1912 – 2003

Lewiston – Marie Fitzgerald Murray, 91, a two-year resident of Schooner Estates on Stetson Road in Auburn, died Saturday, Nov. 8, at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center after a brief illness.

She was born in Somerville, Mass. April 20, 1912, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Cummins Fitzgerald. At age five, she moved with her widowed mother and younger brother Thomas and sister Margaret to New York City. She received her elementary and high school education at the Dominican Academy there, was granted her Bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and a Master of Arts degree in psychology from Fordham University. In later years, she obtained a Master of Library Science degree from Queens College.

In 1939, she married Thomas J. Murray of New York City and they had two children, Thomas and Michael. The Murrays were married 43 years, until the death of Mr. Murray in 1986. During their marriage, they lived in various parts of New York City, raising their children in the city’s Stuyvesant Town. Upon their retirement, they moved to Lindenwold, N.J., and later, to Indian Harbor Beach, Fla. where Mrs. Murray lived until moving to Auburn. During their retirement, Thomas and Marie enjoyed domestic and international travel.

Mrs. Murray’s professional career began at the New York State Department of Employment which she left after her marriage. She resumed her work when her children were old enough, becoming an elementary school teacher at PS 188 on Manhattan’s Lower East side.

After many years teaching third grade, Mrs. Murray became the school’s librarian, a position she held for the rest of her almost 20-year teaching career. She was much loved by her students and fellow teachers. A former colleague recently reminisced that “the children knew that Marie cared deeply for them and was always there for them. Marie never thought that children did bad things, they did funny things.”

In her retirement, she undertook the genealogical documentation of several branches of her family, eventually producing two volumes of text and pictures which offer a detailed and extensive history of three branches of her family. Mrs. Murray had an endless supply of engaging family stories that she loved to tell. She was loved and admired by her family and friends for her rich sense of humor, her love of family, and most of all, for the caring way she reached out to connect with everyone she met. After 10 minutes with a stranger, she would know how many children they had, what problems they were facing, and what hopes they had.

Mrs. Murray contributed to numerous charities thoughout her life. She instilled in her children a strong faith, a sense of social responsibility, a love of teaching, and an abiding concern for people. Both of her children absorbed her lifelong love of reading.

Mrs. Murray was a lifelong devout Catholic of deep faith. She was a communicant of St. Joseph’s Church where her cousin, Msgr. James Savage, was a longtime pastor.

She is survived by her son, Thomas Murray of New York City; her son, Michael Murray and his wife Rosanne Ducey, both of Litchfield; one sister, Mrs. Margaret Fitzgerald Darken of Chapel Hill, N.C.; six grandsons, Thomas and his wife Jenny, Joshua, Adam and his wife Aman, Ben, Seth, and Peter; two grandaughters, Sarah and Anna; six great-granchildren; a host of nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews, whom she loved and who loved her greatly in return; and many friends across the years.

She was predeceased by her brother, Thomas Fitzgerald, in 2000.

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