July 23, 1925—Nov. 8, 2009
Miriam E. Macguire, the retired owner of a Buffalo dressmaker shop, died Sunday in her Grand Island home. She was 84.
A longtime Grand Island resident, Mrs. Macguire was a familiar presence on Buffalo’s Elmwood business strip for many years.
From 1977 to 1993, she owned Two Sisters dressmakers on Elmwood Avenue and later Auburn Avenue, where she specialized in creating and restoring bridal gowns. Before that she was a manager at Singer Sewing Machines.
Born Miriam Pounds in Conneaut, Ohio, where her father was police chief, she was covering a sensational murder case as a stringer for the Erie, Pa., Dispatch when she met Thomas E. Macguire, the sports editor. They were wed in 1948, and after the newspaper collapsed in 1957, they moved to Buffalo, where Mr. Macguire became a Courier-Express copy editor.
A gardener, Mrs. Macguire was a past president and district leader of the East Park Garden Club, where she helped design and plant Grand Island’s Charles N. DeGlopper Memorial Park. She was a skilled weaver and founding member of the Buffalo Weavers Guild, as well as a kite enthusiast and member of the Great Lakes Kitefliers Society.
At St. Stephen Catholic Church, she was a member of the Altar and Rosary Society and Bereavement Committee and directed record-setting fundraisers. She was also a Cub Scout den mother.
Her husband died in 1986.
She is survived by two daughters, Monica T. and Maureen C. Kielt, and a son, T. Duffy.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 10 a. m. Saturday in St. Stephen Church, 2100 Baseline Road, Grand Island.