Obituaries - Jan. 10, 2007

MORLEY, Muriel Laura,

loving mother, grandmother, and great great grandmother, born in San Diego on January 28, 1917, to George and Gertrude Fletcher, passed away in Huntington Beach on January 3, 2007.

Muriel raised two daughters and lived in San Diego for 75 years until moving to Huntington Beach in 1992 to be near her family. She always considered Huntington Beach her second home having visited often since 1968, and making many new friends in Huntington Beach. Her photographs of Mission Cliff Gardens located on the cliffs overlooking Mission Valley, with a panoramic scene from the mountains to the sea to the snow clad summits of the Sierra Madre, San Bernardino and the San Jacinto ranges and west to the Pacific Ocean have been requested by the San Diego Historical Society. Included in the collection will be photographs of her father caring for the 70 foot high walk-in aviary with a flyway passage for the birds built in 1912. Mr. Gillette, of the razor industry, found the birds so well cared for by Muriel’s father that he donated many rare birds resulting in the aviary containing one of the most varied and largest collections of birds in the country. Her father also cared for sick birds brought to him by the public. Muriel, as a little girl, held fond memories of her many days and nights spent with her father who was known as “the bird man” when she stayed with him in his small quarters at the aviary.

She also kept fond memories of her time spent with him during his employment at the San Diego Zoo. Mom was very much loved by her family and will be missed by her daughters, Sharon Brown of Clatskanie, Oregon and Connie Brockway of Huntington Beach, five grandsons, two grandaughters, nine great grandchildren and two great grandsons, and her friends she made in her second home, Huntington Beach. Services were held at Glen Abbey in San Diego, on January 11, 2007.