Muriel Hanson, 83, church historian, Woman's Day editor

Muriel R. Hanson of North Chatham, Mass., a former feature editor of Woman’s Day magazine who wrote a history of the First Congregational Church here, died Wednesday, Aug. 23, on Cape Cod. She was 83.
Mrs. Hanson had lived in Ridgefield from 1957 until 1972 and was the widow of Donald P. Hanson, founder of Woman’s Day.
“Researching 250 years of church history is like doing an enormous jigsaw puzzle,” said Mrs. Hanson in a 1962 interview about An Event Which Has No Parallel, her 56-page history. “The shape of one piece suggests another and eventually the picture falls into place.”
Mrs. Hanson spent four years poring over church, town and state records, most of them hand-written and some of them in poor condition.
“I got so drawn into these records that I found myself sitting at the meetings and waiting anxiously for the next speaker,” she said. “I came to know the different personalities of an era’s churchmen and commenced speculating which viewpoint each might take at the next meeting.”
The book’s title, An Event Which Has No Parallel, came from a quotation by Connecticut historian Benjamin Trumbull. The book appeared in the fall of 1962, when the First Congregational Church was celebrating its 250th birthday. The Rev. Clayton R. Lund had asked Mrs. Hanson in 1958 to write the history. Mr. Lund died July 5 this year.
A native of New York City, Mrs. Hanson was born on July 7, 1917, a daughter of Henrietta and Walter Ripperger.
She graduated from Vassar College in 1938 and went to work for Woman’s Day as a feature editor. In 1943, she married Donald Hanson, who had founded the magazine in the 1930s and continued to be publisher until his retirement in 1968. He died in 1978.
In Ridgefield, Mrs. Hanson belonged to the Ridgefield Garden Club and was active in the Thrift Shop, helping it produce a cookbook many years ago. She was also a trustee for many years of the Hammond Museum in North Salem. The Hansons belonged to the Silver Spring Country Club.
In 1972 the couple moved to Wellfleet, Mass. Their house opposite the local Congregational Church overlooked Wellfleet Harbor. She was active in the church there and, according to her son Donald P. Hanson Jr. of Portland, Ore., “she was an avid whale watcher and had adopted a whale” through a cetacean society.
About five years ago, she moved to North Chatham.
Besides her son, Donald, Mrs. Hanson is survived by another son, Lars P. Hanson of Honolulu; a daughter, Wendy Gimbel of New York City; a sister, Margaret Milbrath of Jacksonville, Fla.; and by seven grandchildren.
Services were private.
Contributions in her memory may be made to the First Congregational Church, 103 Main Street, Ridgefield CT 06877.
The Sperry & McHoul Funeral Service of North Attleboro, Mass., was in charge of arrangements.