| Notes |
- d/o Samuel A. II & Claudine Louise Mudd; Granddaughter of Dr. Samuel Mudd; w/o Bernard Hampton Cox Sr. & Roy C. Arehart; brothers, Samuel A. III & Joseph Mudd; sisters, Phyllis Frere, Emily Rogerson, Lucille Summers, Christine Clements, Carmelite Summers & Sister Mary Samuela "Cecelia" Mudd; 7 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; six great-great granchildren
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Los Angeles Times (CA) - March 20, 2002
Louise Mudd Arehart, 84; Kin of Notorious Physician
Her name was Mudd, and she devoted much of her life to defending the reputation of her notorious grandfather and ensuring that his historic Maryland home was preserved.
Louise Mudd Arehart, a granddaughter of the Maryland country doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth's broken leg after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, died of complications from a stroke March 11 in La Plata, Md.
The youngest of nine children, Arehart was born and raised in her grandfather's house, which has always attracted curiosity seekers. She once recalled that when people walked up to the door, her mother would invite them in and give them a tour.
During World War II, Arehart worked as a civilian in the Pentagon. After the war, she ran a tourist home in Waldorf, served as a judge in the Charles County Orphan's Court and worked in real estate.
But in the late 1960s, a decade after moving to La Plata, she began her campaign to preserve the old Mudd homestead 10 miles away.
And, Arehart said, it was a ghostly visitor approaching her home that motivated her.
"This man was slender ... he had an old-fashioned brown coat and cap on," she said. "I went to the front door so I could meet the man. But he wasn't there. I also went outside, but there were no footprints on the ground."
After several more appearances she was convinced the mysterious figure was her grandfather.
"One day I was just sitting in my living room, and it hit me. I just had to make Grandpa's house a historical site that everyone could appreciate," she recalled.
In 1975, the Maryland Historic Trust bought the 10-acre property, and four years later the state General Assembly appropriated $125,000 for restoration.
Until she suffered a stroke in September, Arehart was a familiar sight at the Mudd House, greeting visitors and escorting them through the rooms as she told her grandfather's story.
Arehart is survived by her two children, Shirley Cox Cook of Wallingford, Pa., and Bernard Cox of La Plata; three sisters; seven grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and six great-great-grandchildren.
Los Angeles Times (CA)
Date: March 20, 2002
Author: DENNIS McLELLAN
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1917 - 2002 (84 years)
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