Muriel Elaine Hoplin

Muriel Elaine Hoplin, age 97, of Buxton, ND passed away on August 19, 2027.

Muriel was born on August 17, 1929 to Enoch and Betsy (Hanson) Olson of rural Buxton, ND. Muriel grew up on the family farm and attended Wold Township #2 Country School through grade 8. In 1947, she graduated from Oak Grove High School in Fargo; then graduated from Augsburg College in Minneapolis in 1951 (and was inducted into Augsburg’s Hall of Fame in 1992).

On her birthday, August 17, 1951, Muriel was united in marriage to Paul Hoplin of Lowry MN, (brother of her college roommate Miriam Hoplin Lundin) at Aal Lutheran Church, rural Hillsboro, ND. Muriel then taught school for three years in Edina, MN. In 1954, Paul and Muriel moved to a farm near Detroit Lakes, MN. In July 1955, their son Jeff was born. One month later, on August 17 (her birthday), Muriel was stricken with polio. Totally paralyzed and miraculously avoiding an iron lung, she spent the next eleven months at the Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis, fighting to regain some use of her extremities. Meanwhile Paul managed their farm while Jeff was cared for by Hoplin and Olson grandparents and aunts Harriet Olson and Buelah Olson (Forness).

After discharge from Sister Kenny and several relocations, Paul and Muriel built a house accommodating her handicap on her home farm and Paul took over managing the farm upon her father’s retirement. In 1958, also on her birthday, Muriel gave birth to their daughter Marcia.

Muriel loved the outdoors and, while growing up, was her father’s “right-hand-man”. Upon returning to the farm, she lived out that love by mowing and trimming the farm’s lawn and tending flowers and gardens (she reluctantly gave up riding her mower at age 92). Every year on the farm, at least one building was scraped and painted… and Muriel did both, even being hoisted onto scaffolding or lifted up by a tractor loader! All the while, she excelled at being a farm wife, raising her family and following her kid’s activities. She sewed, quilted, taught Sunday School at Ebenezar Lutheran Brethren and began the church’s library. Muriel was a good writer and an avid reader. She wrote a partial autobiography (He Gave Me a Mountain to Climb) of her life with polio and composed numerous scripts for church youth group presentations and plays; and she was always reading at least one book! In all these things, the joy of the Lord was her strength!

Muriel was preceded in death by her parents Enoch and Betsy Olson; sisters Loretta Thoreson, Beulah Forness and Harriet Olson; beloved husband Paul Hoplin; and nephews Daniel Anderson, Douglas Thoreson and Mark Hoplin.

She is survived by her son Jeffrey Hoplin (Lisa) and daughter Marcia Hoplin; grandchildren Paul Hoplin, Luke Hoplin, John Hoplin (Rachel), and Elisabeth Ridpath (Landon); great-grandchildren Alletta Hoplin and Wells Hoplin; along with eighteen nephews and nieces.

Visitation: Will be one hour prior to the service at the church.

Funeral Service: 10:00 AM Monday, August 24, 2026 at the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Mayville, ND.

Burial: Will be in the AAL Cemetery in rural Hillsboro, ND.