Muriel Dees Arceneaux, age 85, died April 22, 2011.

Ms. Arceneaux was born Feb. 18, 1926, in Finchburg, Ala., to Dennis Daniel and Muriel Downey (Swanson) Dees. She spent her early years in Monroe County, Ala. She was a graduate of Alabama College for Women, now the University of Montevallo. In 1958, she moved to Houma, La., where she resided until 2007, when she relocated to Vicksburg.

She was employed for 40 years as a social services case worker and teacher. Ms. Arceneaux was a dedicated participant in community activities, the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Terrebonne Parish, YWCA and the American Association of University Women. She was appointed to the Terrebonne Parish Library Board of Control, on which she served for 20 years.

Ms. Arceneaux organized a local chapter of the Equal Rights Coalition, which worked for many years for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. She was a member of the Houma-Terrebonne Arts and Humanities Executive Board and a member of the Cancer Society Board. She served as a docent at Southdown Museum for several years.

For her many years of varied but dedicated work in the community, she was recognized in 1991 as a community activist.

Muriel Arceneaux will be most remembered by her compassion for others and as a testimony to the power of each of us individually to make a difference in our local, national or worldwide community.

She is survived by three children, Windell Richard Owens of Birmingham, Ala., Denise Owens-Mounger of Vicksburg and Dorothy Arceneaux of Alberta, Canada; four grandchildren, Emily Mounger Jensen, Mary Kathryn Mounger Sciarretta, Richard “Rick” Owens and Ann Owens Pinder; and three great-grandchildren, Smith Henry Jensen, Collier Sloan Jensen and McCarlye Ann Pinder.

A memorial service will be held on May 7, 2011, at 10:30 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Monroeville, Ala.

Memorials may be made to the French Camp Academy in French Camp, Miss., or to the American Cancer Society.