Mary Catherine Poler Walsh 1902 - 2002

POLER, WALSH, MCCONVILLE

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/29/2016 at 09:10:26

Sioux City Journal
10 May 2002

Mary Catherine Poler Walsh, 98, of Crystal Lake, Ill., formerly of Sioux City, died May 11, 2000, in Crystal Lake of a heart attack.

Memorial graveside services will be 2 p.m. Saturday in Calvary Cemetery, Sioux City, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth. Arrangements are under the direction of Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel.

Mary Catherine Poler Walsh was born in 1902, in Union County, S.D. near Elk Point, the second oldest of six children to Catherine Matilda McConville and Walter Scott Poler.

In 1927, she married Ray Walsh, a cattle dealer of Sioux City, and lived in Sioux City until 1961. Ray Walsh died in 1957. She married Harry Livermore, a rancher in Murdo, S.D., in 1964. He died in 1981.

Her life was devoted to learning, from teacher's college courses at 16, when she taught in a one-room school in Stanley County, S.D., to business college in Sioux City, where she became a secretary, to correspondence courses in Latin and Spanish and Great Books discussion groups. She always sought wider horizons and traveled extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Ireland, Italy and the Middle East. She took great satisfaction in duplicate bridge, studying the game and playing in tournaments. She was a Life Master and loved to teach others, encouraging all to find an interest in bridge. She was a lifelong liberal Democrat and happily recalled meeting John F. Kennedy, when he campaigned for the presidency in Sioux City in 1960.

She is survived by her children, Rita W. Cavanagh of Oak Park, Ill., Dr. Ursula R. Walsh of Minneapolis, Patrick P. Walsh of Albuquerque, N.M., Maura Walsh Stodola of Crystal Lake, Ill., Donald R. "Scotty" Walsh of Highland Park, Texas, and Anne Walsh Kelly of Ben Lomond, Calif.; 15 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; and a sister, Helen O'Connor of Capa, S.D.