MILlVJAUXTT STTTL'E'RS 1850-1880 A70£ [TCTWN of MirwAVJCET COMTHISTS $J\ySIT>% fOX TOINT, QLTMDJKL% StfORfWOO'D 'FSVT'R MILLS LAST Of 27™ S^./HAMQE LIME !<£>., AMD 'WM'T'EflStf'BJAy] WESTJKRCJtEV AMD COMTILZV %y MIMI ZmT) 1982-1992 ArchivaCmateriaCs, incCucCing the aChum were donated 6y the friends of the IVhitefish 'Bay Lihrary -Q ffi COMPILED AND RESEARCHED BY MIMI BIRD, THESE VOLUMES ARE HER LEGACY TO WHITEFISH BAY AND AN INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF LOCAL HISTORY. v_y MIMI BIRD, 1933-2002 Mimi Bird knew just what she wanted for a final resting place. After all, she spent years of her life exploring the Town of Milwaukee Union Cemetery, tucked away north of Bayshore Mall in Whitefish Bay. She remembered running through the cemetery as a girl "to scare ourselves on Halloween". Years later, as a neighbor and a historian, she began tending the little cemetery and quite literally, uncovering its history. Bird died of emphysema Thursday at the Glendale condominium she called home the last four years. She was 69. "She really died from cigarette smoking" said husband John D. Bird. "That's what did it." She was born Miriam Young in Milwaukee. When she was 4, her parents moved to Whitefish Bay. That was where she grew up and spent her adult life. It was also where she became the undisputed expert on local history, both in the village and the greater North Shore area. 1 In her earlier years Bird had worked as a secretary. She met her husband when their mothers—concerned about their two twenty-something children remaining unmarried—managed to fix them up for a date. She spent the next decades in volunteer work, including at their children's schools, and working part time for the Whitefish Bay Public Library. In 1976, she began to research her genealogy and that of her husband's family. As that was winding down in the early 1980s, Bird heard about the Whitefish Bay Historical Society. Her first project involved locating, photographing and researching hundreds of the oldest homes in the village. All kinds of other research followed. Some of the leads took her to the Town of Milwaukee cemetery. There she looked for sunken spots, sticking a spade into the ground. She found dozens of old fallen tombstones, buried by time under the earth. "I just had this wonderful feeling of elation when I'd find an old one," Bird said in a 1983 interview. "The tombstones were the only (surviving) records of births and deaths." Bird filled volumes with everything from real estate records to the early details of village life, its farms, businesses , and people. She pored over the minutes of every Village Board meeting from 1892 until 1950. She interviewed old- timers, acquiring old letters and documents. Bird eventually researched the rest of the old Town of Milwaukee, which includes what's now the North Shore area, and the adjacent Town of Granville. And when Whitefish Bay had a 100th anniversary in 1992, she produced a book on local history. In 1991, Bird was recognized by the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Her research continues to be available at the Whitefish Bay Library, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library, the County Historical Society and the Milwaukee Central Library's local history room. Survivors include her husband, John; sons David J. and Peter E; brother Carter H. Young; grandchildren; and other relatives...Her ashes will be buried at the Town of Union Cemetery. [Obituary by Amy Rabideau Silvers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 10/14/02.] 5- tjc CMS CO r to **tp S pj: P c* ^ . -i: X .i^ *n'Ji ,7i g|x||| |gcS X ~z —i "i x i: - ~ -J * '/- t CO it - . ^3 " v*t c 4- -«:§ ; CO "E S f=5 « r-< : i* 3 o S § -r 13 ,S Q ~ ^ § /N- ~ +J •_ c- c ,~Z >v V« « J r""1 3 C- . 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