Died - Friday, April 24, 2009       

LI's Mary Ann MacKay, nurse for 40 years, dies at 69

April 25, 2009 By RICK BRAND  rick.brand@newsday.com

Mary Ann MacKay, a registered nurse for more than four decades, most of them at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, has died after a two-year battle with pulmonary problems. She was 69. MacKay died at 1:30 p.m. Friday surrounded by family at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, where she had been a patient for the past month. During her career, MacKay worked as a nurse in hospitals in New York City and upstate but spent most of her career at Southside, where she worked from 1970 to 2001. During the final 18 years of her career, she specialized in care of psychiatric patients and was assistant head of the unit. "In her yearbook, they called her 'true blue' and she was absolutely loyal to a fault," said her son, Frank MacKay, state and Suffolk chairman of the Independence Party. "And because of that, she had hundreds of friends." He also said his mother believed strongly in keeping her word and living up to commitments. "A lot of that rubbed off on my brother and myself without question while growing up." Born in Chicago, MacKay was one of three children. Her family moved to New York City when she was a child and she went away to boarding school as a teenager, graduating from St. Cyril's Academy for Girls in Danville, Pa. She then graduated with a two-year degree in nursing from Queens College. After graduation she worked at several New York City hospitals for nine years. During that time she met her future husband, Joseph MacKay. The couple married in 1963 and had two sons. In the early 1970s, the family move to Long Island, first settling in North Babylon. MacKay started work at Southside in 1970. She and her husband divorced in 1983. In 1992, MacKay moved to Brentwood. While working, she also returned to school, getting a liberal arts degree from St. Joseph's College in Patchogue in 1995. In 2001, she moved to Rocky Point to be closer to her son Frank and a year later moved in with him and his family. Other survivors include son Gordon MacKay of Lakeville, Mass.; brother Alois Chmela of Larchmont; sister Carol Kosky of Massapequa Park; and five grandchildren. A wake will be Wednesday at Mangano Funeral Home in Deer Park from 2-5 p.m. and from 7-9:30 p.m. A memorial Mass will be said Thursday at 11:15 a.m. at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Roman Catholic Church in Deer Park. A private burial service is planned for later. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to Parents of Megan's Law, P.O. Box 145, Stony Brook, NY 11790.