Mary Duque Dies After 40 Years With Childrens Hospital

Mary Duque, the indefatigable altruist who helped raise more than $100 million for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, died Sunday night. She was believed to be 87.

Michelle Barker, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said Mrs. Duque died in her sleep at her Hancock Park home.

For more than 40 years--and at an average rate of nearly $3 million a year--Mrs. Duque raised money so crippled children could learn to walk again and sick children could return to their homes and classrooms.

Childrens Hospital, with its 331 beds, 30 outpatient clinics and various other treatment programs, is considered the leading pediatric facility in the Western United States. Founded in 1901, it has been affiliated with the USC School of Medicine since 1932 and is the only pediatric trauma center in Southern California.

During her time on the hospital’s board of directors, beginning in 1947 and culminating in her election to the board presidency in 1970--a post she still held at her death--Mrs. Duque expanded women’s support groups to nearly 3,700 members serving in three dozen units in addition to the seven auxiliaries she found when she arrived.

She personally pursued the purchase of the latest in medical equipment while finding time to attend the baptisms and funerals of the hospital’s staff and their families, most of whom she considered friends.

She solicited funds from people ranging from those she barely knew to those she had known since birth.

Her late brother, Harold McAlister, was responsible for a single gift valued at $11 million.

Dr. Richard Call, chairman of the hospital board, on Monday remembered Mrs. Duque as “a driving force behind the unprecedented growth of Childrens Hospital. . . . Mary was a rare human being with a special capacity for giving and a unique ability to inspire it in others.”

H. Russell Smith, an industrialist and chairman emeritus of the hospital board, described her simply as the “greatest giver of the opportunity to give by others in the history of Los Angeles. She built Childrens Hospital.”

Mrs. Duque (pronounced Du-kee), always skittish about her exact age, brought toys to patients, helped bring the hospital back from the brink of bankruptcy in 1980 and, almost until her death, visited the hospital daily.

In the mornings she greeted the nursing staff with “Good morning, darling girls,” and left at night saying “Goodby, darling girls.”

Friends were in awe of her cheerful energy and said she spoke in “triplicate,” saying “thank you, thank you, thank you” or “hello, hello, hello.”

On Sept. 26, 1973, the main building at the hospital at Sunset Boulevard and Vermont Avenue was named for her at a ceremony attended by hundreds of hospital staff, friends and admirers. In 1984, a Mary Duque Emeritus Endowment was started at the hospital, to honor its single greatest fund-raiser and to support teaching and research activities among the hospital’s department heads.

Born Mary McAlister to a banking family in St. Joseph, Mo., she came to Los Angeles as an infant, attended Westlake and Marlborough schools and then UC Berkeley and UCLA. She married attorney Gabriel C. Duque before graduating from college and had two sons, Gabriel Jr., who died in 1977, and James.

Mrs. Duque had earned honorary degrees and several awards, among them selection in 1951 as a Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year. In 1969 she became the first recipient of the Dorothy Chandler Achievement Award given to former Times Women of the Year who have risen to even greater heights in their volunteer or professional careers.

Asked many years ago how she had managed to raise such an enormous amount of money for a single cause, she disclaimed any special knowledge.

“If a child were lying injured in the street, everybody would rush to help, wouldn’t they?” she asked. “It’s the same here. Everyone wants to help. I just keep busy doing little things.”

Besides her son, Mrs. Duque, a widow, is survived by eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers her family is asking contributions to the Mary Duque Fund, Childrens Hospital, Box 29, 4650 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90027.