Posted on: Thursday, September 16, 2004

Sister Marie Urbain Bouhourd, last of French missionary nuns

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Sister Marie Urbain Bouhourd, the last of the missionary sisters who came to Hawai'i from France, died Monday in Honolulu. She was 104.

Bouhourd was born on Nov. 25, 1899, in Grand Fougeray, France, and she entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in 1924. In 1926, she was sent to Hawai'i, where lived the rest of her life.

Bouhourd worked with orphans at St. Anthony's in Kalihi and also taught first- and second-graders at the Sacred Hearts Convent on Bates Street. As part of her lessons, she used her skills as a seamstress to teach young girls the art of sewing, crocheting and embroidering.

Sister Helene Wood, provincial superior for the Sisters of the Scared Hearts, said Bouhourd was very patient and had a good sense of humor. She also had a good relationship with many of the orphans under her care, Wood said.

"Maybe because of her mother's death and her having to mother her younger sisters at an early age, she had that quality of being very motherly, so much so that some of the children that she took care of at the orphanage continued to make contact," Wood said.

Bouhourd belonged to the Congregation of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in France and her assignment was to come to Hawai'i to help with the education of girls. Bouhourd was the last of the French missionary sisters in the congregation.

In 1948, Bouhourd became a U.S. citizen and continued to work until her retirement in 1989.

Visitation from 4 to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow at Malia O Ka Malu, 1117 4th Ave.; rosary and vespers at 4:30 p.m.; eulogy at 7 p.m.; and Mass at 7 p.m. A Mass also will be celebrated at 7 a.m. Saturday at Malia O Ka Malu; burial at 9 a.m. at Hawaiian Memorial Park Cemetery.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8025.