Yukon who is who

Mary Theresa Brigid “Mamie” Legris (1916 - 2015)

Mamie Legris was born in Dracre, Ontario to parents Alfred and Anne (Guiney) Legris. She received her teaching degree from Ottawa Normal School in 1934 and taught in the area for seventeen years. She first heard Catherine and Eddie Doherty of Madonna House at a teachers’ convention. Legris felt God was calling her to another vocation and she began her training in 1951 and made her first promises in 1952. She was assigned the director of Maryhouse in Whitehorse in May 1954 and served there for ten years.¹⁾ Her partners in the pioneer effort were Kathleen O’Herin and Louis Stoeckle.²⁾ Legris and her companions collected furniture and goods as they drove across Canada.³⁾ They arrived in Whitehorse in 1954 to set up Maryhouse, a field house for the Apostolate of Friendship House (Apostolate of Madonna House).⁴⁾

In Whitehorse, Legris lived in a house with poustinias in the basement, where people could retreat from the world. A poustinia is a small sparsely-furnished cabin or room where a person can pray and fast alone in the presence of God for twenty-four hours. After ten years in Whitehorse, Legris started travelling all over the world to open mission homes. She moved back to the Yukon around 1989 and spent time travelling and camping around the Yukon with friends Renee Alford and Father Pierre Vuyrat.⁵⁾ Legris moved back to Combermere in 1997.⁶⁾ On 13 June 2004, Bishop Denis Croteau offered a mass of Thanksgiving for Mary House's fifty years of service to the Yukon. Mamie Legris travelled up from Combermere for the occasion.⁷⁾