Margaret Mary Durr was born on April 25, 1918, in the midst of the first World War. She was the sixth child born to Albert Durr and Louise Tordoff Durr of Paul, Neb. The history of her family was very interesting. The Durr, Schmitz, Tordoff and Schneider families came together when Nebraska was beginning to be settled. Their Catholic faith was very important to them. The grandfather, Joseph Durr, gave the land for St. Joseph Church in Paul. Margaret Mary was baptized in the church on May 2, 1918, by the Rev. Clement F. Broermann. She was confirmed by Bishop John Beckman on October 11, 1925.
Margaret Mary was the first girl in the family following five boys. There were 12 in all — seven boys and five girls — Joseph, Roger, Hilary, Guy, Margaret Mary, Rev. Valery, Laure, Albert, Mary, John, Sister Catherine, and Aurelia. She attended elementary school in Paul, a small town filled with lots of good spirit and a very active Church.
In September of 1932, she began attending St. Bernard’s Academy in Nebraska City. This is where she became acquainted with the Ursuline community. As her years of high school ended, Margaret Mary decided to enter the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph in Kentucky. She entered on September 7, 1936, and entered the novitiate on August 14, 1937. She made temporary profession on August 15, 1939. Her classmates were Sisters Mary Regina Boone, Marie Claire Davis, Ruth Helen Flaherty, Agnes Mary Hutchins, Anna Francis Johnson, Mary Henry Russell and Mary Eva Thompson.
Sister Mary’s first mission was St. Michael in Fairfield, Ky. She taught music there and was the housekeeper. The next 15 years were spent teaching music in Louisville at St. Angela and then in Sacred Heart Academy in Waterflow, N.M. Sister was missioned one year at St. Alphonsus as principal and then back to Waterflow, N.M., to teach music. The majority of her ministry was spent in Nebraska except for five years at MSJ Academy. Her time at the Academy was exciting with the Liturgical changes of Vatican II being implemented. Sister Mary taught many of the Sisters as well as the students at the Academy the new rubrics and hymns with English wording.
Also during this time Sister completed her master’s degree at Webster College in St. Louis, Mo. She had received a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the College of St. Joseph in Albuquerque, N.M., in 1959. Her work in Nebraska included being Liturgy Consultant and AV Librarian at the Lincoln Diocesan Chancery Office in Lincoln, Marriage Encounters, Engaged Encounters, Liturgy workshops, Special Liturgies for the Diocese, workshops for Lectors, Acolytes, etc.
In 2001 Sister Mary came home to the Mount to retire. She loved to sit near the nurse’s desk to have coffee and talk to people who came through. She thought the weather here was not as good as the weather in Nebraska and she disliked the humidity here. Sister spent 16 years in the Villa.
Sister Mary answered the call of Jesus to come home on April 21, 2017. She would have celebrated her 99th birthday on April 25. The funeral Mass was at 10:30 am Tuesday, April 25, 2017.