Murray, Katie, 1897-1982

Margaret Catherine Murray was born on February 8, 1897, in Kenansville (Duplin County), N.C. Upon her mother's death in 1905, she went to live with her Uncle George and Aunt Louise in Rose Hill, N.C. In 1920 Miss Murray relinquished a high school teaching position to attend a Women's Missionary Union training school in Louisville, Kentucky. Two years later she traveled to Peking, China, to attend a foreign language school where she learned the Mandarin dialect. In 1927 she commenced her missionary career in Chengchow which served as the Southern Baptist Missionary base of operations for gospel work in the five counties of Honan Province. After a furlough in Rose Hill in 1936, she returned to Chengchow and was within a year caught up in the turmoil of the Sino-Japanese War. The war came to Chengchow on February 14, 1938, when the city experienced its first air raid. Soon Miss Murrary and her co-workers became actively involved with refugee relief work and remained so until 1944. Japanese aerial reconnaissance and bombardment continued and in April, 1939, Miss Murray narrowly escaped death during an air raid while visiting the outstation of Mi Hsien. On October 4, 1940, Japanese troops entered Chengchow but left within the month. Miss Murray continued her work until April, 1944, when the Japanese again threatened the city. She fled over the mountains to Sian; and, after reaching Chunking in late May, she flew to Calcutta en route to her home in North Carolina. In March of 1946, Miss Murray returned to China and resumed work in Honan Province. Two years later she was forced to flee by the advance of the Chinese Communists and she settled in Kwangsi Province. The Chinese Communists entered Kweilin (Kwangsi Province), in January of 1950. Miss Murray left the Chinese mainland for the third and final time in October, 1950. She returned to the Orient in 1954 and completed her last years of missionary service on Taiwan in 1959.