Erika Muhlenberg

Muhlenberg—Erika Muhlenberg, 84, of Kennett Square, formerly of Swarthmore, Pa., on April 19, 2016, in Kennett Square, Pa. Erika was born on May 7, 1931, in Hamburg, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1950. She studied at Pendle Hill and University of Michigan, where she met her husband, Nicholas Muhlenberg. She and Nicholas later divorced. In addition to a homemaker and mother of four, she was a counselor and legal advocate for the Domestic Violence Project of Delaware County, Pa.

Assistant clerk of Swarthmore (Pa.) Meeting and one of the founding members of a meeting group that fed the homeless for 17 years, she was a member of American Friends Service Committee and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and volunteered for the League of Women Voters, UNICEF, the Swarthmore Democratic Committee, and the Children’s Choir of Chester, Pa. She marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964.

One of her passions was travel, and her grandchildren have many fond memories of their trips to Cape May, N.J., and Eagles Mere, Pa. In the last ten years she led a full life at Kendal at Longwood, taking classes at the Center for Life Long Learning and participating in the memoir writing class. Many that knew her will recall how devoted she was to her many social causes.

Erika was predeceased by her brother, Klaus Fritzen. She is survived by four children, Kobi Muhlenberg (Janet Seraphin), Mimi Muhlenberg, Dela Bryan (Robert), and Mattias Muhlenberg; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Theda Sonderhoff and Anna Katrin Wachsmuth. Her family suggests donations in her memory to Pendle Hill, 338 Plush Mill Rd, Wallingford, PA 19086.

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