Muriel Marjorie Boos Hanna papers (Ms. 90.11)

Biographical note

Muriel Marjorie Boos was born in 1923 in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, the daughter of Richard and Jennie (Nicholas) Boos . In 1934 the family moved to Manasquan, New Jersey. She graduated from the Junior College of Physical Therapy in New Haven (now part of the University of Connecticut) in 1942. In 1944 she married Harold N. Hanna; they had four children. The Hannas moved to Rhode Island in 1947. MMH (as she signed her poems) began writing poetry while riding the train between Connecticut and New Jersey, and stopped for many years while busy with children and other activities. She started writing again in 1975 and was active in the Rhode Island State Poetry Society. Muriel Hanna was the granddaughter of Emma Doan (Evans) Nicholas.

Emma Doan Evans was born in Evansville, Pennsylvania in 1877. She married William W. Nicholas in 1893 or 1894, when they were both sixteen years old. They had five children, including Jennie May (Nicholas) Boos. The Nicholases lived in several towns in northern New Jersey until they moved to a farm in Jerseyville. Emma Nicholas was active in the local Grange--several of her poems are about the farmer's organization. In the mid-1930s they lost their farm. They later lived in Brooklyn, New York, and Newark, New Jersey. Emma Nicholas died in Farmingdale, New Jersey in 1946. In addition to poetry, Emma Nicholas wrote jingles for fun and in hopes of winning prize money.