JAQUELINE HALL DURANT

Jaqueline Durant, 87, died peacefully at her home in Neoga , Illinois on March 13, 2013. She was born May 14, 1925, in Mountain Grove , Missouri, the daughter of Henrietta (Leake) and Noel Maxwell Hall. She married Adrian J. Durant, Jr of Columbia , Missouri on September 14, 1947 Mrs. Durant was an accomplished concert pianist who graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in Music Education. She was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority. She later pursued a career in teaching, and worked in the public schools in Champaign , Illinois , for many years, earning a Master's degree in Special Education at the University of Illinois in Urbana . She also sat on the Diversion Board and sang in the choir of the First Presbyterian Church. Jaqueline enjoyed watching birds and shared her love of the natural world with her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Her many and varied interests included music, wild flowers, trees & flowering shrubs, children, books, sewing, knitting, history, science, astronomy, natural history, genealogy, and the woods. She was predeceased by her beloved husband Adrian in 2005. Together they raised five children, enjoyed many, many road trips, shared 58 years of life experiences, and have left a poignant legacy of deep unconditional love and commitment. Survivors include her children and their families: Will (Dorothy Blake) of Nucla, Colorado; Rebecca (Thomas Hunter) of Springfield, Vermont; Carol Adnan/Cookie (Jimmie Rosa) of Neoga, Illinois; Jackson of Urbana, Illinois, and Daniel (Olive/Lolly Durant) of Signal Mountain, Tennessee; eighteen grandchildren, sixteen great grandchildren, and another on the way. Her family suggests that gifts in memory of Jaqueline Durant be made to the National Wildlife Federation, or to a local bird sanctuary or nature preservation group. Online condolences may be expressed at swengel-odell.com

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