Mrs. Butler Passes Away

Illness Is Fatal to Wife of Chamber of Commerce Secretary
Mrs. Hackley Butler of 1010 Monroe St., prominent in club and church activities in Ann Arbor for many years, passed away this morning after an illness of about a year.
Mrs. Butler formerly was Miss Mabel Lewis and was born in St. Louis, Mo. Her parents died when she was very young and she grew up in the family of the late Rev. Moses Martin, a relative by marriage. Mr. Martin held long pastorates in Masomanie, Wis., and Three Oaks and Allegan in this state, and in all these places Mrs. Butler had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
Her ambition was to teach and after leaving high school she took special work in Chicago and at the normal colleges in Valparaiso, Ind., and Ypsilanti, to fit her for what she had planned as her life’s work. However, after teaching for only a year, she met Hackley Butler in Allegan and they were married in February, 1893, coming directly to Ann Arbor, where Mr. Butler had just entered the practice of law.
Mrs. Butler was one of the founders of the Ann Arbor Woman’s club and read the first paper presented to that organization. She was a charter member of Ann Arbor chapter of P. E. O., and of the Woman’s Book and Thimble club. She was a patroness of the Delta Omicron sorority, and was active in the work of all of these organizations until taken ill in July of last year. Mrs. Butler was a member of the First Congregational church and a member of the various women’s organizations connected therewith.
She had taken special courses in elocution in connection with her studies at the normal colleges and was much in demand as a reader and speaker. She was intensely interested in dramatics and was an active worker in the Drama league and other similar societies formed later to bring the best theatrical productions to Ann Arbor.
In spite of these many outside activities, Mrs. Butler’s chief interest and work centered in her home. Besides Mr. Butler, she leaves a son, Ronald A. Butler.
Funeral arrangements have not been completed.