Muriel C. Hill, 85, administrative aide

Muriel Cardwell Hill, 85, of West Chester, a retired administrative assistant and volunteer, died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Wednesday, May 25, at Sunrise Assisted Living in Exton.

Mrs. Hill grew up in Monroe, Conn. She married her high school sweetheart, James Meikle, in 1944 before he shipped overseas to serve in the Army Air Forces as a B-24 gunner in Europe.

After his discharge, he went to work for General Electric in Kentucky and she became a stay-at-home mother.

In 1953, when GE transferred Meikle to Pennsylvania, the couple moved to Newtown Square. In the 1950s and 1960s, Mrs. Hill was an assistant administrator in a medical practice in Newtown Square. In 1969, she became manager of the restaurant in the B. Altman & Co. department store in St. Davids. Later, she was restaurant manager for Bloomingdale's in King of Prussia and Hershey's Mill Golf Club. Then for 10 years before she retired at 78, she was a part-time administrative assistant at R. Douglas Stewart & Associates landscape architects in Berwyn. She also did professional modeling until her early 70s, her son Cameron Meikle said.

James Meikle died in 1982. She later married Russell Hill. After they divorced in the mid-1990s, Mrs. Hill moved to Hershey's Mill, an over-55 residential community.

She was a volunteer at Hickman Quaker Home in West Chester and at Paoli and Bryn Mawr Hospitals, and she performed volunteer administrative duties for the community-access TV station at Hershey's Mill.

She had a passion for the Eagles, Phillies, and PGA golf and loved spending time with her family on the beach in Ocean City, N.J., her son said.

In addition to her son, Mrs. Hill is survived by another son, Scott Meikle; a daughter, Pamela Hohlowski; three grandchildren; and five great-grandsons.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May, 31, at SS. Philip and James Roman Catholic Church, Route 30 and Ship Road, Exton. Friends may call from 9:30 a.m. Burial will be in St. Agnes Cemetery, West Chester.

Donations may be made to the Laura Meikle Koch Memorial Legacy Foundation, c/o Chester County Community Foundation, 28 W. Market St., West Chester, Pa. 19380. Laura Koch, who died in 2008, was Mrs. Hill's granddaughter.