Muriel Ferguson Tolle, 100, of Fernandina Beach, Fla., passed away November 23, 2018 at Baptist Medical Center Nassau.
She was born August 13, 1918 in Horseheads, N.Y. to the late Ernest and Ruah Markle Ferguson and married E. J. Tolle on March 28, 1943 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Muriel and her husband, Tug Tolle. lived an itinerant life that took them from Ithaca, N.Y. to Dayton, Ohio and on to Harpursville, N.Y., Lake Bluff, Ill., Binghamton, N.Y., Canton, Mass., and Hingham, Mass. before settling into retirement in Fernandina Beach since 1989. Throughout her life, Muriel was an avid gardener and interior designer – skills she applied at St. Peter's Episcopal Church as the landscaping director from 1983 to 1990. In 1998, at the age of 85, she designed her current home in Amelia Park and oversaw its construction through the year 2000 at her 87th birthday. Her energy was indefatigable before declining health compelled her to move into an assisted living facility in 2005.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, E. J. Tolle on July 7, 1991, and her brothers, Laurance and Robert Ferguson, who both died in May 1936.
She is survived by her sons, Michael Ferguson Tolle and his wife, Judy Lane Tolle, of Crownsville, Md., and Stephen Tolle and his wife, Mahnaz Keshavarzian, of Fernandina Beach; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. December 8, 2018 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church with Father Stephen Manzingo officiating.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in her name to the St. Peter’s Building & Grounds Foundation.