Mary Mueller, Founder Of The Hunt Breakfast, Artist Extraordinaire Memorial Service Held January 2nd by Nancy Brannon The Mid-South foxhunting community lost a saintly supporter of the sport on December 29 with the death of Mary Mueller of Rossville, Tennessee. In the early years of foxhunting in the area, Mary was an active rider with Oak Grove Hunt at its founding and later with Longreen Foxhounds when it was established. For all the years, she actively supported her husband’s, Bart Mueller, love of and participation in the sport of foxhunting which he brought to west Tennessee in the early 1950s. She was also instrumental in founding the Germantown Charity Horse Show and West Tennessee Pony Club. Mary’s artistic ability is widely renowned, too, and those who have a Mary Mueller watercolor painting are lucky indeed. Her favorite subjects were Bart and the foxhounds, foxes, horses, and foxhunting scenes. She painted landscapes,did sketches of homes, and, of course, flowers. The book, Memphis in Beauty Remembered, illustrated by Mary Ware Mueller, artist, holds a compilation of her work. It is available through the Memphis Public Library. Mary was a “local girl,” attending Hutchison and later Southwestern College, now Rhodes College. In addition to her bachelor’s degree, she earned her private pilot’s license, worked in air traffic control during WWII, and later taught at Lausanne Collegiate School and St. George’s Day School. She was a librarian for a while in the Memphis/Shelby County Public Library system and, either as a result or cause, was an avid reader. She could often be found in her recliner reading, with a pile of books by her side. As quickly as those were finished, another set took their place. She loved to travel and would often gather a couple of lady friends and go to England. She and her friends traveled extensively throughout Europe. Mary was active with St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Collierville, as well as Shelby East Garden Club and Bridge Club. She always cared for those in need, whether they be neighbors or people in the church. Mary told about how the Longreen hunt breakfasts got started in an article she wrote for the hunt club’s 25th anniversary book, titled Longreen: 25 Years of Horse Sports in West tennessee. Mary Winslow Chapman edited the book, which was published in 1982. Mary wrote, “It’s funny how many memories come back when I start trying to jot down a few.” She wrote about her children who “were avid Pony Clubbers and hunting was their sport. I hunted fairly regularly, too, but for me it grew to be almost too much, for a very good reason.” She told about the long distance ridden during the hunts and most times, folks “hunted for four hours, then hacked home. [Foxhunters did not trailer their horses to hunts as they do now.] At this point, all I wanted was a hot bath and a nap. What I got was ‘When do we eat’?” Mary found that while everyone else was tired and kicking off their boots to sit by the fire, she was expected to “stagger into the kitchen to wrestle the pots and pans.” Soon she and “Mary Chapman decided to have a regular hunt breakfast for all the riders at my home at the end of the hunts, and then we really were in the cooking business. We had spaghetti, a noodle and meat casserole we dubbed ‘Longreen pizza,’ and we had huge stews, caldrons of soup, hot chocolate for the children…” A great return gift was provided to her one Christmas when “all the kids chipped in and bought me a portable dishwasher… Never has a gift been more welcomed!” So that’s how the hunt breakfasts got started. Her creative, energetic spirit will sorely be missed. A memorial service was held on January 2nd at St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Collierville, Tennessee.