Shirley Daphine Mackey's Obituary
Shirley Mackey, 96 years old, passed away peacefully at home on Thursday, August 17, 2023. Shirley was born in Beaumont, Texas on August 1, 1927, the fourth child of Joseph R. and Natalie Mackey. She and her family rode the train from Beaumont to Longview in 1934 where her mother opened a beauty shop and her father worked as the superintendent of the Cummer-Graham Basket Factory. They settled on Green Street in Longview which became the center of multi-generation family fun for many years.
Shirley was a graduate of Longview High School and attended Kilgore College, where she was a member of the Kilgore Rangerettes during the war years. The Rangerette outfit was the same as now, but the skirt was a little bit longer then. She was an independent, smart, strong, career woman long before the women’s movement. In her fifties she decided she wanted to learn to fly, earned her private pilot’s license, and could be seen flying at the Gregg County airport. Shirley was the original accountant for the Louis Morgan Drugstores and was part owner of some of the stores before she retired in her seventies.
Shirley was keeper of the family history and produced a book cherished by all the family filled with photographs and family lore. In her retirement years she enjoyed volunteering with her sisters at Good Shepherd and did not hang up her pink lady outfit until she was 93. She loved her long succession of dogs and named the latest one, a miniature schnauzer, Sully after the hero pilot Sully Sullenberger. She had many close friends and greatly enjoyed her supper group of foodies.
She remained single but loved and enjoyed many of the family children. She was the legal guardian and “mother” to the great loves of her life, her great niece and nephew, Kim Lindsay, and Joey Lindsay (Shannon).
Shirley was preceded in death by her parents and her brothers, Jack D. Mackey and Joe R. (Mickey) Mackey, and her sisters, Daronda Lindsay, and Norma Jean McCulloch. Nephews Michael Lindsay and Pat Lindsay.
She is survived by her nieces Jeanne Wesley (Al Durante), Carole Ann Watts (Joe), and Lisa Mackey. Her surviving nephews include Mark McCulloch, Joseph Rufus Mackey III (Jo Ellen). She will be greatly missed by the many great great-great nieces, great-great nephews, including Shelby Jo Lindsay and Corey Evans, extended family members, and a wonderful lifetime of friends. Special thanks to her cherished caregivers Rhonda Burns, Angie Hollis, Winter Harper and Shirley’s good friend Susan Netecke.
Rader Funeral Home will host a visitation at 10 am, August 25, 2023, with a service following at 11 am.
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