2006
Winifred McMinimy Murphy, 100, a former junior high English and mathematics teacher in Washington, died of congestive heart
failure May 6 at Ingleside at Rock Creek in the District.
Mrs. Murphy was born in Lewiston, Idaho, and grew up in Craigmont, Idaho, where her father was a lawyer for the Nez Perce
Tribe. She moved to the Washington area in 1921, when her father took a law position with the Interior Department.
Living in Clarendon, she crossed the Potomac River via pontoon bridge (forerunner to the 14th Street Bridge) to attend Western
High School, graduating in 1923. She received a bachelor's degree in English and mathematics in 1927 from the University of
Maryland. She received a master's degree in mathematics from George Washington University in 1930.
She taught English and math at Taft Junior High School from 1929 to 1941 and then was a homemaker.
Mrs. Murphy was a founding member of the Alpha Rho chapter of Kappa Delta Sorority at the University of Maryland, a matron of
Eastgate Lodge of the Eastern Star and a member of more than 10 choral societies in the Washington area. A lead soloist at
Sherwood Presbyterian Church (now Northeastern) for 30 years, she was in recent years a member of National Presbyterian
Church.
Her husband, Raymond W. Murphy, died in 1977.
Survivors include a daughter, Carolyn J. Ahern of Cleveland; a son, Raymond W. Murphy Jr. of Great Falls; three grandchildren;
and four great-grandchildren.