Verna Rebecka Muffley, GW

Verna is not found in the list of Gospel Workers but she is giving reports in the 1905 issues of the GWS Herald.  I don’t know why she does not have a number.  Verna was born in July of 1881 in Shamokin, Pa. to Israel and Ella (Koppenheffer) Muffley.  The Muffleys moved around a bit; they were in nearby Lykens where some of their other children were born.  She joined the Gospel Workers by 1905 where she is seen giving reports from various towns in Pennsylvania.  She did not stay long with the Gospel Workers though. She is seen in Chicago in 1910 living with a widower and his daughter, working as a housekeeper.  Her young teen sister is living with her (their mother died the year before – maybe that is why she left the Gospel Workers?).  Two year later, on 28 August 1912 Verna married William Robert Carruthers of Chicago, a widower five years her senior, who had at least five young children.  From her husband’s WWI draft registration we learn that her middle name is Rebecka.  In 1920 the family is still living in Chicago with the addition of two nephews of Verna’s.  By 1930 Verna and her husband are no longer living together, though both are listed as married on the census.  Robert is living with his daughter and son-in-law and Verna is renting a room with Marion Carruthers, presumably her daughter (or step-daughter?).  Verna died on 6 February 1934 according to the Cook County, Illinois death index.  According to Find a Grave, she is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, in Chicago which is not the same cemetery where her husband was buried when he died in 1940.