Durand Heritage Foundation Newsletter
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<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
Dedicated to the Preservation of Our Family <strong>Heritage</strong><br />
Spring, 2003 $4.95<br />
God God God Calls…<br />
Calls…<br />
One One One <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Durand</strong> Response<br />
Response<br />
Sister Manette <strong>Durand</strong>, CSJ
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
In this issue…<br />
God God Calls...One Calls...One <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Durand</strong> Response Response is a personal narrative that tells of a lifetime<br />
of work providing health care to the rural poor By Sister Manette <strong>Durand</strong>, CSJ<br />
How Sister Manette Became “a Flying Nun” tells of a fast-paced visit to rural<br />
Alabama that opened a cousin’s eyes By Jeanne <strong>Durand</strong> Batte<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>s in Church Work Span Generations 7<br />
Publicity Follows Good Works...Sometimes 7<br />
<strong>Durand</strong> Connection Made to New Guinea Air Field By John C <strong>Durand</strong> 8<br />
In In In Memorium Memorium Kaye (<strong>Durand</strong>) Lumley 11<br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> Gets New Website Look 11<br />
Amazing Skydive Rescue (for what it’s worth) By John C <strong>Durand</strong> 12<br />
East Coast Robert <strong>Durand</strong> Adds Big to <strong>Durand</strong> Genealogy 14<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>s in the Military...Ernest J. <strong>Durand</strong> 15<br />
President’s Report By Mike <strong>Durand</strong> 16<br />
Survey Shows Satisfaction with Efforts By Mike <strong>Durand</strong> 17<br />
“Using the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s Website” begins a new series By Yvonne Cariveau 18<br />
Readers Connection 19<br />
The Back Page is where you find out who’s who 20<br />
The cover: A flowering mimosa adorns the front yard of the mobile home on Blanche Street that Sister<br />
Manette <strong>Durand</strong> and one and sometimes two other nuns have called home in Jonestown, Mississippi for 13<br />
years. The nuns planted the tree as a sapling in 1991. A crossroads community, Jonestown is located in<br />
northern Mississippi, about 70 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee.<br />
Picture credits: Cover photo and photos for “God Calls...One <strong>Durand</strong> Answers” provided by Sister Manette.<br />
Photo on page 6 provided by Jeanne <strong>Durand</strong> Batte of Navarre, FL. Photo on page 7 of Sister Ernestine provided by<br />
Mary Herzig of Satellite Beach, FL. Photo of Sister Ignace and her parents is from the <strong>Foundation</strong> archives. Photo of<br />
Chris Ward on page 8 and photo of P-39 Bell Airacobra on page 9 provided by Chris Ward of Adelaide, South Australia.<br />
Map of New Guinea on page 10 was taken from the internet. Photo of <strong>Foundation</strong> website homepage on page<br />
11 taken from the internet. Photos for “Amazing Skydive Rescue” on pages 12-13 provided by Clint Hillis of Austin,<br />
TX. Photo of genealogy chart on page 14 provided by John C <strong>Durand</strong> of Elkhorn, WI. Photo of Ernest J. <strong>Durand</strong> on<br />
page 15 provided by Robert <strong>Durand</strong> of Fiskdale, MA.<br />
This publication © 2003 by <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>, Inc. Published four times a year by the <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>. All rights reserved. Duplicating or copying by electronic or other means is strictly prohibited without<br />
written consent of the <strong>Foundation</strong>. Subscription rate is $20.00 per year. Send payment to: <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>,<br />
1335 Mandan Ave. North, Golden Valley, MN 55427, USA. Major credit cards are accepted. To subscribe<br />
on-line visit www.<strong>Durand</strong>foundation.com.<br />
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3<br />
6
Spring, 2003 <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
You ask how does religious life work? I'm still trying<br />
to figure that out. It seems there are as many ways of<br />
being “nun” as there are of being “people.” We strive to<br />
be community builders by living in community. Each of<br />
us, however, gets to define what that means in the various<br />
kinds of communities in which we live and work.<br />
Each of us has to find our own ways to respond to God's<br />
children and to figure out how and with whom we seek<br />
our common goods. Certainly I'm learning an endless<br />
variety of things by being with others—of living community.<br />
Being a nursing student at St. Mary's Hospital in Minneapolis,<br />
Minnesosta in 1956 broadened my vision.<br />
Learning how to help others felt right to me. I sensed a<br />
desire for something lasting, not ending in death or divorce,<br />
but I don't think I had eternity in mind either. Of<br />
course I resisted the comments from my dear aunt Sister<br />
Ignace when she would say “wouldn't it be nice for all<br />
my nieces and nephews to be priests, brothers and sisters?”<br />
I knew she<br />
didn't really mean<br />
me.<br />
At St. Mary's, experiencing<br />
sisters as<br />
ordinary people with<br />
ordinary jobs and desires<br />
made me ask<br />
myself questios<br />
about the why—and<br />
the what—of life. I<br />
associated with other<br />
students who like<br />
myself had mostly<br />
the “homeschooling”<br />
version of<br />
religious education.<br />
Despite that fact,<br />
however, I never felt<br />
left out when I hung<br />
around with those<br />
who had received<br />
more formal Catholic<br />
educations. Like others<br />
who had been “home schooled” I was anxious to<br />
learn all I could of our religion. My best friend at the<br />
time was a Finn from Escho, Minnesota whose family<br />
was anti-Catholic, but that didn't matter to her. She became<br />
a Catholic so she could become a sister. The difference<br />
between us is that I entered religious life, and<br />
she got married!<br />
Religious life is way bigger than any one of us, and I<br />
God God Calls...One Calls...One <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Durand</strong> Response<br />
Response<br />
By Sister Manette <strong>Durand</strong>, CSJ<br />
3<br />
was glad to be able to think about what a bunch of us<br />
could do if we got together. I liked being a part of something<br />
bigger and being a part of a healing group that had<br />
common beliefs. Wouldn't it be great to look for<br />
chances to provide relief of pain as a group? We could<br />
help folks enjoy the beauty of life and ourselves be enriched<br />
by searching for and living God's promises.<br />
With the help and support of friends I laid aside nursing<br />
school and joined the Congregation of Sisters of<br />
Saint Joseph of Carondolet, St. Paul Provence. After I<br />
entered the order I found <strong>Durand</strong>s already there: my<br />
aunt Sister Ignace (the twin sister of my Uncle Lewie)<br />
and Sister St. Louis <strong>Durand</strong>/Dufresne (a second cousin).<br />
Like my cousins I had known Sister Ignace from her<br />
summer visits to the old home place in the Town of<br />
Scott. But what a wonderful discovery it was to meet<br />
and live with Sister Saint Louis for two years during her<br />
retirement.<br />
I learned that living in “commun-ity” and learning to<br />
share everything<br />
helped me to go out<br />
into the bigger community<br />
and to listen<br />
carefully.It helped<br />
me to learn what is<br />
important for me to<br />
do with this life that<br />
my Creator, my<br />
Highest Power, has<br />
given me. This I<br />
pray that I do, in<br />
prayer, quietly and<br />
privately, as well as<br />
loudly and publicly.<br />
I work at trying<br />
to balance both<br />
stances, as well as<br />
prayerfully sharing<br />
with those who<br />
know me, and with<br />
those in leadership<br />
positions, both CSJs<br />
and beyond. As the<br />
Old Testament says, God calls in the tiny breeze as well<br />
as in the violent storm.<br />
My experiences came to influence my attitude regarding<br />
my assignments. I believe Jesus came to show us<br />
how to be family with God as our parent. Jesus teaches<br />
us that our Creator God desires a personal relationship<br />
with God as parent. Having entered “community” before<br />
the reforms of Vatican II, for about 10 years I received<br />
A happy gathering of nuns helped Sister Manette to celebrate her 40th anniversary<br />
as a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondolet. Sister<br />
Manette, wearing pink and a big smile in the back row, was born and raised on<br />
an 120-acre dairy farm in N.W. Wisconsin. After starting her nurse’s training,<br />
Sister Manette joined the order in 1957 at the age of 20.
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
assignment 'missions' by letter every two<br />
years. Then one year, because of a specific<br />
need identified by the hospital administrator<br />
for a job I thought I could do, I offered to do<br />
it. In the years since I've grown in how I respond<br />
to what seems possible. I know the<br />
Great Spirit works best when we put our personal<br />
hopes and dreams out there for others<br />
to critique with us while we continue to listen<br />
to our own being. I’ve learned that obedience<br />
comes in many sizes and shapes in each<br />
of our Christian lives.<br />
Since we pray to work with Jesus who had<br />
not a stone to lay his head on and we don't<br />
know where he slept, we religious are obligated<br />
to hold everything in common just as<br />
the first Christians did. To do this is very<br />
hard, because while I own nothing but my<br />
sins (and for those I like to blame the Devil),<br />
I have materially more than I need and certainly<br />
more than my parents had. So every<br />
year those of us who live in community figure<br />
out how much we need to make ends meet. If our<br />
needs are in the range of what the other CSJ communities<br />
say they need, we receive that amount in a monthly<br />
bank deposit. Community meetings before and after<br />
help set the guidelines for how we’ll live. The salary I<br />
receive (currently above Mississippi poverty guidelines)<br />
goes to the CSJ common fund to assist the many who<br />
receive no salary.<br />
Most Challenging Assignment<br />
My most challenging assignment? Book learning! It<br />
The Jonestown Health Center shares space with the town’s fire department,<br />
built as an addition to the clinic. The Health Center building was constructed in<br />
1962 as a regional medical facility, part of President John F. Kennedy’s initiative<br />
to develop rural health services for America’s underserved communities.<br />
Sister Manette seated left poses with the medically trained staff of the<br />
Jonestown Health Center who provide services to the community of 1,700<br />
people The nearest physicians are in Clarksdale, some 15 miles distant.<br />
4<br />
was during my basic nursing training that I first discovered<br />
it was easier to work 'hands on' with people than to<br />
study books and write papers. Twenty-two years later, at<br />
age 48, knowing study was hard, I asked to go to graduate<br />
school so I could do Nurse Practitioner work and<br />
work among the elderly. It was the end desire that got<br />
me through the book work. During that time, my eyes<br />
were opened to see that I could care for not just the elderly<br />
but for whole families as well, including fragile<br />
newborns. And that’s what I've been doing for the past<br />
18 years.<br />
I've always been privileged to focus on<br />
healing through the nursing profession. On<br />
the hard days—and there’s plenty of hard<br />
days—I don't ask “Did I heal someone?”<br />
Rather I ask, “How much did I really listen<br />
to the person in front of me?" Did I try<br />
to listen to the words spoken? And what<br />
wasn't said that the person wanted to say?<br />
Each nursing position I've worked has<br />
helped me to be ready for the next: from<br />
hospital nursing to chemical dependency<br />
nursing to nursing home duty to my current<br />
position of Family Nurse practitioner,<br />
self-employed.<br />
In 1990 three of us CSJ health care<br />
workers talked with CSJ leadership<br />
(Provincial Team) about moving to Jonestown,<br />
Mississippi. Our Provincial Team<br />
agreed to support our living space financially<br />
but our health care “business”<br />
would not be CSJ supported. That arrangement<br />
has worked to help me grow in
Spring, 2003 <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
Siblings and in-laws of Sister Manette pose in front of paternal grandmother<br />
Louise <strong>Durand</strong>’s family quilt at the Pierre & Louise <strong>Durand</strong> family<br />
reunion last summer. L to R: John & Bonita Beich (Bonita was married to<br />
Sister Manette’s brother Joe, who died of leukemia in 1988), Sister<br />
Manette (baptised Dorothy), Vonnie & Sister Manette’s brother Jack, sister<br />
Karen (widow of Gary Urben), and sister Ione and her husband Wayne<br />
Brook. The children’s parents, Lawrence and Ida (Jacobson), married in<br />
1930 but enjoyed just 14 years together before Ida died of a ruptured gall<br />
bladder in 1944 when Sister Manette was not quite eight years old. Lawrence<br />
<strong>Durand</strong> married Harriet Shell later that year.<br />
healthy interdependence. Currently, I feel I am way over<br />
my head in the business part of this position. At the<br />
same time, it is the beauty of the local community and<br />
the southern hospitality that keeps me here. Now that I<br />
am soon going to be 66 years experienced,<br />
our clinic administration<br />
(consisting of myself and Sister Goretti<br />
Germain, SSJ, who is simply great with<br />
office stuff) has re-established an ad hoc<br />
committee of local leaders and health care<br />
folks to look at the future of the clinic. I<br />
would love to be able to do client care<br />
without the administrative work, but that<br />
is more ideal that practical. We are 15<br />
miles from Clarksdale, the biggest city in<br />
Coahoma County, but folks around here<br />
have poor access to transportation and so<br />
our clinic keeps busy. We hope to be a<br />
part of the transition that will leave me<br />
free to think of new possibilities for serving<br />
as Jesus served.<br />
My Biggest Disappointment<br />
My biggest disappointment as a profes-<br />
sional is also my biggest challenge and<br />
the thing that keeps me striving. It is daily<br />
task of facing myself and accepting my<br />
5<br />
limitations. My great joy is working with the<br />
beautiful and faithful staff women who share<br />
and participate in our philosophy of high quality<br />
caring, and accepting that healing happens<br />
in the middle of caring for others and for oneself.<br />
I have been very fortunate (here in the Mississippi<br />
Delta we say 'blessed') to have had great<br />
models all along my journey. The real groundwork<br />
was family—my patient, generous, and<br />
outgoing dad, stories of my mom, my prayerful<br />
step-mom, my siblings, and the community of<br />
aunts, uncles, and cousins. I believe in each and<br />
every one of the <strong>Durand</strong>s and the Jacobsons<br />
(my mom’s side), past, present, and future, as<br />
we all do the best we can.<br />
My Professional Role Models<br />
As far as professional colleagues go that have<br />
helped to shape my life of service I especially<br />
treasure the Fargo North Dakota Administrator<br />
who took on the nursing home business after<br />
she had raised her 12-14 children. She would<br />
remind us that we were really the employees of<br />
each of the residents and not their bosses.<br />
In Selma, Alabama I worked with an East Indian<br />
MD couple who taught me the beauty of<br />
the Hindu religion (the oldest in the world) by<br />
demonstrating in their daily lives their dedication<br />
to the same things I value. The wife psychiatrist<br />
treated all religious affiliations with mutual respect<br />
and care, using the phrase 'the Man upstairs' to refer<br />
to our same Creator God.<br />
(Continued on page 20)<br />
The bounty of Nature (and of Nature’s God) was revealed in watermelons that<br />
flourished in Sister Manette’s back yard last summer. The melons were a Jackand-the-Beanstalk<br />
story. They sprang to life from a heap of tossed-out garbage.
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
I remember… How Sister Manette Became “a Flying Nun”<br />
By Jeanne <strong>Durand</strong> Batte<br />
Some years back when we had Mom visiting in Florida,<br />
she and I tripped up to Camden, Alabama where<br />
Sister Manette (she is still cousin Dorothy to me)<br />
worked as a Nurse Practitioner. Mom and I spent a couple<br />
of nights at Sister Manette’s convent in Selma, Alabama.<br />
We found it most interesting!<br />
Cousin Dorothy got up early and dragged me out for<br />
her usual early morning mile jog. We walked a block<br />
and then ran a block as we followed on her usual route.<br />
Then we prepared for the day. Mom and I rode with this<br />
"flying nun" for the hour and 10 minutes it took Cousin<br />
Dorthey to reach her duties in Camden.<br />
She put Mom to work at several little odd jobs while I<br />
was her nurse assistant, preparing the patients for "Dr"<br />
Sister Manette. She really was the “doctor” for that area;<br />
she did everything, although she had connections with a<br />
physician in another town with whom she'd confer if<br />
necessary.<br />
With her effervescent, quick-wit personality, cousin<br />
Dorothy was like the Eveready bunny, working all day<br />
to give her patients love, compassion, sincerity, and the<br />
expertise of a minor god. The people she served were so<br />
needy. She was their lifeline, not only medically but<br />
also psychologically and emotionally.<br />
We took time out to lunch with some townspeople in a<br />
rundown community lunchroom—nothing fancy—and<br />
then it was back to business.<br />
I visited with some of the other sisters that actually<br />
lived in this rural community and My! these gals have<br />
my greatest admiration. They could take dirt and spin<br />
gold from it. REALLY! The meager supplies they had<br />
to work with seemed to multiply, and their resourcefulness<br />
was amazing.<br />
They are wonderful<br />
creatures and only God<br />
and a few others understand<br />
their worth.<br />
It was dark by the<br />
time we left for the<br />
long ride back to the<br />
convent. It was up and<br />
down the steep hills,<br />
on dirt logging roads<br />
mainly, but cousin<br />
Dorothy knew the<br />
route all too well. And<br />
since on those roads<br />
there were no speed<br />
limits—well, that's<br />
why I now call her a<br />
"flying nun."<br />
Back at the convent,<br />
6<br />
supper was ready and the place became a beehive with<br />
activity. There were gleeful conversations and giggles as<br />
everyone shared the story of their activities of the day,<br />
not noisily, but with just the sweet hum of joy in their<br />
vocation of serving mankind as they serve their Lord<br />
and King, Jesus.<br />
It was Mom's birthday when we were there (February<br />
12), and Sister Manette had made sure her Aunt Fern<br />
had a birthday cake with many cheerful wishes.<br />
The next morning all the sisters including Sister<br />
Manette were off again to their posts of duty. Of course,<br />
she once again got me up for our early morning exercise<br />
jaunt! Later that morning Mom and I returned home to<br />
Florida.<br />
We were most grateful to have had the opportunity to<br />
spend two nights in the convent and to share in the day's<br />
life of a nun, our very own Sister Manette.<br />
Nuns are very "special people." Whereas Sister<br />
Ignace`s life was very sheltered, Sister Manette's life has<br />
much more freedom, a very different life style compared<br />
to Sister Ignace.<br />
But I still remember how exciting it was when I was a<br />
little girl when the nuns (Sister Ignace and her traveling<br />
companion, always another nun) came to Spooner, Wisconsin<br />
to visit. Oh, how we loved her visits. She could<br />
tell some colorful jokes, too.<br />
I still have the nun doll that Sister Ignace made for me.<br />
She made one for my twin sister Joanne and one for me<br />
for—I think—our fifth birthdays. She also brought a red<br />
garbed doll for our brother Ronnie. We have a picture of<br />
the three of us kids holding our nun dolls.<br />
Many years later I rediscovered my doll when our<br />
mom and dad moved to<br />
a different house. I was<br />
rummaging around upstairs<br />
in our old house<br />
and came across the<br />
doll and was overcome<br />
with sentiment. I ran<br />
downstairs clutching<br />
my doll and crying<br />
tears of joy at all the<br />
fond memories the doll<br />
brought bubbling up.<br />
Mom got big tears and<br />
cried with me. Dad<br />
couldn't figure out why<br />
we were crying.<br />
Although my doll’s<br />
Wearing baggy cotton stockings and big smiles twin sisters Joanne and<br />
Jeanne <strong>Durand</strong> and their brother Ronnie pose with their new handmade<br />
dolls, gifts from their aunt, Sister Ignace. Photo about 1944.<br />
face is a little smudged<br />
after all these years,<br />
(Continued on page 20)
Spring, 2003 <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
Sister Manette Follows a Family Tradition of<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>s in Church Work<br />
Digging into <strong>Durand</strong> history to find individuals who<br />
devoted their lives to church work would probably reveal<br />
a list of several dozen. Every branch seems to have<br />
at least one or two, and there are many branches. Just as<br />
the <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> is steadily building its<br />
knowledge base of <strong>Durand</strong>s in the military, so can we<br />
begin building our knowledge base of <strong>Durand</strong>s in<br />
church work.<br />
Given that throughout most of its history the <strong>Durand</strong><br />
family has been staunchly associated with the Catholic<br />
Church we would expect to find a lot of nuns and priests<br />
in our ancestry. However, we might find others among<br />
the world’s religious community who did not or are not<br />
serving the Catholic Church.<br />
Digging into this aspect of <strong>Durand</strong> history would be a<br />
Sister Ernestine (daughter of<br />
Joseph and Josephine <strong>Durand</strong><br />
King of Faribault, Minnesota)<br />
was born Mathida. What was<br />
her religious order?<br />
worthwhile pursuit. As with<br />
our other efforts to expand<br />
our knowledge of things<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>, once it’s done it’s<br />
done. If you have something<br />
to contribute about <strong>Durand</strong>s<br />
in church work, get in touch<br />
with Mike <strong>Durand</strong>, president.<br />
Of course we will keep<br />
you posted.<br />
Sister Ignace (born Marie Louise) with her parents Pierre<br />
and Louise <strong>Durand</strong> in a photo probably taken at the time of<br />
her investiture as a nun. When she was born after a difficult<br />
labor Pierre supposedly held the newborn up and said that if<br />
she survived she would be dedicated to the Lord. Sister<br />
Ignace entered the convent at age 14.<br />
7<br />
Publicity About Nuns’ Good Works in<br />
Jonestown Is Not New<br />
An article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on January<br />
3, 2003 featured the work of the Sister Manette and her<br />
co-workers in Jonestown, Mississippi. A sub-head of the<br />
article reads: “A few nuns are making a world of difference<br />
for Mississippi Delta’s poorest of the poor.” This<br />
January article was actually a reprint of an article that<br />
had appeared earlier in the prestigious New York Times.<br />
The Star Tribune reprinted the Times article after a<br />
Star Tribune reporter wrote a story based on an interview<br />
she conducted with Sister Manette and her coworkers<br />
by phone.<br />
Such publicity is good for the their work, according to<br />
Sister Manette. “After that article appeared in the New<br />
York Times we got all kinds of phone calls from people<br />
and foundations asking how they could help.”<br />
This is not the first big-city<br />
publicity the sisters have received<br />
about their work in<br />
tiny Jonestown. Ten years<br />
ago the St. Paul Pioneer<br />
Press published a long feature<br />
story about the community<br />
and the nuns’ work in<br />
the health clinic. The article<br />
dwelled on the bold stance of<br />
the nuns in providing birth<br />
control services despite the<br />
contrary position of church<br />
authorities. The nuns held<br />
that they could not “wait for<br />
the church or the government<br />
to deal with life-and-death<br />
matters.”<br />
“What we want is some systemic<br />
change,” Sister<br />
Manette is quoted as saying<br />
in the 1993 article, “We feel<br />
like we’re putting a Band-<br />
Aid on an ulcer.”<br />
Sister Manette’s character<br />
appealed to the Star Tribune<br />
reporter. She described Sister<br />
Manette as “a woman not<br />
only of great faith, but great<br />
tenacity and good humor. I<br />
hope I will have the privilege<br />
of meeting her one<br />
day.”<br />
The Star Tribune article was<br />
available on that newspaper’s<br />
website for several<br />
weeks.
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
Internet Detective Work and Helpful Folks Shed Light on <strong>Durand</strong> Field<br />
By John C <strong>Durand</strong><br />
In the last issue we wrote about an "isolated and overgrown"<br />
World War II airfield in New Guinea known as<br />
<strong>Durand</strong> Field. This abandoned airfield was brought to<br />
our attention in an email sent to foundation president<br />
Mike <strong>Durand</strong> by an Australian named Chris Ward. Chris<br />
wanted to know if we knew how <strong>Durand</strong> Field got its<br />
name. Since then Mike and I have kept in touch with<br />
Chris as we tried to unravel the story behind <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Field.<br />
The big news is that we<br />
now know that <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Field was named in honor<br />
of Lt. Edward D. <strong>Durand</strong>,<br />
an Army Air Force pursuit<br />
pilot from Stevens Point,<br />
Wisconsin. Part of our effort<br />
in uncovering the story<br />
of Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> was determining<br />
whether he was a<br />
blood relative to the Minnesota/Wisconsin<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>s.<br />
More about that later.<br />
Our exchange of emails<br />
with Chris about <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Field ultimately led to the<br />
question: what ever got you<br />
interested in <strong>Durand</strong> Field?<br />
His answer showed me<br />
once again that you never<br />
know who might be digging<br />
into what in this wide, wide<br />
world.<br />
Over the course of several<br />
emails Chris provided this<br />
story:<br />
"…I don't have a military<br />
background…although I<br />
spent 25 years with Australia's<br />
Civil Aviation Department (the approximate<br />
equivalent of your Federal Aviation Administration).<br />
During that time I spent a number of years in Darwin<br />
and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and became<br />
familiar with what remained of the wartime airstrips<br />
which had been built in many cases by the US Army<br />
Corps of Engineers following the bombing of Darwin in<br />
February 1942.<br />
"…I have had a lifelong interest in aircraft. I was<br />
aware of a number of the wartime airstrips south of Darwin<br />
and had visited several of them. A few years ago<br />
my daughter Helen…bought a property on Gove Road<br />
in Enfield…an Adelaide suburb….<br />
"I knew Gove was a wartime airfield and…I soon real-<br />
8<br />
ized that a number of the surrounding streets were also<br />
named after wartime strips from that area. However,<br />
there were some names that were unfamiliar to me and<br />
my initial goal was to confirm that these were in fact the<br />
names of wartime strips and to find the location of them<br />
and then later to find out something about the people<br />
who gave their names to the strips.<br />
"…I contacted the USAAF [US Army Air Force] and<br />
USAF [US Air Force] Archivist<br />
looking for more<br />
information without success<br />
although the Archivist<br />
suggested I might like<br />
to visit the Maxwell AFB<br />
to do some research!…<br />
[Maxwell Air Force Base<br />
is in Alabama, about<br />
10,000 miles from where<br />
Chris lives!]<br />
"My initial contact with<br />
the <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> in<br />
January 2002 was not real<br />
fruitful. However, as you<br />
know by late last year you<br />
guys had found out quite a<br />
bit about Lt. Edward D.<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>."<br />
Indeed we had! Some of<br />
the internet detective work<br />
that led to finding out<br />
"quite a bit" about Lt. <strong>Durand</strong><br />
might be of interest.<br />
Remember, at the beginning<br />
of this research the<br />
only thing we knew was<br />
that an abandoned airfield<br />
in New Guinea was named<br />
<strong>Durand</strong> Field.<br />
1. A website maintained by the American Battle Monuments<br />
Commission revealed a record for an Edward D.<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>, a First Lieutenant in the US Army Air Force,<br />
who is listed as "Missing in Action or Buried at Sea"<br />
with a death date of December 5, 1945. This site also<br />
provided Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>'s military serial number (0-417205)<br />
and his unit as the 35 th Pursuit Squadron, 8 th Pursuit<br />
Group.<br />
2. A little digging revealed that the 8 th Pursuit Group<br />
was based in New Guinea. Was Edward D. <strong>Durand</strong> the<br />
man we were looking for? It seemed reasonable that a<br />
pilot who was "Missing in Action" in the early days of<br />
the war might have an airfield named after him, but how<br />
did that possibility square with his date of death (1945),<br />
Chris Ward of Adelaide, South Australia poses before the<br />
street sign that connects a part of his country to Wisconsin. His<br />
curiosity about the street name led him to the website of the <strong>Durand</strong><br />
<strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> and his inquiry to Mike <strong>Durand</strong>. Adelaide<br />
is more than 2,000 miles from <strong>Durand</strong> Field!
Spring, 2003 <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
Hi John -<br />
Muskogee, Okla, then was transferred to Randolph<br />
Here is the company profile I promised you for the Field, Tex., and received his wings at Kelly Field, Tex.,<br />
newsletter.<br />
May 29, 1941.<br />
VoyageurWeb, The Internet Outfitters<br />
"In April, 1943 he was awarded the Distinguished Ser-<br />
Our cousin, Yvonne Cariveau, lives and works in Manvice<br />
Cross for extraordinary heroism in air battles over<br />
kato, MN. For the past 10 years, she has owned and run<br />
the north coast of New Guinea the year before. Al-<br />
a business called VoyageurWeb that employs 13 staff<br />
designing, hosting and maintaining Internet web sites though he has been missing nearly a year, the award was<br />
like our own www.<strong>Durand</strong>foundation.com web site. not made posthumously as the war department still<br />
Yvonne founded the company with her husband Dale listed Lieutenant <strong>Durand</strong> as missing. In April, 1944 it<br />
Karsten in 1993 under the name Internet Connections was learned that an air field in New Guinea had been<br />
as an Internet access and web site business. In 2001, named <strong>Durand</strong> Field in his honor. During the time he<br />
Yvonne changed the company name to VoyageurWeb was in the far eastern war theatre he was in Australia for<br />
after restructuring the business to do web sites only. a time. He flew pursuit plans against the enemy."<br />
VoyageurWeb staff enjoy a relaxed, learning atmos- 7. We happily emailed this information to Chris Ward<br />
phere where they create useful and attractive web sites<br />
in Australia.<br />
and get to interact with people from all over the state<br />
8. I had also put out an inquiry on a website that is<br />
and country in many different lines of work. Their clients<br />
get hassle-free web site updating and effective web<br />
building the history of the US 22<br />
sites that help them deliver services and make money.<br />
Recently, VoyageurWeb won the Mankato Area Council<br />
for Quality Corporate Award.<br />
You can learn more about VoyageurWeb by visiting<br />
www.voyageurweb.com<br />
Yvonne's email address is yvonne@voyageurweb.com<br />
nd which was months after the end of the war?<br />
3. Working with Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>'s military serial number led<br />
to the discovery that there is a system to those numbers.<br />
The 0 in 0-417205 indicates that he was a male commissioned<br />
officer and the initial 4 indicates that he was inducted<br />
in the 4<br />
Bombardment<br />
Group. This unit, known as the Red Raiders, also flew<br />
out of Port Moresby in New Guinea, not far from <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Field. I wondered if perhaps someone familiar with<br />
the military history of that area might know something<br />
about the details of Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>'s death. A month or so<br />
after I posted my inquire a reply came in from a Michael<br />
Jacques in Australia, who provided the details of what<br />
was apparently Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>'s first and last mission:<br />
"On 30 April 1942 a reinforcement of Airacobras of<br />
the 35th and 36th F[ighter] S[quadron] landed at Horn<br />
Island after a Japanese raid. The American fighters then<br />
refueled before taking off again for Port Moresby, New<br />
th military command, which is the Midwest.<br />
So Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> was from the Midwest! Was he a<br />
Minnesota/Wisconsin <strong>Durand</strong>?<br />
4. Another website provides a list of military casualties<br />
for Wisconsin and many of its counties. Scanning these<br />
lists uncovered an entry for Portage County for a DU-<br />
RAND, EDWARD D 0-417205 1 LT FOD. Bingo!<br />
But what does FOD mean?<br />
Along with KIA [Killed in Action] and DOW [Died of<br />
Wounds] and DNB [Died, Non-Battle] FOD is military<br />
talk for Finding of Death, a designation which, after investigation,<br />
changes a person who is listed as Missing In<br />
Action to one of a presumptive Finding Of Death. So<br />
that explains the gap between the time when Lt. <strong>Durand</strong><br />
was apparently shot down and listed as missing and the<br />
time when he was officially declared dead.<br />
5. Knowing that Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> was from Portage County,<br />
the next step was to make an on-line search of the obituary<br />
index at the Archives library of the University of<br />
Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Surely his death would have<br />
been reported in the local paper. This search revealed<br />
four obituary "hits" for Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> in the Stevens Point<br />
Daily Journal, that city's daily newspaper. For a nominal<br />
charge the Archives library sent copies of the four<br />
articles. Two revealed what we were looking<br />
for.<br />
6. The obituary dated August 14, 1944 was<br />
for Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>'s father, also named Edward D.<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>. A paragraph in this obituary states:<br />
"The couple's only son, Lieutenant Edward<br />
David <strong>Durand</strong>, a fighter pilot, was reported<br />
missing in action in the far eastern war theatre<br />
since April 30, 1942. He was awarded the<br />
Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary<br />
heroism displayed in air battles and an air<br />
field in New Guinea has been named for him,<br />
now known as <strong>Durand</strong> Field."<br />
The obituary for Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> is dated January<br />
14, 1946 and appeared after his status was<br />
changed from Missing In Action to Finding of<br />
Death. The obituary provided this additional<br />
information about Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>'s military service:<br />
"The officer was 24 years old at the time he P-39 Bell Airacobra flown by Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> packed a lot of firepower in its<br />
was listed as missing. He was born in Stevens nose-mounted 37mm cannon and four wing-mounted machine guns but its<br />
Point Feb. 4, 1918, was a graduate of St. flying performance suffered in the mountainous tropics. Not long after Lt.<br />
Stephen's parochial school, the Stevens Point <strong>Durand</strong>’s death his 8th Fighter Group began flying the P-38 Lightning, a<br />
twin-engine airplane that provided superior capabilities over most Japanese<br />
High School in 1936 and Central State<br />
aircraft. Major Richard Bong from Poplar, Wisconsin, America’s most cele-<br />
Teacher's college in 1940. He enlisted in the<br />
brated WW II flying ace and a later member of Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>’s fighter group,<br />
fall of 1940, received his primary training at flew a P-38 Lighting. He was credited with downing 40 Japanese airplanes.<br />
9
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
Guinea. They landed at Seven Mile Strip around noon.<br />
The fighters took off that afternoon to strafe Lae.<br />
"The American fighters then moved on to Salamaua<br />
where three small seaplanes were claimed burned out<br />
and small ground targets strafed. A strong and wellorganized<br />
force of Zeros had taken off from Lae and<br />
waited for the young Americans at a point they had to<br />
pass on the homeward leg. On the way home a furious<br />
dogfight erupted.<br />
"The Zero pilots put in claims for two of these fighters.<br />
One was Lt. Edward <strong>Durand</strong>, who was shot down, captured<br />
and executed."<br />
So there we have the sad story of the young flier’s end.<br />
Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>'s obituary also states that he was married<br />
on December 1941 in New York, NY while he was stationed<br />
at Mitchell Field. His wife, Dorothy Mularkey, is<br />
described as a former teacher and, apparently during the<br />
war years, was a radio instructor at Truax Field in Madison,<br />
Wisconsin, a military airbase at the time. The obituary<br />
for Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>'s father indicates that Dorothy was<br />
living in St. Louis, Missouri in 1944.<br />
As we look at the information we have about Lt. <strong>Durand</strong><br />
so far it is possible to reconstruct this scenario of<br />
his short life.<br />
He probably attended Central State Teachers College<br />
intending to become a teacher. However, with World<br />
War II already raging in Europe he opted for the adventure<br />
of becoming a fighter pilot and enlisted in the Army<br />
Air Force. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and<br />
Lt. Edward D. <strong>Durand</strong> was shot down, captured, and executed after his<br />
squadron of P-39’s was ambushed while returning from a strafing mission at<br />
Lae and Salamanua, due north of Port Moresby. The strafing (and later<br />
bombing missions) were intended to keep the Japanese forces on New<br />
Guinea at bay, which threatened to invade Australia. Before being named in<br />
Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>’s honor, <strong>Durand</strong> Field was known as 17-Mile field.<br />
10<br />
America’s entry into the war, his unit received orders to<br />
sail immediately for Australia. He called his fiancée<br />
back in Wisconsin and said "Let's get married before<br />
I’m shipped out!" and Dorothy Mularkey took the train<br />
to be married to him in New York on December 27.<br />
After traveling by train across the United States<br />
(perhaps with Dorothy riding along) Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> crossed<br />
the Pacific Ocean aboard the former World War I troop<br />
transport Maui. His pursuit squadron arrived at Brisbane<br />
on the easternmost bulge of Australia on 6 March 1942.<br />
Less than 60 days later, flying his first combat mission<br />
on April 30, Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> was shot down.<br />
In our search for a Minnesota/Wisconsin family connection,<br />
foundation president Mike <strong>Durand</strong> got in touch<br />
with 88-year-old Harold Haase of Stevens Point, who is<br />
a direct descendent of Isaac <strong>Durand</strong>, Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>’s greatgrandfather<br />
and the apparent link that would lead us to a<br />
Minnesota/<strong>Durand</strong> family connection. Mr. Haase, who<br />
describes himself as the last of his family, wrote that his<br />
grandfather Omer, Isaac <strong>Durand</strong>'s son, spoke French and<br />
came from the Trois Rivieres area of Quebec.<br />
Ah ha! I thought, the roots of many Midwest <strong>Durand</strong>s<br />
are also found in the Trois Rivieres area. Things were<br />
looking good that we will find a family link to Lt. <strong>Durand</strong><br />
somewhere in Canada.<br />
Alas! Yes, Lt. Edward D. <strong>Durand</strong> has family roots in<br />
Canada, but on a different family tree.<br />
Roger <strong>Durand</strong>, secretary of the <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
and its most knowledgeable genealogist, determined<br />
that the primogenitor of Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> in<br />
the New World is not Jean <strong>Durand</strong> dit La Fortune<br />
from Doeuil sur le Mignon, France, but<br />
Pierre <strong>Durand</strong> from St. Saturnin de Blois,<br />
France, a different family line. (Blois is a city<br />
on the Loire River, perhaps 100 miles north of<br />
Doeuil). Several early generations of the Pierre<br />
<strong>Durand</strong> line from Blois lived in the area<br />
of Champlain, Quebec before coming to the<br />
United States. Champlain is 50-60 miles farther<br />
west on the St. Lawrence River from Cap<br />
Rouge.<br />
While both Jean <strong>Durand</strong> (1636-1671) and Pierre<br />
<strong>Durand</strong> (1646-1700) might have been in<br />
New France at about the same time and while<br />
the two families might be related in their<br />
French roots, we are not now aware of that<br />
link. When Roger wrote this news he said,<br />
“Welcome to the world of genealogy! It's a<br />
world of dead ends, discoveries, and "time"<br />
black holes.”<br />
Although our quest to find a family link to<br />
Lt. <strong>Durand</strong> came to a dead end, the journey<br />
(for me, at least) was its own reward. From an<br />
inquiry that came over the internet from half-<br />
(Continued on page 11)
Spring, 2003 <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
In n n Memorium<br />
Memorium<br />
Kaye (<strong>Durand</strong>) Lumley (July 11,1952—December<br />
31, 2002) died at her home in the Town of Scott, Burnett<br />
County, Wisconsin following a short illness. The<br />
daughter of Lewis and Jennie <strong>Durand</strong>, Kaye married<br />
Ralph Lumley on March 20, 1982 and bore one son,<br />
Robert (Robbie), a student at the University of Wisconsin<br />
in Madison.<br />
For a time Kaye and Ralph operated two popular taverns<br />
in the Spooner area. Kaye was also employed for<br />
many years as supervisor of support services at the<br />
health clinic in Spooner and served as an emergency<br />
medical technician (EMT) for Scott township.<br />
She was interred in the veterans cemetery in Spooner.<br />
In addition to her husband Ralph and son Robbie,<br />
Kaye is also survived by eight siblings. A sister, Virginia<br />
(<strong>Durand</strong>) James, read a moving and at times humorous<br />
remembrance of Kaye’s final illness and of her<br />
life.<br />
The eulogy will soon be posted on the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s<br />
website under Family Stories at www.durandfoundation.<br />
com. Readers can read and print a copy from that link.<br />
Links on the Website<br />
From time to time the <strong>Foundation</strong> will provide access<br />
on its website to items like this eulogy, making them<br />
more generally available without the cost of printing.<br />
(Continued from page 10) <strong>Durand</strong> Field<br />
way round the world we brought back into view the<br />
story of a young man who lost his life in the service of<br />
his country. Our efforts, incomplete as they are, will enrich<br />
those who are preserving the history of that young<br />
man’s family, and we provided those who are writing<br />
the history of the Pacific Theatre a human side of this<br />
particular story… a story well worth the telling.<br />
While Chris Ward of Australia has only a marginal<br />
interest in <strong>Durand</strong> family history, he sent us a list of <strong>Durand</strong>s<br />
who served in the Australia military during World<br />
War II and census information concerning <strong>Durand</strong>s. After<br />
we emailed him a copy of the article in the last<br />
<strong>Newsletter</strong> about <strong>Durand</strong> Field , he wrote back: "I'm a<br />
bit worried about the potential for 15,000 <strong>Durand</strong>s<br />
emailing me for the "unique pleasure" of being addressed<br />
as "G'day, mate" but I reckon we can handle it!"<br />
He later provided this additional information:<br />
“The street sign [named after Lt. <strong>Durand</strong>] uses the abbreviation<br />
"Tce" after <strong>Durand</strong>. I am not sure if that abbreviation<br />
would be familiar to you guys in the States. It<br />
is the abbreviation for the word "Terrace" which strictly<br />
means a raised area but is loosely and widely used in<br />
Australia instead of street, road or avenue etc. <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Terrace I guess could be regarded as a true terrace as it<br />
is raised above the Main North Road which is adjoins.”<br />
11<br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> Website Gets New Look and<br />
Hosting, Courtesy of VoyageurWeb<br />
When Yvonne Cariveau joined the <strong>Foundation</strong> board<br />
of directors she brought more than her connection to another<br />
branch of the <strong>Durand</strong> family. She brought professional<br />
expertise in web design.<br />
For the past ten years Yvonne has owned and operated<br />
a business in Mankato, Minnesota called VoyageurWeb<br />
that employs 13 staff who design, host, and maintain<br />
internet websites.<br />
New homepage for www.durandfoundation.com shows the<br />
family crest and simple links that help the user move around.<br />
Yvonne founded the company with her husband Dale<br />
Karsten in 1993 under the name Internet Connections as<br />
an internet access and website business. After restructuring<br />
the business to do websites only in 2001, Yvonne<br />
changed the company name to VoyageurWeb.<br />
(Continued on page 18)<br />
Another quest….<br />
In researching the story of <strong>Durand</strong> Field we learned of<br />
another <strong>Durand</strong> from Wisconsin who was also an airman<br />
and who also died in the service of his country.<br />
Staff Sergeant Frederick W. <strong>Durand</strong> of Hurley, Wisconsin<br />
was killed in action on August 1, 1943. Sgt. <strong>Durand</strong><br />
was with the 67th Bomber Squadron, 44th Heavy<br />
Bomber Group in Italy. He was awarded the Distinguished<br />
Service Cross, the Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf<br />
Clusters, and the Purple Heart.<br />
Preliminary research reveals that Sgt. <strong>Durand</strong>’s family<br />
was involved in the mining industry in the Hurley area.<br />
Can anyone shed any light on these <strong>Durand</strong>s and<br />
where they came from?
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
Specia l to th e <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> F oundation <strong>Newsletter</strong>...<br />
Senior Citizen Editor Performs<br />
Amazing<br />
Skydive Rescue in Bright Blue Skies of Texas!<br />
On First-ever Jump from Aeroplane He Saves a Hapless Diver<br />
from Certain Death in Plunge from 13,000 Feet!<br />
Witnesses Applaud Safe Landing at Skydive San Marcos near Austin!<br />
Heroic Feat Is Captured in Photos by Editor’s Nephew, Clint Skywalker!<br />
As I peered out the open door of the<br />
twin-engine airplane almost 2½ miles<br />
above the ground I felt the guy behind<br />
crowding me closer and closer to<br />
the open door and the great abyss. I<br />
figured that he was really eager to try<br />
out his parachute because he kept the<br />
pressure on. Me, I wasn’t so sure.<br />
Things looked mighty small down<br />
there. Then all of a sudden he must<br />
have pushed me out of the plane because<br />
I was thrust into a sudden buffeting<br />
roar of wind and confusion and<br />
spinning and wondering, What in the<br />
hell is going on? I hadn’t expected<br />
that the terrific blast of air I felt as<br />
soon as I left the airplane would be<br />
so powerful, playing me like a twig<br />
in a raging river.<br />
Soon I was falling in a more<br />
friendly way, however, belly to the<br />
earth, and as I looked down at the<br />
checkerboard of roads and fields I<br />
thought to myself, Geez, this is pretty<br />
nice!<br />
Then I became aware that the guy<br />
behind me on the plane was on my<br />
back and that we were both plunging<br />
to the earth. I remembered that my<br />
nephew Clint Skywalker had said that<br />
a free-falling diver in the belly-down<br />
position falls at about 120 mph. No<br />
kidding! The constant blast of air on<br />
my face at that speed made my mouth<br />
spread in a grin that was wider than<br />
my own grin of<br />
pleasure..<br />
“Hold on,” I<br />
yelled to the guy<br />
on my back, not<br />
knowing what<br />
else to yell, except<br />
maybe<br />
“HELP!”. But the<br />
roar was so<br />
strong that I’m<br />
pretty sure he<br />
didn’t hear me<br />
Top left The mystery is solved of where fight promoter Don King gets his hair<br />
done...he jumps from an airplane. Above The mean gyrene getting ready to spin the<br />
author, unbeknownst to the author. Next page, top Author performs a difficult<br />
crossed arms maneuver at 120 mph to indicate that all is well. Bottom Author brings<br />
Doug safely to earth in the pea gravel. After taking his photos early in the jump, Clint<br />
Skywalker dove to the ground so that he could record the editor’s landing. Bottom<br />
right Beautiful woman called author a toad and kissed him on the cheek.<br />
12<br />
and we continued to plummet to<br />
earth together. I found myself thinking<br />
about the heavy-duty snap-rings<br />
on my harness and realized that if<br />
we stayed buckled together that I<br />
could get him safely back to earth on<br />
one parachute provided the snaprings<br />
didn’t pull loose or straighten<br />
out or the stitching fail or the harness<br />
suddenly shred in the violent air<br />
stream. The landing might be a little<br />
rough with two guys on one chute,<br />
but I’ve seen enough James Bond<br />
movies to know that anything is possible<br />
in this world of high adventure.<br />
Suddenly Clint Skywalker swam<br />
into view right in front of me. I could<br />
have reached out and touched him.<br />
His hands made little fish fin motions<br />
as he stayed in position in front of me<br />
taking pictures with the cameras<br />
mounted on his special flat-top helmet,<br />
his cheeks puffing every few<br />
seconds to send a shot of air to trip<br />
the special shutter of his fancy digital<br />
camera. Another camera on his helmet<br />
shot video. I wondered if I could<br />
communicate to him the unique situation<br />
I found myself in—a novice skydiver<br />
on my first free-fall—<br />
For What It’s Worth
Spring, 2003 <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
responsible for getting the guy on my<br />
back safely to earth!<br />
Actually I felt pretty confident. We<br />
still had a long way to fall before anything<br />
got critical. I had a sudden insight<br />
that that was one of the virtues<br />
of falling from a great height—so<br />
long as you keep falling you’re in<br />
good shape. It’s only when you run<br />
out of room to fall that you have to<br />
make adjustments.<br />
I was lost in my pondering of such<br />
intricacies of skydiving when another<br />
skydiver grabbed my left arm and<br />
gave me a gentle yank to get my attention.<br />
I hadn’t seen him coming on<br />
but I recognized him as a retired Marine<br />
colonel I’d met on the ground<br />
before we took off. Boy, was he fit!<br />
In fact, everybody hanging around the<br />
airstrip and waiting their turns on the<br />
airplane that shuttled divers into the<br />
blue were fit-looking men and<br />
women. The other thing was, a lot of<br />
them smoked cigarettes. Between<br />
jumping out of airplanes and smoking<br />
cigarettes I figured they must like to<br />
live on the edge.<br />
By his hand-signals this Marine<br />
seemed to be asking if I needed help<br />
in getting the guy on my back safely<br />
to the ground. Me? Need help? Pooh!<br />
I gave him a thumbs-up indicating<br />
that I was doing very well at plunging<br />
through the skies by myself, thank<br />
you. He gave me a thumbs-up salute<br />
in return, then playfully grabbed my<br />
arm again and gave me a yank that<br />
13<br />
spun me around 360° a couple of<br />
times so fast I thought I’d left my<br />
goggles behind. Everything happens<br />
so quickly when you’re falling<br />
through the air! Your belly’s like a<br />
ball-bearing poised on that column of<br />
air you’re falling through and it doesn’t<br />
take much of move to send you<br />
spinning.<br />
Then this playful Marine must have<br />
grabbed my foot and given me a spin<br />
in the opposite direction because I<br />
suddenly caught up with my goggles<br />
going the other way. This whole maneuver<br />
was so fast that I scarcely<br />
knew what was going on. Nonetheless,<br />
when this playful gyrene swam<br />
into view again I crossed my forearms<br />
in the universal skydiving signal<br />
of “I’ve got it under control” and he<br />
nodded, tipped up like a swimmer<br />
heading for the bottom, and disappeared<br />
in the distance below.<br />
Then the guy behind me must have<br />
panicked. Suddenly I felt a terrific jolt<br />
that planted me hard in my harness<br />
and I knew that before I told him to<br />
release the canopy that he’d reached<br />
around to pull the little ball that<br />
opened our chute.<br />
After the roaring rush of air during<br />
our freefall the sudden silence was<br />
like the eerie quiet before a storm.<br />
“Take us home,” the guy behind me<br />
said. His voice sounded pleading.<br />
Maybe he was afraid our snap-rings<br />
wouldn’t hold much longer.<br />
Perhaps 4,000 feet below I spied the<br />
circle of pea-gravel that was to be our<br />
(Continued on page 14)
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
(Continued from page 13) Amazing Skydive!<br />
landing zone. Fumbling for the slings that controlled our<br />
canopy I swung us gently around in the direction of the<br />
LZ and enjoyed the view. This was more like it!—a<br />
gradual, tranquil descent to earth! Just to put a little<br />
thrill into my rider’s final moments though, I yanked<br />
down first on the left hand control and then the right<br />
hand control, maneuvers that swung us violently in<br />
sweeping circles first one way and then the other. “Just<br />
like those chair swings at the fair!” I yelled back at him.<br />
“That’s enough!” he cried. Maybe he was getting sick<br />
to his stomach. I quit my shenanigans. I certainly didn’t<br />
want him to throw up on my head.<br />
When we were about 1,000 feet above our destination<br />
he asked if he could take charge and land us. Why not? I<br />
thought, he’s probably embarrassed about following me<br />
too closely out of the plane. Anyway, I’d brought him<br />
within sight of a safe landing. I didn’t need any more<br />
ego gratification. I relinquished my control of the canopy.<br />
“I’ll keep my feet up and out of the way,” I called in a<br />
too-loud voice, still not used to the quiet. “Just steer us<br />
towards the pea gravel and give a strong pull down on<br />
both controls at the very end to flare us to a stop.”<br />
As we sailed closer and closer to what I saw was going<br />
to be a really good landing I gave an invisible tip of my<br />
hand to the guy on my back. His name was Doug, and<br />
even though he’d messed up by pushing me out of the<br />
plane before I was really, really ready he’d done a good<br />
job of hanging on so that I could get him safely to earth.<br />
WHOOSH! our canopy said as we swooped to the<br />
earth. I raised my legs high so that Doug could get his<br />
feet down and feel like he was controlling our landing.<br />
And suddenly I was standing in the pea gravel.<br />
Wow! This guy had pushed me out of airplane almost<br />
2½ miles above the earth for the first time in my life and<br />
I’d gotten him safely down to earth on my back!<br />
“Good landing, Doug” I said as I shook his hand,<br />
“You did really good.” Actually, I figured he owed me<br />
plenty for letting him ride my back all the way to earth.<br />
“So, did you!” Doug said, “You did a really nice job.”<br />
Just then a beautiful woman who had tumbled from<br />
the plane after me and who had witnessed the first part<br />
of my heroic feat swooped out the air and landed on her<br />
butt in the pea gravel. Springing up and releasing herself<br />
from her canopy, she bounded over to give me a big hug<br />
and a kiss on the cheek. “You did good, Toad! You did<br />
really good! Wasn’t that fun?”<br />
I reached up to touch the place where she had kissed<br />
me. “Yeah, I said, grinning so wide my cheeks would<br />
hurt later, “That was really great!” I wasn’t sure about<br />
the “Toad” part, but maybe she figured I was some kind<br />
of prince under a spell. Anyway, how often does a toad<br />
like me get kissed on the cheek by a beautiful woman?<br />
14<br />
East Coast <strong>Durand</strong> Boosts Genealogy<br />
Records with Major Contribution<br />
An indication that <strong>Durand</strong> genealogy is alive and well<br />
on the East Coast recently showed up in <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
president Mike <strong>Durand</strong>’s mailbox. Robert <strong>Durand</strong> of<br />
Fiskdale, Massachusetts sent Mike an impressive, handdrawn<br />
genealogy chart that traces the complexities of<br />
his <strong>Durand</strong> ancestry. The chart (partially depicted below)<br />
shows his family’s history from the parentage of<br />
Jean <strong>Durand</strong> dit La Fortune in the 1600’s to the death of<br />
Frederick L. <strong>Durand</strong> on April 9, 2002.<br />
Carefully drawn genealogy chart shows the skill that engineer-trained<br />
Robert <strong>Durand</strong> brought to his depiction. Photo<br />
on the right corner is of Cleophas (Clifford) and Olivine <strong>Durand</strong>,<br />
second cousins and descendants of Louis <strong>Durand</strong>, another<br />
instance of cousin/cousin marriage among <strong>Durand</strong>s.<br />
Robert <strong>Durand</strong>’s chart provides genealogical information<br />
about the descendants of Cleophas and Olivine <strong>Durand</strong>.<br />
The <strong>Foundation</strong>’s genealogy records end with<br />
Cleophas and Olivine. Robert <strong>Durand</strong>’s information<br />
thus fills in the family genealogy from the time of their<br />
marriage to the present. Cleophas went by the name of<br />
Clifford after he moved to the United States, where his<br />
and Olivine’s first child was born in 1878.<br />
Robert <strong>Durand</strong>’s information will be added to the<br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>’s records and uploaded to the website.<br />
Something You Don’t Need to Know<br />
Cleophas is a name from the Bible meaning “the<br />
whole glory.” Along with the mother of Jesus, another<br />
Mary at the scene of the crucifixion is described<br />
as the wife of Cleophas. Some suggest that<br />
Cleophas was the brother of Joseph. Thus, the two<br />
Marys at the crucifixion would have been sistersin-law.<br />
Not wanting to appear too obvious, I leaned over and<br />
kissed her cheek in return. “Man! That was really fun!”
Spring, 2003 <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
<strong>Durand</strong>s in the Military<br />
Another WW I Veteran Discovered, a Combat<br />
Soldier Wounded in Action<br />
Robert <strong>Durand</strong> of Fiskdale, Massachusetts sent the following<br />
newspaper clipping from The Putnam Patriot of<br />
November 15, 1918 which reproduces a letter written by<br />
his uncle, Ernest J. <strong>Durand</strong>.<br />
Thirteenth Time Over Top Unlucky<br />
Private Ernest J. <strong>Durand</strong> of Putnam Carrying One<br />
of Fritz's Souvenirs In Left Thigh---Cleaned Out<br />
Machine Gun Nest and Captured Hill 240.<br />
Private Ernest J. <strong>Durand</strong>, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clifford<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>, Woodstock Avenue, writes home and tells his<br />
parents how he got his "blighty,"<br />
Here is the story as he tells it:<br />
"I have at last found time to write<br />
you a line and will give you all the<br />
news possible. I couldn't write before<br />
for all we have been doing is<br />
driving Fritz towards Berlin. I was<br />
in one drive from the 12th to the<br />
17th of September. Then we left<br />
that front and came way up on the<br />
Champagne front and the drive<br />
there lasted nine days.<br />
“I was wounded by a machine<br />
gun October 9 th and I am writing<br />
his letter in a base hospital. Now<br />
don't worry about me or my wound.<br />
It is only one of Fritz's steel souvenirs<br />
in the left thigh. It is not a serious<br />
wound at all.<br />
"I will try and give you an idea of<br />
how I was feeling the morning I got<br />
my 'blighty.' We had been fighting<br />
for eight days then and the Huns<br />
were resisting pretty hard in front<br />
of us. Three days before we had<br />
captured a hill which the French<br />
thought it was impossible to take.<br />
When we stormed the hill the Germans<br />
had so many machine guns<br />
that you couldn't hear yourself<br />
think from the noise of their popping. After one of the<br />
prettiest little scraps that was ever pulled off we took the<br />
hill and stayed there for three days and on the eve of the<br />
third day I was wounded. I got orders from the commanding<br />
officer that we were going over the top at 8<br />
o'clock the next morning.<br />
"I was chief runner for the battalion commander and<br />
had sixteen runners under me. Now, I always had confidence<br />
in myself until that morning, when I felt myself<br />
slipping. Well, the barrage opened up a 7:57 and at 8<br />
o'clock it started rolling ands we started forward. Talk<br />
Barrel-sitting Ernest J. <strong>Durand</strong> (right) with<br />
an unidentified friend in this photo taken on August<br />
15, 1919 in Germany. <strong>Durand</strong> served with<br />
the 18th Infantry, 1st Division, 2nd Battalion.<br />
15<br />
about your machine guns--all you could hear was rat-tattat-tat-tat,<br />
and the old bullets were just singing by my<br />
head. All the time I had a hunch that I was going to get<br />
hit because it was my 13th time over the top and I felt<br />
that this was an ill omen and unlucky.<br />
"I said to myself, '<strong>Durand</strong>, you stick to it if you die,'<br />
and I can now say that I did my lull duty without flinching.<br />
All I've got to say is, I have one consolation and<br />
that is that when we started out we started with just a<br />
few men and then a support battalion came along and<br />
leap frogged us and my commanding officer said to me:<br />
'<strong>Durand</strong>, my battalion is gone and I am going back to<br />
the regimental P.C. and see the colonel. What do you<br />
think is best for you to do with your 14 men?"<br />
"I told him I would go ahead and<br />
see what I could do. I sure had a<br />
game bunch in back of me, so we<br />
started forward. I stopped a machine<br />
gun shooting on our left<br />
flank, so I detail one man with<br />
seven under him to go to the left<br />
while I started on the right with the<br />
others. It was in some woods and<br />
the machine gunner couldn't see us<br />
for we were crawling on all fours.<br />
We got within fifty yards of him<br />
and we had it all planned out that<br />
when I fired the first shot everybody<br />
would fire. There were five<br />
of them manning that gun and I<br />
picked up my Springfield rifle,<br />
took dead aim at the gunner and<br />
pulled the trigger. He gave a yell,<br />
put both hands to his head and fell.<br />
At that moment the others opened<br />
up and we sure did clean out that<br />
nest.<br />
"We again started forward. I spotted<br />
another one and we started for<br />
him, but he got me before I could<br />
get him. Our taking Hill 240 was<br />
reported in a French paper.<br />
"Don't worry. My wound, although<br />
severe, is not serious and I will<br />
soon be stepping out again: we are having victory on all<br />
fronts and believe the war will soon be over. It is only a<br />
matter of weeks now."<br />
What’s the Connection?<br />
Ernest J. <strong>Durand</strong> was one of 16 children born to Clifford<br />
and Olivine <strong>Durand</strong> (see p. 14). Born in 1898 in Warren<br />
Massachusetts, he married Rose Dumont in 1923 and<br />
produced one daughter, Muriel, who preceded him in<br />
death in 1961 without issue. Ernest died in 1969 and his<br />
wife Rose died in 1994.
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
Presidents Message<br />
By Mike <strong>Durand</strong><br />
It was just a few years ago<br />
back in 1998 when we produced<br />
the first edition of the<br />
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
newsletter. I used to conjure<br />
up material and assemble it<br />
into somewhat of a meaningful<br />
fashion for what I supposed<br />
might be of interest to<br />
our readers. I pulled together<br />
Mike <strong>Durand</strong><br />
some material that others had<br />
written and reproduced and<br />
subsequently canned it into<br />
this new labeled product called the “newsletter”. And<br />
about two years ago, I unloaded the job and editing and<br />
compiling the newsletter to my “cousin John”.<br />
Finding material of significance to our members is a<br />
constant ongoing problem. It has to meet certain criteria<br />
I am told. It can’t be so specific to not be of interest to<br />
those families that don’t know this or that family link,<br />
but rather, it should be general enough to be of interest<br />
to the broad population of our readers. Not an easy task<br />
I might remind you.<br />
As I look at the content of this edition, I think how<br />
fruitful our efforts have been. Our expectations have indeed<br />
been realized. We received input from so many<br />
sources, and in fact from places half way around the<br />
globe. Most of it comes though contact with either emails<br />
or letters. It’s an interactive process that gets<br />
strained and I suppose a sanitized version palatable for<br />
the readers to digest without getting indigestion.<br />
This is exactly what I and others had envisioned from<br />
the beginnings. After all the newsletter was to be the<br />
voice of the people. I think it is serving well in that capacity.<br />
But the <strong>Foundation</strong> efforts are more than just about<br />
the publication of the newsletter. If we are going to sustain<br />
ourselves, (nobody guarantees the long-term success<br />
of the organization), it requires a lot of effort and<br />
determination in areas not yet explored. Fortunately, we<br />
have had many people come forward to volunteer their<br />
time and expertise to make it happen, and make the<br />
foundation efforts continue to grow in scope and nature.<br />
I’d like to begin to list some of them, but I think you<br />
know who they are and what they have contributed.<br />
Often times, when I attend a funeral or wedding, I am<br />
surprised to hear of the number of people who have<br />
heard about me, or the <strong>Foundation</strong> efforts. With a little<br />
probing, I soon to begin to learn that they have read a<br />
recent edition of the <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong>.<br />
Or they heard about the <strong>Foundation</strong> efforts from<br />
this or that source. Sometime, I learn, a current newslet-<br />
16<br />
ter edition is provided by one of their parents, sister,<br />
brother, aunt or uncle! Therefore, I have calculated that<br />
our readership is fast approaching a figure of somewhere<br />
near one thousand. I think that’s a conservative<br />
estimation by the way.<br />
To date our efforts to bring in outside vendors or partners<br />
to buy advertising space, and to support our efforts<br />
has not materialized. We will discuss the reasons for this<br />
at the next Board meeting.<br />
I am not disheartened by all of this though, as I know<br />
we provide a good product and service to our customers,<br />
(you the readers). As you look at the results of our survey,<br />
(page 17) you will also enjoy the feedback from<br />
our membership.<br />
With the new overhaul of our web site I am working<br />
on some new projects with Yvonne, our web mistress.<br />
Here is what we have planned. Soon you will receive<br />
regular mailings by e-mail. No more waiting for three<br />
months or so for our only correspondence, the next<br />
newsletter. Instead you will receive regular mailing that<br />
will have files attached that will bring you current news<br />
as well as offers for special products and order forms.<br />
Or, they might be articles on the care and storage of important<br />
documents or photos. Some of the other items<br />
that I have in mind are (1) A CD-ROM with all the editions<br />
of the newsletter in PDF format. This would be a<br />
great way to store information electronically in one<br />
place. No more looking for this issue or that issue which<br />
might be buried in your piles of files. (2) A CD-ROM of<br />
Great Classical photo’s. We would most likely have to<br />
separate out the photo’s so they would be more family<br />
specific. For example, the East Coast <strong>Durand</strong>’s would<br />
most likely have little interest in our family photo’s and<br />
visa versa.<br />
We are also working on organizing photo’s in our Archives<br />
at our web site. This is a piece of work in itself. I<br />
began this project a couple of years ago but stopped realizing<br />
that other people who have experience in doing<br />
this type of work would better serve our long term<br />
goals. No one wants to start a project and then find out<br />
later that it all has to be redesigned. I have learned that<br />
it’s best to leave the detailed work of web site construction,<br />
electronic file storage etc. to those that work in this<br />
all the time as a profession. I have no expertise in this<br />
area. Yvonne has already spent countless hours along<br />
with her staff at Voyageur Web to start on these projects.<br />
All of our efforts are strictly voluntary. If you have<br />
expertise in some area that you think we might need assistance<br />
with, please let us know. Those of us involved<br />
in the <strong>Foundation</strong>s efforts walk a fine line between volunteering<br />
too much and insanity! Some of us might already<br />
be past the point of no return towards the road to<br />
insanity!
Spring, 2003 <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
Membership Survey Results<br />
By Mike <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Included with the Winter 2002 newsletter was membership<br />
survey form. This was our first attempt to gain<br />
information in the form of “feedback” from our members.<br />
Although we had often received unsolicited feedback,<br />
this was our first attempt to gather information on<br />
a larger scope and using a more formal procedure.<br />
A total of ten survey forms were completed and returned.<br />
All of them came from non Board members, just<br />
in case you have a tendency to think we stuffed the ballot<br />
box. These responses represents about a five percent<br />
rate of return of our total membership. It was good to<br />
read the individual comments that most everyone included.<br />
I have shared this information already with the<br />
other Board members and we will further discuss the<br />
results at the upcoming Board meeting. Also, I plan to<br />
upload the forms combined into one file into our archives<br />
for you to likewise read. My original intent was<br />
to provide the results in a table form, but instead I have<br />
summarized it below according to each individual question.<br />
So lets get started!<br />
The individual response categories for each of the<br />
questions were. ( ) Outstanding; ( ) Good; ( ) Above average;<br />
( ) Average; ( ) Below Average; ( ) Poor; ( ) Very<br />
poor.<br />
The first question asked, Generally speaking, from<br />
what you know, how would you rate the over-all well<br />
being of the <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>?<br />
The responses were as follows– (4) Outstanding;<br />
(4) Good ; and (2) Above Average.<br />
The second question asks; How would you rate the<br />
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> in terms of<br />
content? The responses were as follows;<br />
(4) Outstanding; (5) Good; and (1) Above average.<br />
The third question asked; How would you rate the<br />
<strong>Newsletter</strong> in terms of layout? The responses were as<br />
follows; (6) Outstanding; (3) Good; and (1) Above average.<br />
The fourth question asks; How do you feel about the<br />
change from black-and-white printing to color and<br />
the increase in price from $15.00 per year to $ 20.00<br />
per year? The responses were; (5) Outstanding;<br />
(4) Good and (1) Average.<br />
The next question required a (yes) or (no) response.<br />
Have you ever visited our web site at www.<br />
<strong>Durand</strong>foundation.com?<br />
The responses were, (6) Yes; and (4) No.<br />
The sixth question asks. How would you rate the<br />
overall content of the web site? The responses were<br />
(2) Outstanding; (1) Good; (1) Below average. The remaining<br />
six did either not respond or indicated that<br />
they hadn’t ever visited the web site.<br />
17<br />
The seventh question asks; How would you rate how<br />
easy it is to move around in our web site?<br />
The responses were (1) Outstanding; (2) Good (2) Average.<br />
The remaining did not respond to this question.<br />
Question number eight asks; What kind of a job do<br />
you think the <strong>Foundation</strong> officers and directors are<br />
doing? (6) Outstanding; (2) Good and (2) Above average.<br />
Other questions were soliciting narrative comments,<br />
and I think many of these responses provided some of<br />
the most helpful information. Below are a sample of<br />
some of the responses.<br />
Robert <strong>Durand</strong> from Spooner, WI commented that<br />
the “Membership fees should keep the <strong>Foundation</strong> financed”<br />
and in regards to our web site he stated that<br />
“we need to keep dated-news-announcements, general<br />
information even Board minutes up to date” . With regard<br />
to the most important issues or tasks that the <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
Board should be working on at this time; Robert<br />
states; “ The Board should set up committees from the<br />
general membership to work on projects; membership<br />
enrollment; programs; fund raisers; etc. The Board<br />
should set goals and needs; general membership to<br />
help”.<br />
Curtiss DuRand from Davis California also provided<br />
some helpful insight in response to the same question.<br />
He thought the important areas that the Board should be<br />
working on included; (1) What does it mean to be a <strong>Durand</strong>?<br />
(2) Facilitate development of local/regional <strong>Durand</strong><br />
gathering like very extended <strong>Durand</strong> family picnic<br />
in Northern California– address-phone-email list for<br />
those who permit it”.<br />
Mary Ann <strong>Durand</strong> Balding from Virginia Beach,<br />
Virginia provided some helpful and interesting commentary.<br />
She states that she “ enjoyed the connection to<br />
other <strong>Durand</strong>’s” She worked with her husband Ronald<br />
to translate the Jean <strong>Durand</strong> and His Posterity book.<br />
She recalls that “working with Ron to translate Jean <strong>Durand</strong><br />
book was fascinating”. As for the newsletter content<br />
Mary Ann states that she’d “like to see a mixture of<br />
history of <strong>Durand</strong>’s as well as present day achievements”<br />
She also thought that “the article on Clint Hillis<br />
and Mary Herzig in the Winter 2002 edition was excellent”.<br />
Jean & George Batte’ from Navarre, Florida also provided<br />
lots of good information. Jean writes; “I want to<br />
respond to your continued efforts in putting out a fine<br />
newsletter and the latest one is TOPS. The color really<br />
enhances the appearance overall. It’s very professional.<br />
Clint Skywalker’s article was very interesting and if I<br />
were younger I might surprise myself and take him up<br />
on his challenge and golden opportunity, but I was never<br />
sporty enough to color outside the lines. Ms. Perfection-<br />
(Continued on page 18)
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
(Continued from page 17)<br />
ist with a motivation gift of organization, like my dad,<br />
would never allow myself outside the lines! But tell<br />
cousin John we only live once. Also, George says he’ll<br />
do it if John does! Egg on! Anyway, Mike and John and<br />
all the others serving in behalf of the <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>,<br />
THANKS”.<br />
On the actual response form and in regards to the<br />
newsletter, Jean further states, “You all have worked<br />
very hard! Really, more of us who have enjoyed the<br />
newsletters need to send their stuff in too. We get busy<br />
and forget. Sorry!” She further elaborated about our efforts,<br />
“ I especially like the articles, pictures of my generation<br />
which is cousins and their families, maybe divide<br />
the issue for the then and now and future generation”.<br />
As you can see from the tabulation of results, we generally<br />
were rated quite well if you average everything<br />
together. I suppose if we were to attach a numerical<br />
score to the results it might average about 85% out of a<br />
total possible score of 100. Therefore, I would attach<br />
anywhere from a B+ to an A-.<br />
Furthermore, all the responses came from different<br />
geographical regions of the United States. We had some<br />
from the West Coast, East Coast, the South and the<br />
Midwest.<br />
Perhaps, soon we will upload this form to our website<br />
so that members will have an opportunity to fill it out<br />
online and submit it electronically. This will continue to<br />
provide us with ongoing feedback and add to the totals<br />
we have on file already. Also, if we would have included<br />
a pre-addressed and postage paid envelope with<br />
the survey form included in the last edition of the newsletter,<br />
I think we would have had a greater response ratio.<br />
If you haven’t submitted your survey response form<br />
and you still have a copy it’s not too late to do so. At the<br />
upcoming Board meeting there will be a wide array of<br />
prizes and drawings for those who have submitted a response.<br />
Who knows you might be selected to be one of<br />
the big winners!<br />
_____________________________________________<br />
Membership Expiration Dates Printed on Mailing<br />
Labels<br />
Take a moment to look at your mailing label on the<br />
white envelope. Notice your membership expiration<br />
date located above your name and address. The <strong>Foundation</strong><br />
doesn’t send out billing statements. For those<br />
members with expiration dates 12/31/2002 and earlier,<br />
they did not receive a copy of this newsletter. They will<br />
however be sent a reminder letter and if they don’t respond<br />
they will be dropped from the mailing list. Also,<br />
their log in name and password will be removed from<br />
the Archives at our web site.<br />
18<br />
Using the <strong>Foundation</strong>’s website<br />
Yvonne Cariveau, Webmaster<br />
Visit the <strong>Durand</strong>foundation.com website to renew<br />
your membership or to purchase books or back issues of<br />
the <strong>Foundation</strong> newsletter. On any page of the website,<br />
click on the Family Store link and you'll see a list of the<br />
items and types of membership available.<br />
The Family Store is secured with Secure Socket Layer<br />
(SSL) encryption, so you can safely put in your credit<br />
card information to complete your order.<br />
TIP - if you don't want to use your credit card on<br />
the internet...<br />
1. Go to the Family Store link.<br />
2. Add items to your cart by clicking on ADD TO<br />
CART button next to the things you want<br />
3. When you are done, click on CHECKOUT and<br />
complete the Billing and Shipping page information<br />
4. Click on CONTINUE<br />
The next page will give you a nice printout of everything<br />
you ordered and all the necessary billing and<br />
shipping information to process your order<br />
5. PRINT this page using the File/Print commands<br />
If you followed these directions, none of your information<br />
was sent via the internet and none of the information<br />
about you was stored but you now have a nice<br />
printed sheet to send by mail.<br />
Print your credit card information on the form and<br />
send the page to 1501 Rushmore Drive, Burnsville, MN<br />
55306.<br />
If you just want a membership form, click on the<br />
Membership Info link and print the form there to fill in<br />
by hand and then send it by mail.<br />
(Continued from page 11) VoyageurWeb<br />
One of her first offers of help to the <strong>Foundation</strong> was to<br />
use the professionalism of her company to redesign the<br />
<strong>Foundation</strong>’s website to make it more user-friendly and<br />
visually appealing. The original <strong>Foundation</strong>’s website<br />
was constructed by Derek Brusegard when he was only<br />
15 years old, a rather remarkable achievement. Derek<br />
has since graduated from high school and entered college.<br />
He earlier requested that he be relieved on his<br />
website responsibilities.<br />
Yvonne reports that her staff enjoy a relaxed, learning<br />
atmosphere and get to interact with people from all over<br />
the state and country in many different lines of work.<br />
VoyageurWeb recently won the Mankato Area Council<br />
for Quality Corporate Award.<br />
Learn more about VoyageurWeb by visiting www.<br />
voyageurweb.com<br />
Yvonne's email address is yvonne@voyageurweb.com
Spring, 2003 <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
Newspaper Article on Sister Manette Prompts<br />
Marie Miller to Write of Global Volunteer<br />
Work in Jonestown, Mississippi<br />
Hi, John:<br />
One of my daughters in MN sent me the article about<br />
Sr. Manette. It brought back so many memories. It<br />
really did not state adequately the huge amount of work,<br />
Sr. Manette directs. Jim and I observed this in 1996 and<br />
1997 during the time we spent volunteering for her.<br />
We joined a group of Global Volunteers being sent to<br />
Jonestown to do whatever was needed. The one stipulation<br />
was that we live like the people of the town, and<br />
we had to work with a resident of the town. In other<br />
words, no highhanded stuff. We were there to support<br />
them, not to impose our values on them. Jim and I had<br />
no idea Sr. Manette was there, an LPN running the<br />
Health Clinic.<br />
I think she had only two other nuns when she started<br />
the clinic in a renovated old building that was empty. I<br />
can only describe her as a dynamo in action. Her grasp<br />
of the situation regarding the lives of the citizens of<br />
Jonestown, was very comprehensive. I received the impression<br />
that first of all she would try to address the<br />
situations that created the problems. One of the problems<br />
she tackled was instructing the young, and not-so-<br />
young people in a better way to handle their marriage,<br />
or in most cases, not married, responsibilities. She did<br />
this with determination and kindness.<br />
Those two qualities—determination and kindness—<br />
go hand in hand with her concern and love of the people,<br />
no matter what the situation. She also could be very<br />
firm in insisting that each one had to take responsibility<br />
for their own actions. Her energy seemed endless. I<br />
think each night God poured a new measure of strength<br />
and wisdom in her and her two sister helpers.<br />
Not only did she try to beautify the lives of the people,<br />
but I saw her single-handed dig up the hard earth<br />
around the newly painted clinic and plant flowers there.<br />
She and her sisters planted a big garden to show the<br />
people that they, too, could grow many of their fruits<br />
and vegetables.<br />
This Jonestown, MS in October of 1993 when Jim and<br />
I were sent there was considered by the Global Volunteers<br />
to be the "poorest town, in the poorest city, in the<br />
poorest county in the poorest state in the whole United<br />
States." It had a peanut factory and a cotton gin. When<br />
these two plants were not operating people just relaxed<br />
and waited for their welfare checks.<br />
The fact that transportation was nonexistent was another<br />
problem. Jim was involved in a lot of the mechanical<br />
and engineering things, even to climbing down<br />
into the sewer to clean it out. He was helped by a sturdy<br />
man from the town.<br />
19<br />
I helped out at the school, which, by the way, would<br />
be graduating the first high school graduate that year. If<br />
I remember rightly, city water had just become a reality<br />
a year or two before we were there.<br />
Sr. Manette led the insistence on cleanliness and<br />
taught the virtues of reliability and hard work. Of course<br />
there must have been some failures, but the people I saw<br />
and talked to were so thankful for her and the clinic.<br />
…We enjoyed our two sessions of volunteering there.<br />
The second one was really just to visit over the Easter<br />
Holidays. Of course we did more than visit! and we enjoyed<br />
it all. I would urge anyone who reads the <strong>Durand</strong><br />
<strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> to contact her and ask if she<br />
needs any help.<br />
I think she would not hesitate.<br />
I missed seeing her by one day last summer. We were<br />
back in Minnesota to bury my husband's remains on our<br />
daughter and her husband's farm in Plainview. Sr<br />
Manette was in Wisconsin for the <strong>Durand</strong> reunion and<br />
intended to meet up with me. Sadly, I had already left<br />
for Tucson.<br />
Sincerely, Marie Miller<br />
9350 E. Speedway, #5<br />
Tucson, Arizona. 85710<br />
Website Family Tree Brings Delight and a<br />
Letter from Trisha O’Connor<br />
Hi John!<br />
I have been researching my family tree and I was so<br />
happy to see my name on the <strong>Durand</strong> tree! I was so<br />
happy to see that I am the 10th great-granddaughter of<br />
Louis <strong>Durand</strong>! I was happy to see that my grandfather,<br />
Raymond O'Connor, is the 8th great-grandson of Louis.<br />
Imagine my surprise when I saw the father of my grandmother<br />
there—Raymond Jandro who is the son of Albertina<br />
Thibodeau, daughter of Olivia <strong>Durand</strong>. He and<br />
Catherine Lonien had my grandmother—Eileen Jandro—and<br />
she is also the 8th [generation] granddaughter<br />
of Louis. The common connection between the two is<br />
Louis down to Joseph <strong>Durand</strong>—one child from each of<br />
Joseph's marriages. My grandparents are actually half<br />
4th cousins! The <strong>Durand</strong> website does not reflect this. I<br />
noticed she is not listed with Raymond Jandro. She is<br />
listed as spouse to Raymond O'Connor, but her first<br />
name is spelled wrong. I thought it was so neat to find<br />
all this out and see my roots!<br />
Trisha O'Connor<br />
jcdurand3391@charter.net<br />
Send your letters to:<br />
John C <strong>Durand</strong><br />
624 East Market Street #103<br />
Elkhorn, WI 53121
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong> Spring, 2003<br />
The back page… Next issue will feature an article on the family of Nazaire <strong>Durand</strong>, who moved from Minnesota<br />
to Canada in the early 1900’s. Ellen <strong>Durand</strong> Olson worked with Mavis Johnston of Hanna, AB, Canada, Nazaire’s<br />
great-granddaughter, to put together this piece of family history. Peter Keppel processed the photos.<br />
Interested in the <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong>? Visit our website: www.durandfoundation.com<br />
(Continued from page 5) God God Calls...<br />
Calls...<br />
Lastly, I treasure deeply the approximately 30 religious<br />
who live and work here in the Delta within an<br />
hour’s drive of Jonestown who share daily community<br />
life and friendship. They represent 12-14 religious communities<br />
all striving to God’s work.<br />
I hope each of you has a chance to tell your story<br />
about your faith-filled journey through this life, as I<br />
(Continued from page 6) Flying Nun<br />
she is still a treasure of memories for me. I figure it's<br />
almost 60 years old now. Yes, I know I don't look that<br />
old. Ha, ha!<br />
Anyway, for what its worth I thought I would share<br />
some beautiful moments in my past that remain alive<br />
today.<br />
News that this <strong>Newsletter</strong> would include an article by<br />
Sister Manette on her career prompted Jean <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Batte to contribute her recollections of a visit to see Sister<br />
Manette in rural Alabama. The twin daughter of Gilbert<br />
& Fern <strong>Durand</strong>, Jean is a nurse, and Sister Manette<br />
put to work during her visit to Alabama. Jean is married<br />
to George Batte (USAF, ret.) and lives in Navarre, Florida.<br />
President<br />
Mike <strong>Durand</strong><br />
mikdurand@msn.com<br />
Vice President<br />
John <strong>Durand</strong><br />
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> Officers<br />
jcdurand3391@charter.net<br />
Secretary<br />
Roger <strong>Durand</strong><br />
rdurand@frontiernet.net<br />
Treasurer<br />
Alice Keppel<br />
amkeppel@uswest.net<br />
1501 Rushmore Drive<br />
Burnsville, MN 55306<br />
Phone 952-431-5610<br />
624 East Market St #103<br />
Elkhorn, WI 53121<br />
Phone 262 723-7750<br />
76 Marcin Hill<br />
Burnsville, MN 55337<br />
Phone 612-898-2896<br />
1335 Mandan Ave No.<br />
Golden Valley, MN 55427<br />
Phone 763-540-0024<br />
20<br />
have tried to do. My story is neither special nor unique.<br />
But telling our stories help us to reflect on how we do<br />
let our Great God lead us in spite of ourselves.<br />
To update the <strong>Durand</strong> family tree, contact:<br />
Blanche <strong>Durand</strong> Hammer<br />
1547 Quail Ridge Road<br />
Woodbury, MN 53125<br />
Email: mbmn@attbi.com<br />
To contact the <strong>Durand</strong>s in the Military Project<br />
Lt. Col. James F. <strong>Durand</strong>, USMC<br />
(Colonel <strong>Durand</strong>, between postings, will have a new<br />
mailing address soon)<br />
Email: JFDURAND@aol.com<br />
To find out about the Young Writers Project<br />
Virginia <strong>Durand</strong> James<br />
2087 County Road A<br />
Spooner, WI 54801<br />
Phone: 715-635-3068<br />
<strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> Board of Directors<br />
Mike <strong>Durand</strong>, John <strong>Durand</strong>, Roger <strong>Durand</strong>, Alice <strong>Durand</strong> Keppel, Tom Bacig, Yvonne Cariveau, Richard <strong>Durand</strong>,<br />
Susanne Krasovich, Mary Brusegard, Blanche <strong>Durand</strong> Hammer<br />
<strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
John <strong>Durand</strong>, Chair<br />
Roger <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Susanne Krasovich<br />
Ellen <strong>Durand</strong> Olson<br />
Research<br />
Roger <strong>Durand</strong>, Chair<br />
Richard <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Mike <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Susanne Krasovich<br />
Standing Committees<br />
Records<br />
Blanche Hammer, Chair<br />
Roger <strong>Durand</strong><br />
John <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Membership/Social<br />
Vacant- Chairperson<br />
Marilyn <strong>Durand</strong><br />
Mary Brusegard<br />
Joanne Berres<br />
Susanne Krasovich<br />
The <strong>Durand</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Foundation</strong> is a public, not-for-profit, educational and research corporation chartered in the State of<br />
Minnesota and operating under §501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowable.<br />
The <strong>Foundation</strong> affords no pecuniary benefit to its officers and members.