Obituary - Mary Margaret Kucera

Mary Margaret Kucera, 89, passed away November 14, 2019, at her residence.

Vigil service will be 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, December 4, 2019, at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church, followed by her funeral Mass at 11:00 a.m., Thursday, December 5, 2019. Burial will be at Highland Cemetery.

Memorial donations in Margaret's name may be made to the St. Jude School Scholarship Aid Fund, or to one of your personal choice.

Please visit Margaret's online memorial page at http://www.hollandbonine.com to leave a message of condolence for her family.

Holland & Bonine Funeral Home has been entrusted with services and arrangements.

Mary Margaret was born in 1930 to Edgar and Eva (Conniff) McBride in Blue Hill, Nebraska. She was the third of five children. She attended public school in Blue Hill, until the age of 16, when she was enrolled as a junior in Mount Saint Scholastica Academy, a Benedictine Catholic girls' boarding school in Atchison, Kansas. She graduated from high school there in 1948. In the fall of that year, she began college at Mount Saint Scholastica College and graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and minors in English, philosophy and economics.

After graduation, she moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where she worked in the Statistical Action of the Actuary Department of United of Omaha.

In the fall of 1954, she met Daniel Bernard Kucera, and they were married in May of 1955 in Blue Hill, Nebraska. They then moved to Havre, Montana, where Daniel had a job with the Great Northern Railroad. They resided there for the rest of their married life, raising seven children.

Besides her job of wife, mother and homemaker, she found time to engage in other work. She gave piano lessons in her home for several years until she was asked to teach statistics at Northern Montana College, which she did for two spring quarters. In 1968, she was asked by the principal of St. Jude's School to accept a job as music and art instructor in seventh and eighth grades. She began her career there in the fall of 1968, moving on to teach math and religion for most of her time in the classroom. During the first several years she also enrolled in the summer education classes at Northern to gain her Montana teaching certification. She worked at the school until the spring of 1991, when she retired as principal. She remained in a part-time capacity, working in the Alumni Office and doing some development work until April of 1995. Margaret was blessed in that she truly loved her years spent with the students, parents and co-workers at St. Jude-Havre Central.

Family was her first priority in life. In her later years, she loved traveling to visit her children and their families, as well as their visits to Havre. She also enjoyed playing the piano, reading, spending time on her computer and entertaining people in her home. She was also known to have enjoyed an occasional Irish whiskey in the company of friends.

She lived a life characterized by a cheerful dignity and loving dedication to family, friends, community and her faith. She often advised her kids, "if you can't say something nice ... don't say anything at all." She will be missed.

Her husband, Daniel died in January of 2005 and her grandson Thomas Daniel Kucera in 1997. She was also preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Fritzie Heydman and Ann and brother-in-law Frank Harrison; her brothers, Jim and Edgar McBride and his wife Ilene.

Margaret is survived by her children and grandchildren Michael (Patricia), Jennifer and Christopher of Ann Arbor, MI; Timothy (Jeanne) and Maggie of Duluth, MN; Mark (Ivea) and Danielle and Frankie of Billings, MT; Eva (Ed) Tucholski and Joe (Heidi)of Annapolis, MD; David and Sam and Colin of Tasmania, Australia; Margaret of Madison, WI, and Daniel (Courtney) Connor, Elle, Abby and Sophia of Jamestown, North Dakota. She is also survived by a sister-in-law, Dorothy McBride; a brother-in-law, Charles Kucera; and many nieces and nephews.