St. Clair County Obits

PHILIP ALEXANDER MacKAY, JR.

Clinton Daily Democrat
5 October 2000
Philip Alexander MacKay, Jr., 98, Lowry City, died October 4, 2000, at Truman Lake Manor in Lowry City. He was born in Winona, Illinois, on March 7, 1902, and was educated at the Melbourne (Australia) Grammar School; St. Paul's School, London, England, LaSalle-Peru High School, LaSalle, Illinois, Long Beach (California) High School and the University of California at Los Angeles.
After two years in Ireland, England and France he was employed by a heavy chemical manufacturer in Budget Budge, near Calcutta, India, for two years. In 1925, he became factory manager for Pycopany, Inc. in Joplin, where in 1926 he wed Kathleen Muenning. In 1930 he pioneered miniature golf in Sydney, Australia, and became a manufacturer's representative in the rural area of New South Wales. In March 1942 he was commissioned a first Lieutenant in the quartermaster Corps of the United States Army Forces in Australia, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. MacKay was later in charge of Quartermaster services Base Seven, Sydney; C.O. of Goodenough Island and was hospitalized home on VJ Day. He remained in the Reserves and retired as lieutenant colonel in 1957. In 1960, he became a member of Rotary Club 13 in Kansas City and upon retirement to Osceola in 1967 he was a past president and Paul Harris Fellow of the Osceola Rotary Club. He was a life member of the Heart of America Numismatic Association and past president and life member of the Midwest Numismatic Association. He was commander of VFW Post 7900 in 1949 and active in the Jackson County VFW Council. He was longtime adjutant of American Legion Post 618 and Quartermaster of the VFW Post 4197 of Osceola.
He is survived by two stepsons, James T. Childers, North Kansas City, and Herbert E. Childers and their children; a cousin, Mirian MacKay, Mesa, Arizona; two nephews, Dr. Timothy St. Leger Moss, Kempsey, Australia, and Donald E. MacKay, London, England. His only son, Philip III, was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1940 and died in 1943. His second wife, Elda Boone Childers, died in February 1990 and was buried in the Ft. Leavenworth National Cemetery. The Consalus Funeral Home of Clinton has placed his cremated remains with those of his wife.