9460: Philome Durand (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Published Friday, November 2, 2001


Philomene Durand, 81, preacher, former teacher and businesswoman
BY OLIVIER STEPHENSON
ostephenson@herald.com

Philomene Durand, a former elementary school teacher and businesswoman who 
later became a Baptist preacher in Haiti, died Tuesday of cancer at Memorial 
Hospital West in Pembroke Pines

She was 81.

Durand and her second husband, Gerard, operated an electrical supplies store 
in Cap Haitien, Haiti, during the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1966, she began preaching in Sus Baptist Church in Cap Haitien, according 
to one of her daughters, Marguerite Durand of Miami.

Over the years, Durand frequently traveled to preach at churches in Miami, 
New York City and Montreal, her daughter said.

In 1970, Durand founded Maranatha, a prayer group, in Cap Haitien, which 
still exists, her daughter said. Durand also founded a church, Assemblee de 
Saints L'Arche de Noe, in Cap Haitien in 1993.

She moved to the United States in 1977 and settled for a time in Brooklyn, 
N.Y., but occasionally returned to Haiti to preach.

In 1984, Durand and her daughter moved to Miami. She relocated to Pembroke 
Pines with another daughter in 1997 and continued preaching at several 
Haitian churches in Miami.

``She was my role model, my mentor, and because of her my life is the best 
because of what she taught me spiritually and generally,'' Marguerite Durand 
said. ``She was a true mother . . . and best friend, and I'm going to miss 
her very much.''

Durand was born on May 11, 1920, in Cap Haitien and graduated from St. 
Francois Xavier School there.

Durand became a teacher and taught at elementary schools in Cap Haitien for 
several years until she went to Port-au-Prince, where she worked as a 
secretary for the immigration department.

Her first marriage was to Rene Morisseau, an aircraft pilot, in 1946. He 
died in 1947.

In August 1954, she married Gerard Durand in Cap Haitien.

In addition to daughter Marguerite Durand, she is survived by two other 
daughters, Marie-Josee Durand Christian and Audrey Durand, both of Pembroke 
Pines; two sons, Guesly Morisseau of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Gerard Durand Jr. 
of Pembroke Pines; brothers Marcel Menard of Cap Haitien and Justin Menard 
of Montreal and 11 grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. today at Fred Hunter's Hollywood 
Memorial Gardens Home, which is handling arrangements.

A funeral service will be conducted at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Pembroke Road 
Baptist Church in Miramar.





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