Margery C. Murphy, 87, teacher, poet

Margery C Murphy, an educator and author of religious poetry, died Tuesday at Ridgeway Manor Nursing Home in Baltimore from complications of a stroke. The Roland Park resident was 87.
Mrs. Murphy taught English during the 1930s at the Convent of the Sacred Heart Parochial School in Washington. In the 1960s, she returned to the school, which had moved to Bethesda and changed its name to Stone Ridge Country Day School. She retired in the late 1970s and moved to Roland Park in 1987.
Mrs. Murphy was known for her religious and inspirational poetry. In the 1930s, she published "Blue Shadows," and in the 1960s, "Resurrection Stations," an adaptation of the Stations of the Cross.
The former Margery Cannon was born and raised in Denver. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Loretto Heights College in Denver and a master’s from Catholic University in Washington.
In 1936, she married Frederick Vernon Murphy, founder of the school of architecture at Catholic University and noted church architect. He died in 1958.
She was a communicant of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, where a Mass of Christian Burial was offered Friday.
She is survived by three sons, Michael V. Murphy and John C. Murphy, both of Baltimore, and Fred V. Murphy of Menlo Park, Calif.; and six grandchildren.

The following poem was recited at her funeral by her youngest granddaughter, Maggie:

WHEN I AM OLD
 

I SHALL not mind
The whiteness of my hair,
Or that my slow steps falter
On the stair;
Or that young friends hurry
As they pass,
Or what strange image
Greets me in the glass;
If I can feel,
As roots feel in the sod,
That I am growing old to bloom
Before the face of God!