638 MULLOY, WILLIAM T. projects, worked on a regional transportation commission, and helped to create the Covington Human Rights Commission. Through it all, she has worked to improve the lives of all the residents of Covington. “African-American Day Celebrates Roots,” KP, April 27, 1990, 2K. Covington Board of Education Meeting Minutes, Board of Education, Covington, Ky., 1996. “Covington Elects First Black to School Board,” Suspension Press, November 1988, 1. Driehaus, Bob. “Mullins Brings Diversity to Covington Commission,” KP, November 6, 1996, 1K. Mullins, Pamela E. “Editorial: A Graduation of Sorts,” KP, September 27, 1998, 4K. ———. Telephone interviews by Eric R. Jackson, September 15 and October 4, 2006. Vance, Debra Ann. “Chapman Returns as School Chair,” KP, January 19, 1991, 3K. ———. “Covington Board Member Pushes for RaceGender Data,” KP, September 14, 1991, 3K. ———. “School Board Won’t Seek Test-Score Breakdown—Gender, Race Analysis Rejected,” KP, September 18, 1991, 8K.
Eric R. Jackson
MULLOY, WILLIAM T. (b. November 9, 1892, Ardoch, N.D.; d. June 1, 1959, Covington, Ky.). William Theodore Mulloy, who became a bishop of the Diocese of Covington, was the son of William James and Margaret Ann Doyle Mulloy. After studying at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., Mulloy was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Fargo in North Dakota on July 7, 1916. His boyhood on the farm and his ser vice as a priest in rural parishes made him an advocate for Catholic farmers in their difficulties on the land. He became an early member of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC) and helped formulate its Manifesto on Rural Life. He was the president of NCRLC from 1935 to 1937 and again from 1946 to 1948, the latter term while he was bishop of Covington. Rev. Mulloy also dedicated himself to improving Catholic education in the Diocese of Fargo and was appointed superintendent of diocesan education in 1938. In the same year, he was made pastor of St. Mary Cathedral in Fargo, N.D., and he was made a monsignor in 1941. Mulloy received word from the Vatican on November 11, 1944, that he had been appointed the bishop of Covington, Ky. He chose “Teach Your Sons” as his episcopal motto. His consecration occurred on January 10, 1945, in St. Mary Cathedral in his home diocese; he was officially installed in his new diocese with an impressive ceremony at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington on January 25, 1945. As bishop of Covington, Mulloy greatly increased the number of Catholic churches and schools in the diocese and established several Catholic hospitals in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. The new Covington Catholic High School and Newport (Central) Catholic High School were two of the largest educational facilities that he approved. In 1946 he purchased the Marydale property on Donaldson Rd. in Boone Co. and created there Camp Marydale, the Marydale Retreat House, and the Semi-
nary of St. Pius X (now the Catholic Center). He was also responsible for a major renovation of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in 1950. It was at this time that the large carved-wood baldachin was erected above the high altar. Mulloy put a high premium on religious vocations, especially the priesthood. His episcopacy saw numerous ordinations at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption. Mulloy died in 1959 at St. Elizabeth Hospital and was buried in St. Mary Cemetery in Fort Mitchell. “Bishop-Elect Leads Busy Life,” Messenger, December 21, 1944, 12. “Diocese Goes into Mourning for Death of Bishop Mulloy,” KP, June 2, 1959, 1–2. Ryan, Paul E. History of the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky. Covington, Ky.: Diocese of Covington, 1954. “Tributes to Bishop Mulloy from Fargo Diocese: Bishop Mulloy as an Educator,” Messenger, January 22, 1945, 18. Tenkotte, Paul A., David E. Schroeder, and Thomas S. Ward. To Be Catholic and American in Northern, Central, and Appalachian Kentucky: The Diocese of Covington, 1853–2003. Forthcoming.
Thomas S. Ward
MUNDY, JAMES (b. July 9, 1886, Maysville, Ky.; d. December 25, 1978, Chicago, Ill.). James Ahyln Mundy, the son of a former slave, became one of the premier choir leaders in the United States. He directed choirs, primarily in Chicago, from 1913 to 1978. While Mundy lived in Maysville, he served as organist for the Bethel Baptist Church in Maysville, and the church gave him some support as he attended Simmons Normal School in Louisville. Upon the death of his father, Mundy moved to Chicago with his mother. He later commented, “I had heard that up in Chicago a colored man could even work in the post office.” Actually employed at a post office in Chicago, Mundy attracted the attention of civil rights leader Ida Wells Barnett, who learned of his musical ability and asked him to form a choir to perform as part of an appearance of W. E. B. Du Bois in Chicago. The day when James Mundy led the choir, January 12, 1913, was the first time an African American group performed in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. Mundy enjoyed creating combined choirs from Chicago’s black churches in addition to arranging music and giving private voice and piano lessons. In 1916 he directed his group, named the Mundy Choristers, at the dedication of Chicago’s Navy Pier. In 1931 Mundy was chosen to lead the choir at the rededication of Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Ill., where President Herbert Hoover (1929–1933) gave the address. When Chicago hosted the World Fair in 1933 and 1934, the Mundy Jubilee Singers provided biweekly entertainment. Mundy took pride that only his group and a police band were invited to reappear at the closing, where 400,000 people witnessed the per for mances. Beginning in 1935, Mundy directed a Works Progress Administration–funded group of singers that delivered more than 5,000 performances in Chicago area schools over the course of seven years. In
1946 a Mundy-directed choir of 1,000 voices performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Mundy directed tens of thousands of singers, and his choirs performed for combined audiences numbering in the hundreds of thousands. He led his last choir, the Olivet Baptist Church Choir, on Thanksgiving Day in 1978. Mundy was still teaching and directing when he died on Christmas Day of 1978. Grossman, James R., Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reife. The Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2004. Jarrett, Vernon. “James Mundy Still Stirs Yule Spirit,” Chicago Tribune, December 29, 1974, A6. “Prof. Mundy, Who Raised Black Voices in Song, Dies,” Chicago Tribune, December 27, 1978, A11.
George Vaughn and John Klee
MURPHY, RAYMOND L. (b. February 17, 1905, Cincinnati, Ohio; d. November 10, 1969, Fort Thomas, Ky.). Judge Ray Murphy began working at age 13, selling newspapers on the street and running a projector in a local movie theater. He graduated from the Woodward Night High School in Cincinnati and later took evening classes at Xavier University in Cincinnati and at the old Cincinnati YMCA Law School. He was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1928 and then began his law practice. Early in his career, he served as Newport city solicitor and was a state assistant attorney general under Kentucky governor Ruby Laffoon (governor 1931–1935). Over the years Murphy campaigned for several key Democratic candidates, including U.S. vice president Alben Barkley, a native Kentuckian. In 1940 Murphy was appointed a judge by Kentucky governor Keen Johnson (1939–1943) to succeed Roger L. Neff. Murphy was elected to four consecutive six-year terms as a circuit court judge in Campbell Co. before being defeated by Fred Warren. Judge Murphy was regarded as a “downto-earth” jurist; his decisions were seldom overturned by higher courts. His personality and sense of fairness were two of the positive traits that characterized his long tenure as judge in Campbell Co. After his judgeship, he joined Morris Weintraub and Ban Sampson in their law firm (Weintraub and Sampson) and remained until his retirement in 1967. Murphy died at St. Luke Hospital two years later and was buried at St. Stephen Cemetery in Fort Thomas. His wife, Alma E. Horne Murphy, and a son, William Murphy, survived him. “Colorful Campbell Judge Murphy Dies,” KP, November 11, 1969, 1–2. Social Security Death Index. www.rootsweb.com.
MURPHYSVILLE. Murphysville is today a small collection of homes nine miles southwest of Maysville, along U.S. 62 where it crosses the North Fork of the Licking River in Mason Co. A prosperous community existed there in the mid-19th century. The town was named either for an early settler, William Murphy, or for the first person who dammed the North Fork and built a mill there. A post office was established in 1830, and in 1867 a large woolen mill with a 120-foot-long dam was