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Anastsia Doyle

1898- 1972

 

The last daughter in the family was Anastasia, born 30 May 1898 at St. Thomas, Minnesota. The official county birth records show her as female Doyle, parents Michael and Nora. The birth place of her parents is not shown. Little information is at hand regarding the early life of Stasia though we may assume she moved, with the family, to Minneapolis in 1909 where she completed her schooling.

 

She remained part of the central family during its various moves until about 1923 when the last of the central family unit broke up. Stasia, John, Leo and father, Michael, moved to a home John, and possibly others, had purchased in St. Louis Park. Stasia worked for several years at Geo. A. Clark & Co., but when the depression hit she was among the many laid off.

 

Next she got a job doing secretarial work at Munsingwear. Unfortunately, Munsingwear was hit by "hard times" and once again Stasia was out of work. The jolt of two lay-offs left her depressed and discouraged.

 

Her sister, Helen helped at this point by literally taking Stasia to Mrs. Renner at the St. Louis Park (Hennepin County) Welfare Department where Helen told Mrs. Renner, "Stasia has no job and no food, what are you going to do about it?"

 

 

Mrs. Renner acted at once. She sent food and put Stasia on half days in her office. From then on Stasia stayed with Hennepin County Welfare doing clerical-secretarial work. Later she moved to the Minneapolis office from where she retired.

 

Health was a lifelong problem for Stasia. As a child she suffered from a chronic lung congestion problem. When the children would run she could never keep up so she developed the habit of hanging on to her sister, Helen’s, coat-tails. Helen, incidentally, could run like a deer and didn't object to the “tow job" assignment.

 

In her adult life, Stasia compounded the situation by becoming a heavy smoker. As a result, she had a recurring problem with coughing. Quite possibly she suffered from Emphysema. Physically, at least in adult life, Stasia had a problem with overweight.

 

In personality she has been described as "a real good person, with lots of friends. One who was jolly and loved by all, even though she could at times be a bit querulous".

 

In the late 1930's and early 1940's Stasia and her brother, Leo, both unmarried, lived in Nonie and Martin Muckerheide's "little house" which was on the lot next to the Muckerheide family home at 2633 Webster Avenue, St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Leo moved out in 1943 when he and Aili married and Stasia stayed in the house. On an especially nice day in early Spring 1945 a humorous incident took place. Remember this is a family which is fire department oriented.

 

Stasia was handling the spring yard clean-up by raking and burning leaves when a sudden gust of wind blew burning leaves into the crawl space under the house. At this point the situation was not serious and three women were on hand. They were Stasia, Nonie and Nonie's daughter-in-law Mildred who was momentarily awaiting the birth of her first child. As best the scene can be re-created the events were:

 

Stasia panicked and did nothing except cry.  Mildred rushed to get a pail of water to throw on the small fire.    Nonie got frightened for Mildred and stopped her from taking any action to put out the fire. She even refused to phone the fire department until Mildred promised to do nothing.

 

By the time the man across the street phoned the fire department the fire had gotten a pretty good start and the result was considerable damage. In later years the memory was humorous but at the time disaster ruled. Stasia remained throughout her life "in single blessedness" and later with her sister Catherine, purchased a home at 3921 Aldrich Avenue South.

 

Stasia died at 5 p.m. on 5 May 1972 at 73 years, 11 months and 6 days. She is buried in the Catholic Cemetery at St. Thomas, Minnesota.

 

Her obituary in the Minneapolis paper read: DOYLE - Anastasia, age 73 of 3921 Aldrich Avenue So. survived by sisters, Mrs. James (Beien) Dyke & Miss Catherine Doyle; brother William, all of Mpls and by 11 nieces and 8 nephews. Funeral Mon. 8: 30 a.m. from White Funeral Home, 2730 Hennepin Ave. & 9 o'clock Church of the Incarnation. Interment St. Thomas Cemetery, St. Thomas, Minn. Rosary Sun. (today) 4 p.m. Friends may call after 3:30 p.m. today.