Age 35. 19 Craigie Street, Cambridge, MA. Born 4/25/1907, Brookline, MA. Died of carbon monoxide poisoning (death certificate). Occupation: "none" (death certificate). Two different accounts of his demise. Boston Daily Record, 11/30/1942: Was attending the club with his wife and a group of (unnamed) friends. Was soon to enter the U.S. Army. Mrs. Murphy was seeking the body of her missing husband Sunday at Southern Mortuary: "There is a Robert S. Murphy there, but she cannot be sure. The body was not easy to identify." The Boston Globe, 12/01/1942: For the past two years he had been traveling the country on business. "Unknown to his young wife, who expected his arrival soon at their Cambridge home...dropped in at the ill-fated Cocoanut Grove while on his homeward way last Saturday night and perished in the disaster." Unknown which (if either) story is correct. One of 60 "probable identifications" listed Sunday morning (8:00 a.m.) at Southern Mortuary, Boston (all male). Was raised in Brookline. Was lodging in Los Angeles, CA, as of his WWII draft registration, October '40 ("unemployed"). Wife former Barbara Morse, age 30 (Born 12/31/1911. Died as Barbara M. Church on 9/07/1979, Falmouth, MA, age 67), married in 1936. His widow made her own news five weeks later (The Boston Evening Globe, 1/07/1943): "Eleven young women...became members of the SPARS today...Mrs. Barbara Murphy, who has resided with her parents...since the loss of her husband in the Cocoanut Grove fire, was among this group..." (SPARS: the newly-established Women's Reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard). Address above (shown on his death certificate and on the final official November 1943 Committee on Public Safety master list of casualties) was that of his wife's parents. Late parents Mr. James S. and Mrs. Rosanna R. (Rock) Murphy. Father was president of the family business, Stickney & Poor Spice Co., of Boston. A married older sister, Mrs. Roxanna S. Beebe-Center (not present), assumed the presidency upon the death of the father in 1932. Mr. Murphy was shown as company vice-president through '37 street listings, no occupation listed thereafter. The popular spice firm (located in the Charlestown district of Boston) operated until 1970. Burial at Mount Calvary Cemetery, Roslindale (Boston), MA. Middle name Smiley.

‍