In Memory Of...
The New York Times was not sitting beside the Boston Globe when we pulled ourselves out of bed late this morning. We are a two paper family. With only one paper to fill my coffee time, I read almost every word.
The obituary page had a 1/8 page picture of a young woman lying in a pumpkin patch. Her light colored hair, about shoulder length, was mostly straight with a touch of wave. She looked directly at the camera. She was beautiful and fully engaged. Her eyes were clear and smart. At the age of 39, this young woman was dead. Her cause of death: breast cancer.
I did not know her. But her story touched me, and so I am posting it here, in her honor:
Karen MacKay, 39; cartoonist noted for Vineyard calendar
By Tom Long, Globe Staff August 20, 2005
Karen MacKay was a cartoonist whose offbeat view of offshore life was illustrated in the 2005 Vineyard Wilderness Calendar. ''She had a very oblique way of looking at the world, " Douglas Cabral, editor of the Martha's Vineyard Times, said yesterday of Mrs. MacKay, who died of breast cancer last Saturday in her home in West Tisbury. She was 39.
Mrs. MacKay was Web manager of the Vineyard Times, as well as a writer and cartoonist for the weekly newspaper. Her cartoons celebrated the bizarre, such as an imaginary inn with special rates for relatives and surcharges for unexpected guests, and the Hopeful Diner, upon which the sun always shines. Cabral said her work was best illustrated by a cartoon called ''Affordable Lots," featuring a selection of cemetery plots, that lampooned the high price of island real estate. ''That cartoon shows how different she was," he said. ''Her humor snuck up on you and sometimes you were shocked when you found yourself laughing."
Karen (MacDowell) MacKay grew up in Rochester, N.Y. She received two bachelor's degrees -- one in illustration and painting and one in graphic design -- at the Rochester Institute of Technology, a master's degree in library science at the University of Buffalo, and a master's degree in fine art at Goddard College.''She was a fine painter, technical writer, and computer wiz," her husband, Jack, said yesterday. ''She figured if she had three or four things she could do, she could find work at the drop of a hat."
A quiet, self-effacing woman, Mrs. MacKay was a technical writer for Xerox Corp. for several years and assistant director of the Oak Bluffs Library for a year before joining the Martha's Vineyard Times staff two years ago.''She had a roving mind and was curious about life, " said her husband.''She was constantly reading and writing novels, poems, and stories."And she was a wonderful storyteller. ''She had a way of describing ordinary experiences with an unusual twist that made them sound like fairy tales," Amy Simcik Williams, online and supplements editor of the Martha's Vineyard Times, said yesterday. Williams said Mrs. MacKay's stories and infectious giggle enlivened the newsroom.
Last year Mrs. MacKay produced the Vineyard Wilderness Calendar, which features her cartoons.The calendar is subtitled ''12 Months of Living Local on Processed Insights."In the introduction to the calendar, she claimed to be puzzled at how she entered the cartoon business. " I don't know how I got into this," she wrote. ''One moment I was a realist portrait painter and the next I was drawing EZ Bake ovens and space trash."She said she drew her first cartoon in 1988 as a student at Rochester Institute while working part time renovating a farmhouse, rehabilitating two abandoned horses, and eating a lot of Pop Tarts.
When a friend suggested she break for lunch, they went to Burger King and her hamburger arrived without a bun. The incident inspired Mrs. MacKay to create a series of cartoons called, ''What really Happened: The Burger with No Buns." When she showed the illustrations to an art professor, he told her they were the most dangerous ideas she had had in a long time. ''I'm still not sure what he meant," she wrote in the introduction to her calendar, ''but stay away from fast food."
In addition to her husband, Mrs. MacKay leaves her parents, Kay and Ewald Schneider; and two sisters, Beth and Debbie.
A memorial service is being planned.
The obituary page had a 1/8 page picture of a young woman lying in a pumpkin patch. Her light colored hair, about shoulder length, was mostly straight with a touch of wave. She looked directly at the camera. She was beautiful and fully engaged. Her eyes were clear and smart. At the age of 39, this young woman was dead. Her cause of death: breast cancer.
I did not know her. But her story touched me, and so I am posting it here, in her honor:
Karen MacKay, 39; cartoonist noted for Vineyard calendar
By Tom Long, Globe Staff August 20, 2005
Karen MacKay was a cartoonist whose offbeat view of offshore life was illustrated in the 2005 Vineyard Wilderness Calendar. ''She had a very oblique way of looking at the world, " Douglas Cabral, editor of the Martha's Vineyard Times, said yesterday of Mrs. MacKay, who died of breast cancer last Saturday in her home in West Tisbury. She was 39.
Mrs. MacKay was Web manager of the Vineyard Times, as well as a writer and cartoonist for the weekly newspaper. Her cartoons celebrated the bizarre, such as an imaginary inn with special rates for relatives and surcharges for unexpected guests, and the Hopeful Diner, upon which the sun always shines. Cabral said her work was best illustrated by a cartoon called ''Affordable Lots," featuring a selection of cemetery plots, that lampooned the high price of island real estate. ''That cartoon shows how different she was," he said. ''Her humor snuck up on you and sometimes you were shocked when you found yourself laughing."
Karen (MacDowell) MacKay grew up in Rochester, N.Y. She received two bachelor's degrees -- one in illustration and painting and one in graphic design -- at the Rochester Institute of Technology, a master's degree in library science at the University of Buffalo, and a master's degree in fine art at Goddard College.''She was a fine painter, technical writer, and computer wiz," her husband, Jack, said yesterday. ''She figured if she had three or four things she could do, she could find work at the drop of a hat."
A quiet, self-effacing woman, Mrs. MacKay was a technical writer for Xerox Corp. for several years and assistant director of the Oak Bluffs Library for a year before joining the Martha's Vineyard Times staff two years ago.''She had a roving mind and was curious about life, " said her husband.''She was constantly reading and writing novels, poems, and stories."And she was a wonderful storyteller. ''She had a way of describing ordinary experiences with an unusual twist that made them sound like fairy tales," Amy Simcik Williams, online and supplements editor of the Martha's Vineyard Times, said yesterday. Williams said Mrs. MacKay's stories and infectious giggle enlivened the newsroom.
Last year Mrs. MacKay produced the Vineyard Wilderness Calendar, which features her cartoons.The calendar is subtitled ''12 Months of Living Local on Processed Insights."In the introduction to the calendar, she claimed to be puzzled at how she entered the cartoon business. " I don't know how I got into this," she wrote. ''One moment I was a realist portrait painter and the next I was drawing EZ Bake ovens and space trash."She said she drew her first cartoon in 1988 as a student at Rochester Institute while working part time renovating a farmhouse, rehabilitating two abandoned horses, and eating a lot of Pop Tarts.
When a friend suggested she break for lunch, they went to Burger King and her hamburger arrived without a bun. The incident inspired Mrs. MacKay to create a series of cartoons called, ''What really Happened: The Burger with No Buns." When she showed the illustrations to an art professor, he told her they were the most dangerous ideas she had had in a long time. ''I'm still not sure what he meant," she wrote in the introduction to her calendar, ''but stay away from fast food."
In addition to her husband, Mrs. MacKay leaves her parents, Kay and Ewald Schneider; and two sisters, Beth and Debbie.
A memorial service is being planned.
posted by *susan* at
10:34 AM
4 Comments:
I could only read a little of this, because I can only take a little of it. I know the statistics, and I continue to believe that I will come out on top and celebrate my 100th birthday surrounded by my family. However, the idea that someone so young, vibrant and talented can die from this disease reminds me that... well, it reminds me that I can't keep reading. The possibilities are impossible. Who am I fooling? Probably nobody but myself, but that works!
By
Kristina, at 11:13 AM
Susan,
I'm really touched that you posted my dear friend Karen's obituary on your blog. Sometimes late at night I'll google Karen's name in her various forms to see what kind of footprints she has left on the net. It's almost like a faint glow, a little glimmer, a reminder of what she has left behind to touch our souls. Karen was a star that burned very brightly, intensely that are the hurried wishes of a child dreamed ever so briefly. I am the friend who discovered the burger without buns with her.
Thank-you.
Jonathan
By
Anonymous, at 2:07 AM
ps. kaptjon@optonline.net
By
Anonymous, at 2:10 AM
I learned by random google search just now that the brilliant energy of Karen Sue is no more. I am in shock. I had imagined a wonderful, celebrated, literary life for this woman I had lost track of. I was married to Karen briefly in the early 1990's and although we divorced, she remained a woman I never ceased to admire her. The world has lost a wonderful interpreter of its cast of characters.
RIP, storyteller.
Franklin (Frank) N. Bassett
By
Franklin Bassett, at 9:24 PM
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