Shirley M. (Booth) (Mackey) MacDonald died August 20, 2007 after a short battle with cancer.
Born to Raymond L. Booth and Mildred C. Blair on October 24, 1932 at Tewksbury State Hospital in Tewksbury, MA, she spent her childhood summers socializing on Silver Lake in Wilmington.
She met her high school sweetheart at the Tewksbury / Wilmington Thanksgiving football game. She was a cheerleader for Tewksbury and he a Wilmington football player. She graduated from Tewksbury High School in 1950 and went on to marry that football player, James E. Mackey of Wilmington on September 16, 1950 at Saint William’s Church in Tewksbury. They set up a home in Boston but came back to Tewksbury to raise their six kids.
The family home on Edgewood Road had a constant flurry of activity - the door was always open and all were welcome. She took in foster children helped many that were down on their luck and in need of a loving home, home cooked meals and a comfortable, loving place to rest their head.
Shirley worked for decades as a waitress at the Tewksbury Inn, where she built countless loving and lasting relationships and fell in love with her second husband, Edward D. MacDonald, who she married on June 17, 1977. She went on to work at Purity Supreme Headquarters in Billerica for many years as well.
She enjoyed her bowling nights with her girlfriends, going dancing, playing bingo, and many New England getaways with her friends. Her favorite get-away, by far, was East Shore Beach in Naples, Maine, where she spent her summers with her husband, children, grandchildren and three generations of her friends’ families, mostly from Tewksbury and Wilmington. She cherished visiting her daughter at her home in Las Vegas and their many trips to Hawaii and Mazatlán.
Her love of New England and its lakes stayed with her throughout her life and she spent all her summers on them – in addition to East Shore Beach, she spent a decade of summers at Salmon Point Campground, also on Long Lake, until her husband passed in 2003. Her recent summers were spent at her son’s summer home on Suncook Lake in Barnstead, NH with her children, grandchildren and wonderful friends and neighbors.
She leaves behind too many broken hearts to count, but all will eventually mend by way of our wonderful memories of her.
Shirley is survived by six children, James Mackey of Las Vegas, NV, Diane Mackey of Lowell, Donna Mackey, Robert Mackey and his wife Debra, and Maureen Mackey all of Tewksbury, and Michael Mackey and his wife Debra of Methuen; nine grandchildren, Sean and Jay Mackey, Roy Fabila, Justin and Jason Mackey, Peter Shelzi, Kelan, Ryan and Aiden Mackey; three great grandchildren, Ashley, Allison and Emily of Las Vegas, NV; one brother, Robert Booth and his wife Hilde of Virginia; two step-children, Edward MacDonald and Maureen Mann.
She was the sister of the late Donald Booth.
A Funeral Mass Celebrating Shirley’s Life was held Friday, August 24th, at St. William’s Church, Tewksbury.
If you care to make a donation in her honor, her favorite charity was St. Jude Children's Research
Hospital.