VIRGINIA DURR Obituary

DURR VIRGINIA DURR Civil rights advocate and humanitarian Virginia "Tilla" Durr died suddenly on December 1, 2016 of a heart attack on the 61st anniversary of the arrest of Rosa Parks, a family friend has confirmed. She was 77. Durr's parents bailed Parks out of jail after she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955. Durr was living in Maine and had spent years as a social worker in the Northeast, helping school kids in Washington, DC., and working with low-income residents across the area, former sister-in-law Kay Scheidler said. Durr lived in Washington from 1968 to 1998. Scheidler described Durr as "a tremendous listener." "Tilla really tried to follow her parents' moral and ethical teachings to always do the right thing, especially to support disenfranchised people and other people who are marginalized," Scheidler said. Her parents, Montgomery, Alabama residents Virginia and Clifford Durr, took a stand against segregation and supported the civil rights movement that began in the 1950s. During the 1960s, they housed civil rights organizers who were traveling through the South. Rights-era activist Jean Graetz said that period of strife took a toll on young Tilla Durr."She was kind of shunned at school because of her parents being involved, and they actually took her out of school and got a scholarship for her to go to a private school up north," Graetz said. "She had vowed she would never come back to Montgomery." That changed in recent years. Durr returned in 2015 to speak at an annual lecture series that was named in honor of her parents. It was held at Auburn Montgomery in the same month that the area was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. "There has been a revival in looking at civil rights and we have to keep moving forward and can't backslide," Durr said at the event. Earlier this year, she spoke at an Alabama State University symposium named for Jean and Robert Graetz. Jean Graetz said Durr was "delighted to be back in Montgomery" after years of staying away from the city. NewSouth Books editor Randall Williams said Durr was working on a manuscript about her experiences in Montgomery and how those shaped her life. Williams spoke alongside Durr at two Montgomery events this year. "I think she was quite appreciative of the amount of change that came to Montgomery in the years since she moved away," Williams said. In a 2015 letter to the Montgomery Advertiser, Durr wrote about her memories of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and how its themes mirrored the lives of her parents. She also wrote about the need to properly understand the era's complicated history in order to understand "how to bring about peace and justice." "We cannot change what happened in the past, but we sure can learn from it, to make better decisions for ourselves, both in the present and in the future," Durr wrote. Durr is survived by her son, Ian Parker; and her two sisters, Lucy Hackney and Lulah Colon. Memorial service is 3 p.m. Saturday, December 10 at St Peter's Episcopal Church, 42 Sweden Road, Bridgton, Maine.

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Published by The Washington Post on Dec. 11, 2016.

Memories and Condolences
for VIRGINIA DURR

Sponsored by Waging Peace/Maine.

12 Entries

TL Scully

December 5, 2022

Still think of Tilla every time I mail out one of her lovely photo-cards. Her legacy as an artist and an activist lives on.

TL Scully

December 5, 2019

I think of Tilla often--especially lately, when the seeds of some of our activism are bearing fruit. Tilla would love to know that Peace Literacy is spreading in schools across North America!

December 16, 2016

Amy Bertsch

December 15, 2016

Such a remarkable and inspiring woman! My condolences to Tilla's family and friends.

Virginia Foster Durr

December 15, 2016

December 14, 2016

Tilla: You are living in my heart through your photographs throughout my house! My dear distant cousin who's been in my life since 1967. So many memories we have shared. You have been a deep soulmate. I send my love to Ian and all your family/friends!
Anne B Zill

Kay Scheidler

December 14, 2016

Tilla left us too soon. She was full of life, fun and humor, and love until the end. I miss her.

Ian Parker

December 14, 2016

My Mother was a complex writer/photographer with a passion for social justice. Like her Father, Clifford J. Durr she refused to turn a blind eye on those suffering from discrimination and prejudice and in the grand arena of social activism, she fought time and time again
on behalf of those less powerful and fortunate than herself. Like her Father, Clifford J. Durr, she paid a heavy price for her activism and like her Father she was never abandoned by her family. Though they may have encouraged a more cautious approach to social injustice they never tuned there backs on her.... there was Family... and then there was politics and because of soldiers like her we were able to elect the First African American President in the history of our Nation. We have made racial tolerance a National standard across all party lines. Even amongst the most ardent conservatives there has been an acknowledgement that a strong Social Foundation, for the rural poor and those in our inner cities, is now a standard amongst prosperous industrial Nations worldwide.
She made it clear that charity for those less fortunate and disadvantaged by the environments of crime and poverty they are born into, is a sign of National Nobility and a form of wise stability in a dangerous world.
As she took the slings and arrows of passionate activism her sisters Lucy Durr Hackney and Lulah Durr Colan remained steadfast.
What she inherited from her Mother, the first Virginia Foster Durr, was not just land and wealth, but a passion for social justice, the desire to leave a meaningful imprint on our Nation and to guide an old Southern family round the bend of progress and into the modern world, placing us squarely on the right side of History.
She also made it clear that there must be a definite separation between the public and the private. That no matter what arrows she took in the public arena... family is family and blood is blood and that we come together and stand by one another when challenged by the dangerous nature of the public arena.
I will openly admit that I often regret that my own brand of social activism is far less heroic. I believe in negotiated solutions over warfare, I believe that change often does start with ourselves, and that a great idea enacted and made manifest
can be worth a hundred marches.
My Grandfather, Clifford J. Durr once said, "the only effective weapon against a bad idea is a good idea with the demonstration of that idea in action."
My Mother is in heaven, with her Mother and father now... we as family will meet her there.... she was an honor to this Nation and and honor to her family and with a fist of passion she let us all know what it means, to fight the good fight, to do the right thing, and to change the world for the better. She was a gem in the Durr line of gems that leaves us all prouder as an extended family and as a Nation.

Virginia Foster Durr . 1939 -2016