, and early days as a teacher made her one of the community’s grande dames, and she was treated with deference.
At 81, Muriel married Norm Cullen, an old friend. When he died, and declining health meant the sale of her Wedgeport home, she spent part of her last summer in a hospital in Digby, N.S. She joked about being close to her favourite Frenchys, where she once scored a mink coat for $40.
Mary Ann Colihan is Muriel’s niece by marriage.
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