Beth Ann Mackey

Beth Ann Mason Mackey, a beloved educator, mother, and grandmother, died October 5 in Port Townsend, Washington. She was 87. Beth was easily and often moved by flowers, music, and literature. On rainy days, she focused on how much “the plants are loving this.” She had reams of poems memorized, and wrote many of her own, printing them off on cloud paper to read on special occasions. She loved to laugh and had an exuberant, sometimes surprising sense of humor.

Beth was born on September 11, 1939 in Mitchell, South Dakota to Charles and Loretta Mason. The tenth child in a family of twelve, Beth grew up in Gary, Indiana, where her mother, always with a baby on her hip, baked cinnamon rolls and bread each morning, and her father took her to watch local wrestling matches. She was involved in the a capella choir and intramural sports, and was voted Most Popular in her senior yearbook.

After graduating from Emerson High School, she studied education at Presentation Junior College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and wrote a column in the school newspaper called “Bits from BAM.” Her sister Phyllis was a nurse in Aberdeen, and introduced her to an orderly at the hospital, James Mackey. Jim would walk to her campus to recite Shakespearean sonnets to her and take her for drives in the countryside. After getting married in 1960, they moved back to Gary where they both took teaching jobs, and Beth had the rare pleasure of teaching her sister Sharon for 5th grade. There, Beth gave birth to Marisa and Stephen, and the family moved to Bloomington, Indiana where Beth and Jim pursued advanced degrees in education and made friends with people from all over the world. Jim joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where he taught teachers, while Beth taught schoolchildren at Marcy Open School. She implemented his theories, and he used her anecdotes to illustrate points to his graduate students. Theory and practice, literally married.

Beth taught Head-Start through 6th grade, and pioneered an open school program where students engaged in a flexible curriculum with nontraditional age groupings, and were encouraged to learn to think and make independent judgments. She was shop steward in the teachers’ union, volunteered for Democratic political campaigns, and wrote op-eds about causes dear to her heart. In 1974, a third child, Martin, was born. Beth later received an advanced degree in educational leadership and became a school principal at McKinley Elementary School. She cared for Jim from his cancer diagnosis until his death in 1991.

In August 1998, Beth moved to Washington state to be closer to her daughter Marisa and her family. That October, she attended an Elderhostel program at Fort Worden about the Pacific Northwest, writing, and Tai Chi. During a break, she asked the group if anyone had a copy of the day’s paper, and Stanley Goddard slid her two. They quickly fell in love, and Beth relocated to Port Townsend, where they were married at Trinity United Methodist Church in 2001.

In Port Townsend, Beth volunteered at the Jefferson County Historical Society, the Peninsula Dispute Resolution Center, and Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, tutored in local schools, sang in Trinity’s choir, and helped to start the church’s Candlelight Concert series. She and Stan could often be seen walking their chocolate lab, Cocoa, or dining at the Bayview Restaurant. Beth treasured gatherings with her family, organizing talent shows and pausing raucous dinner conversations to mark the moment with a toast. She believed deeply in the value of education, was a voracious reader, and never missed an opportunity to vote.

She is survived by her husband, Stanley; her children Marisa (Tim) and Stephen (Diane), daughter-in-law Jennifer; her grandchildren, Charlie (Vanessa), Andy (syd), James (Leigh), Liz, Billy, Elise, and Wyeth; her great-grandchild, Julian; her sister Sharon; and her stepfamily, Elizabeth, Sarah, Victoria, and Roger. She was preceded in death by her husband, James, and her son, Martin. A memorial service will be held on December 5 at 2:00 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church.