Mary Flournoy Dunn Degges

Mary Flournoy Dunn Degges died January 20, 2025, in Blacksburg, Virginia. She was 90 years old. Mary was born on February 6, 1934, to William LeRoy Dunn and Thelma Flournoy Brumfield Dunn in Washington, DC. She lived in Washington DC for the first several years of her life, then moved with her family to the Cherrydale neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia. Her elementary education was at a two-room schoolhouse in Arlington, with one room reserved for grades 1-3 and the second for grades 4-6. During World War II, her family’s home hosted a variety of relatives, some drawn to the area for temporary wartime jobs in Washington. She graduated from National Cathedral School and then attended Duke University. After graduating from Duke in 19xx, Mary moved to Germany, where she spent two years studying on a Fulbright scholarship. After returning to the United States, she entered graduate school at Yale University, where she was awarded a Master’s degree in linguistics. At Yale, she lived in a cooperative house where she met Thomas Cookman Degges. They were married in 1962. In 1966, Mary and Tom moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where Tom studied applied mathematics and Mary worked with a linguistics professor at Queens University researching, among other subjects, the effects of 17th- and 18th-century settlement in Ireland on local dialect patterns. Their first child was born in Belfast. They returned to the United States in 1969 to settle outside Boston, Massachusetts, where their second child was born. Mary then worked as a homemaker while Tom worked as a physicist. They moved to New Hampshire in 1977. While living in New Hampshire, Mary was active at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Nashua. She and Tom were active in Marriage Encounter and the “Faith Alive” and Cursillo movements, attending and serving in leadership positions within these organizations. She taught herself New Testament Greek and Biblical Hebrew to deepen her understanding of scriptures. She became a widow in 1987. In 1999, Mary returned to Virginia, settling in Blacksburg. She became an active member of Christ Episcopal Church, regularly baking for church events well past her 80th birthday. She was a faithful attendee at the church’s weekly Bible study, where she eagerly shared her knowledge of New Testament Greek. She is survived by her daughters, Julia Randolph Degges Thompson of Hutto, TX; and Janet Thornton Fetter-Degges of Washington, DC; and her grandchildren Sam, Tommy, and Cat Thompson; and Theo and Nathaniel Fetter-Degges. A service will be held on Friday, January 24, 2025, at 10:30 AM in the Christ Episcopal Church. Interment will be held on Monday, January 27, 2025, at 1:00 PM at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA.

Mary Flournoy Dunn Degges

February 6, 1934 - January 20, 2025