Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411140105
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Muse joined what is now Woods, Rogers and Hazlegrove, one of the largest law firms in Roanoke, in 1923.
He was elected Roanoke's state senator in 1936, serving three consecutive terms before retiring in 1948.
From 1941 to 1962, during the traumatic integration years, Muse devoted much of his time to the state Board of Education. He was chairman of the group for three years.
Muse called for progressive changes in public education and criticized an over-reliance on routine teaching methods.
"I don't want to see the time when people are satisfied with education," he said after being named the board's leader in 1960.
He called for increases in teacher salaries, and hoped for a time when no teacher "will say, apologetically, 'I'm a schoolteacher.'''
A supporter of segregation, Muse favored local, rather than state, control over the issue. He headed the committee that formulated the state's tuition grant program - a plan that allotted private-school funding for children in areas where public schools were being closed by some localities, rather than allowing them to be integrated.
Eight years later, he said many blacks had been hurt by inferior schools, saying "If this be a fault, and I so consider it, the greater weight rests upon the shoulders of the white people."
In 1963, as he retired from the board, a Roanoke Times editorial praised Muse for his calming influence during those volatile years. "The fact that Virginia weathered the storm without greater hurt to its school system," the editorial said, "was due in no small part to his good sense and patience ...''
In his later years, Muse occasionally reflected on the work ethic instilled in him as a boy in turn-of-the-century Roanoke. At age 8, he earned his first income as a newspaper carrier, buying papers for 1 cent and selling them for 2 cents.
Muse graduated from Roanoke College in 1920 and earned Phi Beta Kappa honors from the University of Virginia law school three years later.
He served in the Navy during World War I.
Muse remained close to the workings of state government after his years in the Senate by serving on the state Public School Authority, and, in 1968, led Gov. Mills Godwin's campaign to authorize $81million in bonds for construction at colleges and mental hospitals.
He served on the Radford University Board of Visitors from 1964 to 1972 and for seven years was its chairman. The 16-story Muse Hall dormitory commemorates his service to the school.
He also was a longtime member of the Roanoke College board of directors, and, after ceasing active involvement, served as trustee emeritus. Muse received an honorary law doctorate from the college in 1964.
He served on several other boards, including those of First National Exchange Bank, the YMCA and the Virginia Baptist Children's Home in Salem.
In addition to his affairs in the community and in state government, Muse was a successful lawyer, representing mostly corporate clients. He also represented labor, including John L. Lewis, the longtime boss of the United Mine Workers.
Muse spent much of his spare time restoring Oakland, an old farmhouse in Botetourt County that he and his wife, Page, bought in the mid-1940s. Page Muse died in 1980, as the couple neared their 50th wedding anniversary.
They have two children, Leonard and Page, and seven grandchildren.
by CNB