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It took 44 years — and more than 200 children through the doors of her Tucson home — for Murray to reluctantly retire.

“I wanted to continue, but my lungs are getting worse,” said Murray, 76, who was recently honored for being the longest-serving foster parent in Arizona. She also received the first-ever lifetime achievement award from the , which was started by Arizona radio broadcasters Johnjay & Rich to help foster children and Arizona families.

Murray started fostering children within a few years of moving to Tucson from New York City in the mid-1970s. Her lungs were unhealthy, and Murray hoped the dry desert air would help.

In Tucson, Murray met a divorced father of two and they married. 

The couple had one child, but it wasn’t something Murray could do again without serious risk to her health. Instead, they started fostering children and hoped to also adopt one day.

During those early years, Murray said they took in children who were eventually returned to their parents.

Murray was content to continue as a foster mom, but her husband wasn’t as keen.

“It was a roller coaster, and my husband said, ‘I really don’t want to go through this again. You love them and then they’re gone,’” she said of their conversation years ago.

The couple eventually divorced, and Murray kept on fostering. Some of the kids were only with her a day or two, others lived with her for years.

Sometimes the kids she housed had lived through horrible experiences, she said. Other times, she said, they were children she says never should have been removed from home in the first place and she advocated for their return.

One Christmas, there were eight children living in her home.

“There was such a need for beds that they gave us a waiver,” she said. “It was like a zoo, and I loved every minute of it.”

As she got older, so did the children she took in — in part because the rules changed about young children being placed in homes with swimming pools. Murray eventually began helping teens through the Arizona Young Adult Program.

As she ages, she sometimes forgets names, but she can always see their faces.

“I think about the kids a lot. I had so many kids. I couldn’t tell you the names of half now, but I can see their faces,” she said.

Murray remembers helping a child with a disability learn how to walk, and caring for children with challenges like spina bifida and cerebral palsy. She taught some kids to swim and others how to use the bus system. She took them to amusement parks and introduced them to foods from all over the world.

She helped the kids who most decided were beyond hope. There were suicide attempts, property damage, physical outbursts and, once, one even attacked her. Still, she says, she believes in them and their potential.

“We’ve got to give the credit to the children,” she said. “These kids have a lot of courage and strength.”

Along the way, one youth asked Mikki to adopt her, and so she did. Her adopted daughter is now 17.

“Her long-standing history as a foster parent makes her among very few in Arizona’s history that have lived through many changes in child welfare,” DCS spokeswoman Cynthia Weiss wrote in an email about Murray. “Mikki even outlasted all employees currently serving at DCS. The longest-tenured staff member at DCS has served 42 years.”

Her advice for those first days with a new foster child?

“Tell the kids they are safe. It may seem trivial, but they won’t believe you because that hasn’t been their experience. Keep telling them they are safe, and provide a safe and loving environment,” she said. “Eventually they will come around, and you will begin to see them thrive.”

Also, she added: “You will learn more from them than they will ever learn from you.”