When her future husband met Mary Kay on St. Patrick's Day 1978, he thought he had met not only an Irish beauty, but "perhaps the nicest person I have ever met." Over the years, others who met her formed the same opinion. If her sons' school needed a last-minute substitute teacher, she was there. If aspiring amateur teenage hockey players needed a home while they pursued their dreams, her home was their home. And, after her husband Larry's retirement they moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and she would find her true calling in volunteer work for Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly.

Mary Catherine Durland was born in 1947 in Chicago, the daughter of Margaret Elizabeth (née Jamieson) and John Joseph Fee. She treasured her Irish heritage, all four of her grandparents being born in Ireland. She graduated from Mundelein College, and began a career as a teacher. She married Frederick Littlefield, and they resided in Maine. After his early death she remained in Maine, where she would meet her second husband, Lawrence Vining Durland, Jr. They were married in 1978.

She is survived by her husband, their two sons Lawrence III and John, and four grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, Terence, another brother John having predeceased her. Services will be private. The family asks that any remembrances be in the form of contributions to Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly Upper Michigan Chapter, 527 Hancock Street, Hancock, MI 49930 (https://www.lbfemichigan.org/donate ).

Mary Catherine Durland was born on June 30, 1947. She died in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from cancer on March 15, 2026, aged 78.