Eleanor Mackey Ferguson passed away June 30, 2010, at Foxdale Village, due to complications from a stroke. She was 89.
She was born in Hutchinson, Kan. on May 13, 1921, and graduated from Hutchinson High School. Her father, Mahlon Long Ely, was in the real estate business. Her mother, Mary Wolcott Ely, was from a well-known family in Hutchinson. Eleanor was an English major at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., graduating in 1942. There she was a very active member of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority.
After working for a year for the Signal Corps of the War Department in Arlington, Va., she married David R. Mackey, of Oklahoma City, who was in Naval Air Corps training. She then followed him to eight naval air stations, ending in Pensacola, Fla. for training to go overseas. At that time the war ended, and David began to finish college work on the GI Bill at Northwestern University's School of Speech, Evanston Ill. Eleanor was assistant registrar in the Speech Department. After two years at the University of Texas, they returned to Northwestern for David's Ph.D work.
Their first son, Douglas, was born in Evanston in 1947; daughter Marilyn in Austin, Texas in 1949. Some of their happiest years were in State College from 1951-1957, when David was an assistant professor in the speech department at Penn State University. It was here that Martha was born in 1953 and Rob in 1957. From 1953-1956 David served as Burgess of State College and promoted radio broadcasting at Penn State (WDFM).
The next move was to Wellesley Mass., where David, (now a Ph.D) was full professor and head of Radio, TV and film at Boston University for four years. In 1961, they returned to Hutchinson, Kan., where he became part-owner and manager of radio station KWHK, later adding KTRC in Santa Fe, N.M. and KBHS in Hot Springs, Ark. During that time, David served as a City Commissioner and Mayor of Hutchinson before his death from a brain tumor in 1975.
In addition to being a wife and mother, Eleanor was active in PTA and the League of Women Voters, the United Nations Association, American Field Service, the Mental Health Association Board, and later in Public Library work in Hutchinson.
They had several foreign students in their home – one an American Field Service student from Belgium for a school year. Eleanor returned to live in State College in 1977, when she married her second husband, widower Dr. John H. Ferguson, who had retired from teaching after 34 years at Penn State in the Political Science Department. During her 20 year marriage to John, Eleanor enjoyed traveling, being a member of State College Friends Meeting, and volunteering at Schlow Library and Rockview Prison. John also introduced Eleanor to the joys of the New Jersey shore, where he owned a house near the beach. John died in 1997. Eleanor and John were among the earliest residents of Foxdale Village, moving in during March, 1989. Eleanor was active in many areas of Foxdale Village, including serving as President of the Residents Association, and five years on the Future of Foxdale Committee.
Eleanor always loved poetry, both reading and writing it, and has had several poems published. She enjoyed the Friends Book Group, bridge, exercise class, and movies. Both swimming and dancing were lifelong hobbies, and she was passionate about reading, politics, prison reform, international relations, crossword puzzles, and Scrabble. She had close relationships with several foreign students who attended Penn State, and she enjoyed being their American "mother".
Eleanor was preceded in death by her brother, Wolcott Ely, of Taos, N.M. who died in 2004. Survivors include four children, Douglas A. Mackey and wife, Sally Henderson, of Fairfield Iowa, Marilyn Sutherland and husband, Mac, of Fairfield, Iowa; Martha Slater Farrell and husband, Jim, of Andover, Kan., Robert J. Mackey and wife, Shirley, of Alexandria, Va.; three grandchildren, Ryan David Mackey and wife, Allison, Lacey Mackey, and Michael David Sutherland; two nieces, Dora Ely Randall and Nanette Ely Davies; former daughter-in-law, Laurie Ward; three stepchildren, Rachel Ferguson Rider, David Ferguson and Richard Ferguson, and their families; and all of her Foxdale Village friends. The family is grateful to the entire staff of Foxdale for their kind and devoted care to Eleanor.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, July 2, 2010, in the Foxdale Village in the Auditorium. Cremation and arrangements by Koch Funeral Home, State College; Burial of ashes will be at Memorial Park Cemetery in Hutchinson, Kan. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to Foxdale Community Fund or Foxdale Employees Assistance Fund.