ELMORE, Kate Durr, age 78, of Montgomery, Alabama, died in Birmingham on Saturday, September 17, 2005, after a lengthy illness. She was the daughter of the late Stanhope E. Elmore and Kate Durr Elmore of Montgomery. She was preceded in death by her brothers, Nesbitt Elmore, Stanhope E. Elmore, Jr. and William B. Elmore. She graduated Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery and Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received a master's degree from Radcliffe College, and then attended Oxford University in England where she received another advanced degree. She moved to Europe where she taught English in a convent in Limoges, France, and while living in France was befriended by the deHavilland family and was often a guest in their home. She returned to the United States and pursued further post-graduate studies at the University of North Carolina and served on the faculties of Adelphi College and Rutgers University. She lived for a year or more in Washington, D.C., where she worked as an instructor at the Berlitz Foreign Language School. In the early 1960s she returned to England and was a lecturer on the faculties at two of the branches of the University of Maryland in England. In 1965 she began working as a lecturer at the University of Maryland branch in Munich, Germany. In 1974 she moved back to Montgomery and lived in the home in which she had been reared as a child, where she remained until 2004 when her illness necessitated her removal to Birmingham. After having settled in Montgomery she served as Assistant Professor of English at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, teaching English as a second language to various foreign graduate students and their families enrolled at Auburn from fifteen different nationalities. She befriended many of the families whom she taught and frequently entertained them in her home in Montgomery. After retirement from Auburn University in 1989 she devoted her time to many interests and hobbies and the support of various cultural and charitable institutions. She was a strong supporter of the Alabama Shakespeare Theater in Montgomery and Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. Her musical interests, which had been begun in childhood, were continued in Montgomery where she was a member of the Montgomery Chorale for many years and later of the Sweet Adelines. She learned to play the musical recorder and the bagpipe and continued taking piano lessons even after she moved to Birmingham in 2004. Among her sporting activities were mountain climbing (she climbed the Matterhorn in July of 1966), scuba diving, downhill and cross-country skiing and wind-surfing. She was an avid bicyclist and a jogger who often jogged four to five miles a day around the Cloverdale Park in front of her home. She is survived by her brother, Dr. John D. Elmore of Birmingham; numerous nieces and nephews, great-nieces (among them, Kate Durr Elmore of Alpharetta, GA) and great-nephews; many cherished friends including her lifetime friends, Mrs. Juliette Persons Doster of Anniston, Mrs. Griffin Doster Fry of Atlanta, and Dr. Dorothy DiOrio of Montgomery. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, September 21, 2005, at 2 p.m., at the Memorial Presbyterian Church, 2130 Bell Road, Montgomery, Alabama 36117. Visitation in the church parlors immediately after the service. In lieu of flowers, it is suggested that donations be made to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 1 Festival Drive, Montgomery, Alabama 36117; Memorial Presbyterian Church; Huntingdon College of Montgomery; St. John's Episcopal Church of Montgomery; Agnes Scott College of Decatur, GA; or other favorite charities.
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Funeral Home: none
Publication Date: 09/21/2005