Sunday, April 1, 2012

Anastasia Brigid Curran Obituary

From the Billings Gazette, dated in pen May 16, 1997

PLENTYWOOD -- The funeral liturgy for Anastasia Brigid Curran will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday. Father Jerry Connolly will celebrate the Mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Plentywood; a vigil service will be at 7 p.m. Friday at Fulkerson's in Plentywood. Interment rites will be in St. Patrick's Cemetery at Minto, N.D. at 10 a.m. (CDT) Monday, May 19.

'Stasia died early Wednesday morning at Billings Deaconess Medical Center in Billings.

Anastasia Brigid Curran was born in Walsh County, near Minto, June 16, 1906, the youngest of five children of Timothy and Anna (McHugh) Curran. She grew up on the family farm and attended rural elementary schools near the family farm. She entered high school at Minto when she was 12 and completed a high school program that earned her a second-grade certificate to teach in rural schools. She stayed home for a year, then moved to Montana, where she taught in a McCone County school near Vida. Her father became ill, and she returned to North Dakota's Walsh County, where she taught for four years. She then took two quarters of college at Minot, qualified for Montana Teacher's Examinations, and taught in two rural Montana Schools before she returned to college for a year, now earning a "Standard" certificate. She then taught at Munson school, south of Plentywood, for two years; for five years at Redstone; a year in Augusta; and 27 years at Miles City, where she retired in 1970. Summer school sessions at Missoula, UCLA, and Greeley, Colo., earned a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Montana at Missoula.

'Stasia was an educator: even though her summers were usually spent traveling, she always took along her nephews or nieces on her journeys ("they had to be taught, you know!") and her example of penmanship, correct English, and accurate spelling and proofreading made lifelong impressions on all of her family. She traveled extensively, and retirement from teaching gave her time to revisit favorite places in the United States and Canada, ant to take a "Circle Pacific Tour" with stops in New Zealand, Australia, Bali, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Manila.

Since 1950 she had been a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, first as a charter member of Nu chapter, and since 1971 as a member of Chi chapter. Society activities helped her to follow trends in education during her retirement years, and to enjoy the association with other members. Her family remembers that she always made the pies -- especially apple -- for every family gathering, pies that no one else could equal.

After retirement, 'Stasia resided in Plentywood with her sister, Gertrude Heisler, until Gertrude's death in 1982. Since, she had spent her summers in Minto and winters in Plentywood.

Anastasia was baptized July 3, 1906, at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Minto and was a member there and at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Plentywood, where she was a member of St. Raymond's Guild.

The last survivor of her family of three brothers and two sisters, Anastasia never married; she is survived by numerous nephews, nieces and cousins.

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