Muriel “Murky” Satter was the “poster child” for being involved, whether it was a riverboat trip, doing Japanese-style paintings or being the hostess for parties, said Cindy Wagner, recreation director at Shalom Park.
Satter, who died April 14 at age 90, “was a force,” said her son, Denver County Court Judge Raymond Satter.
Murky Satter loved to cook, had her first-ever art show when she was in her 80s, was an accomplished pianist and painted her own birthday cards.
She loved to entertain “and was very social; she needed other people,” Wagner said. But she never needed to display her artwork, which included watercolors, clay and stone sculptures, acrylics and batik.
“She just never felt the need for a show,” said her daughter, Etta Satter of Evergreen.
When she did have her only art show, she was thrilled. “She was queen for a day,” Wagner said.
Muriel Vera Tuller was born Aug. 21, 1918, in Chicago. An avid baseball fan, she would cut classes to watch the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
She was named Mira but her mother, Nettie Tuller, changed it to Muriel. Her daughter didn’t like that and called herself Murkey.
She graduated from the Chicago Art Institute and had her first teaching job in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The family legend is that Charlie Satter showed up one day and threw his hat in the door. Tuller threw a shoe back at him.
“Nothing much fazed her,” said her son.
They married on June 1, 1942. He persuaded her to move to Denver, where he was stationed during World War II. He died in 2003.
For several years, Murky Satter taught at Euclid Middle School in Littleton and later taught watercolor painting in adult education classes at Arapahoe Community College.
She and her husband moved to a patio home at Shalom Park several years ago. She loved to entertain, planted her own tomatoes to make gazpacho and took her friends for rides in her powder blue convertible Jaguar, Wagner said.
Satter was game for anything. She smoked a pipe when she was young; liked to play practical jokes, such as putting cotton in cinnamon rolls on April Fools’ Day, and taught herself to cook meals she had had in other countries.
“She was a treat,” said her daughter.
In addition to her son and daughter, Satter is survived by two grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
