Muriel G. (Olson) Sears

On Thursday, March 8, Muriel Sears passed peacefully away at her home for 55 years, in Richland, curled up with her beloved cat, Toi. Her final days were filled with love and comfort from her grateful family, to whom she had given the same without reservation all their lives.

A Richland resident for 60 years, Muriel loved the city and the Columbia Basin region, and filled her B-house home with warm desert colors, well-maintained leafy plants and shelves full of cacti, keepsakes from family and mementos from her travels to Alaska, Africa, and Europe. Beside her lounge chair, alongside TV remotes, cordless phone, notepads, stacks of cards for every occasion, pencils and pens, her address book lists enduring friendships from childhood, college, and a generation of early Richlanders, while charting the history of her children’s travels through the world. She loved cats and took pride in her long-cultivated rose bed – both scratched if not handled with due diligence, she’d explain in her reflective years, to describe herself.

To say that Muriel was a lifelong sports fan cannot begin to describe the woman who, at the slightest prompting, could recite detailed statistics, histories, and potentials of individual Seahawks, Mariners, and Sonics, Cougs, Huskies, Zags, Bombers and notable athletes from the region. But tennis was her passion, and into her 50s she still competed for local trophies. Muriel embodied the competitive, independent spirit and would have taken some small pleasure from passing away on International Women’s Day.

Muriel Gail was born in Opheim, Montana, to Albert and Effie Olson, and with her older brother, Albert Jr., and half-brother, Leland, grew up in New Deal, Montana. The family relocated to Spokane where she attended grade school through high school, graduating in 1947 from Lewis and Clark High School. She went on to attend and graduate from Eastern Washington State College with a teaching certificate and student-taught at Carmichael Junior High in Richland. Soon thereafter, she married Richard Sears and they moved to Seattle for a short time where he attended UW and she worked in the travel office. In 1958, the Sears’ and their two young children moved back to Richland, and shortly after the birth of their third child, Muriel abruptly became a single mother. She supported her family, and later her pensioned parents, as a secretary for General Electric, which became Hanford Occupational (later Environmental) Health Foundation. In the mid-1960s, her employer-doctors offered her $250 to participate in an experiment involving a cup of orange juice laced with Promethium; she used the money to buy a dishwasher. Eventually, Muriel left HEHF and was employed by various Hanford contractors, primarily

Battelle/PNNL, WPPSS, and Westinghouse, with the majority of her career focused in Human Resources. She was a pioneer in the field of equal employment rights and opportunities for women and minorities.

Of all the reasons people die at age 88, Muriel’s was directly related to her Promethium exposure as an unwitting guinea pig five decades earlier. Mom gave everything for her children, David (Olympia, WA), Gail and Greg (both in Richland), who can never repay their debt for her sacrifices, small and large, and yet who, in their own ways, almost always managed to bring pleasure to her life. In her last months she was overjoyed to meet her great-granddaughter, Kyleigh, daughter of Greg’s son Travis and his girlfriend Charity, of Togiak, AK. Also surviving Muriel is Greg’s oldest son, Richard, and his four children, also of Togiak. Muriel’s final days were eased by the loving care of David’s daughters, Amanda and Xenia, and the warm hygge of their mor in Denmark, Lone Christiansen. She is also survived by treasured nieces and nephews Joani Shannon (Edmonds, WA), and Minnesotans Ann, Jane, Eric and Rolf Olson; cousins Margaret MacLeran and Edith Kelly (Alexandria, MN), and many other extended family members throughout the country. She was preceded in death by her parents, brother, Albert, Jr., half-brother Leland, and beloved family members and pets.

At Muriel’s request, services are reserved for immediate family, and a memorial celebration of her life will be announced at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made in her name to the Tri-Cities Cancer Center, the Benton-Franklin Humane Society, or Chaplaincy Hospice Care in Kennewick.

The Sears Family will forever be grateful to Muriel’s friends Marion, Joyce, Barb, Gerry, Joyand the other members of “Muriel’s Gang”, and those who went before her, for their lovingfriendship and family ties throughout her life; her children’s friends for their constant love and support; to the incredible doctors and nurses – Dr. Rangaswamy Chintapatla, Sonya, and the office staff at Kadlec Hematology and Oncology, Sandy Soulek, Dr. Katherine Cayetano, and the nurses and staff in Kadlec Outpatient and IV Therapy – for their love and gentle care over the last two years, and to the staff at Chaplaincy Hospice Care for their compassion in Muriel’s final days. To the many nurses at the Tri-Cities Cancer Center IV Therapy, there are no words to describe how she felt about each and every one of you. You brought so much joy to her in so many ways. You were her angels. Remember: “one, two, three – COUGH!”

Mom, you’ll be in our hearts and thoughts forever,

and someday the pain will subside.

But we know we’ll be together,

When we see you on the other side. –Greg