Born: c. 1938
Died:
Married: Dr. Harry C. de Valinger (died, 1965)
Children:
Joyce Durgan was a figure skater.
Lake Placid News, February 10, 1950
JOYCE DURGAN ANNEXES TITLE IN NORTH AMERICANS
Wins Midget Class; Familiar Here As Figure Skater
Joyce Durgan, 11, who won the midget class championship in the North American at Pittsfield, Mass. last weekend, is well known to skating fans in Lake Placid as Princess of Coronation.
Petite and blond, always costumed in white and gold, she has appeared each year since she started skating at Lowell Thomas' Crowning of the King and Queen of Winter at Lake Placid's winter carnival. She is a member of the Lake Placid Figure Skating Club, runner-up senior ladies champion winning the title in 1948 at the age of nine while competing with teen-age girls of the summer school.
Joyce is also senior pair dance champion of 1949, Lake Placid Club meet, holding the honor with Mr. Putrin of Lake Placid in the fourteen-step. At the Eastern States Figure Skating competitions held here in February, 1948, she surprised judges by placing first in figures and third in the finals. She was one of the youngest skaters in North America to pass the second figure skating test, the day before her eighth birthday at Brooklyn before nationally known judges. She passed her third figure some time later. Appearing in many news reels, Joyce was featured as the “Belle of the Blades” in 20th Century Fox’ technicolor “Winter Holiday.” Dance Magazine, August 1943, contained a picture of tiny Joyce at the age of four being helped with her first steps on arena ice by Jack Garren. The following year she started lessons with Gus Lussi, famous pro of Olympic and world champions. She attribates much of her success as one of the North American outdoor speed skating champions, the highest goal obtainable in speed skating outside of the Olympics, to the strength and poise she gained from her figure skating lessons under the direction of Mr. Lussi.
Lake Placid News, July 13, 1951
JOYCE DURGAN ADDS MUSIC AWARDS TO HER SKATING HONORS
Miss Joyce Durgan, member of the Lake Placid Figure Skating Club has added new laurels to her career, this time in the field of music. She has just been notified by Edward French, state counselor, that she will receive a gold award and certificate rating excellent from the National Federation of Music clubs for her audition of two piano solos played in Albany under the auspices of the Albany Conservitory of Musical Art.
Joyce, a piano student of Mrs. Joseph Boland, played a tenth-grade piece, Toronto Conservatory edition, by Bach: Gigue in E. major from the French Suite No. 6 and the Scherzo Humoristique Le Chet et la Souris by Aaron Copeland. Mrs. Charles Stokes, formerly associated with the Deerwood Adirondack Music School and the Curtis Institute and now with the music department of Albany State Teachers College, was one of the judicators.
The award is the second honor in music received by Miss Durgan this spring. She was the only girl of the 35 piano students competing to win top rating in the New York State auditions at Potsdam.
Miss Durgan, whose home is at Lake Clear, after spending two weeks at the Eagle Island camp for girls, has returned to join the Lake Placid ice skating summer school at the arena where she will continue her figure skating under the tutelage of Robin Scott and ice dancing with Walter (Red) Bainbridge as professional. She is also resuming her study of piano with lessons by Carl Lamson during his summer stay at Lake Placid Club.
Well known to Northern New York skating fans as well as nationally still holding her North American speed skating title, Joyce added two trophies and titles to her diversified collection by winning the 1951 senior ladies figure skating crowns of the New York High School competitions and the Lake Placid Club competition, making a total of more than 50 trophies and medals won in sports and music. She has been featured in an article in the American Girl, a magazine of world-wide circulation and as a result has received mail from as : far away as Tagbilaran, Bohol, one of the smaller of the Phillipine islands. Judging from the letters received from all parts of the world and a part of a newsreel cut from a film sent from a foreign country, she has done much to advertise the Adirondacks as a sports center.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, April 9, 1953
Miss Joyce Durgan To Appear on Radio
Miss Joyce Durgan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold S. Durgan, of Lake Clear rd., will play a piano solo on the Paul Whiteman Teen-Age Club over station WABC Tuesday evening at 8:30 o'clock.
Joyce accompanied her father on a business trip to New York City by plane Monday and is stopping at the Hotel Roosevelt, where she will be joined by her mother Sunday evening.
A pupil of Mrs. Joseph Boland, of Saranac Lake, Joyce will appear at the piano on television during the summer and will also do a figure skating number.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 27, 1955
Miss Joyce Durgan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Durgan, of the Lake Clear rd.. has entered Smith College for her freshman year and hopes to major in music and study abroad in her junior year. Miss Durgan attended Graham Eekes private boarding school in Palm Beach, Fla., during her junior year of high school and was graduated in June cum laude from Northwood School in Lake Placid where she was pipe organist at the Lake Placid Club chapel during the school year. Joyce has auditioned and been accepted for the Smith choir. She lives at Northrop House on campus.
Lake Placid News, July 8, 1960
Mrs. Joyce Durgan deValinger, who returns to Lake Placid each summer for the gold ice dance sessions at the Arena, has been initiated into Mu Phi Epsilon, Phi Mu chapter.
Mrs. deValinger, now a resident of Los Angeles, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Durgan of the Lake Clear Road. She is a June graduate of the University of California. Requirements for Mu Phil Epsilon are a "B" average for four years of college studies, in addition to being a talented musician.
