Frank Gleason Murphy |
| Posted 2018-05-31 by Judy Wight Branson |
| Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona Tuesday, January 13, 1981, page B1, column 4 Former Mayor Frank Murphy dies Frank G. Murphy, Phoenix's mayor for two years, a councilman for four years and a two-term state senator, died Monday in St. Joseph's Hospital. Murphy, 85, a Democrat active in local politics for nearly 30 years, was known as a hard-worker with a quick temper. Services will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday at St. Gregory's Church, 3426 N. 18th Ave. Burial will be at St. Francis Cemetery. Murphy was born in Prescott on Jan. 23, 1895. His father, William, who became the first sheriff of Gila County in 1861, was killed in a mining accident in Congress in 1899, when Murphy was 4 years old. Murphy worked as a boilermaker's apprentice for the Santa Fe Railroad for four years until he was drafted into the Army in 1917 and served in France. He recalled later that he never fired a gun until Nov. 11, 1918 - in celebration of the armistice. He went to work for Union Oil Co. in 1919 in Holbrook, and came to Phoenix in 1920 as a salesman. He opened the Goodrich-Silvertown Store at 200 E. Van Buren in 1929. Murphy became agency organizer for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York in 1935, and later opened his own general-insurance company, He was elected to the City Council in 1949 on the first Charter Government ticket with Mayor Nicholas Udall. He was re-elected in 1951. 'Frank was really a community mover' Goldwater said. 'He was a contributor, and I'll remember him as a friend. Rosenzweig said, 'Murphy was demanding, but a good man.' 'Frank was very active, worked hard and did an outstanding job as mayor. He had a vision to see that thins happened, 'Rozenweig said. |
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