She was born in Onaga, Kansas on December 23, 1922, the daughter of the late Mitchell and Opal Tessendorf. She was a graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in Dietetics and Institutional Management.
Through the years, Tess found volunteer opportunities wherever she lived. When her children were young, she worked in the school library, as a Camp Fire leader, and as a Sunday school teacher. She was very active with the Women’s Association at the Union Church in Waban, MA, becoming famous for her “melt-in-your-mouth” apple pies, which commanded high bids at silent auctions, and which she also shared with friends in the Keene area when she and her husband George were living in Spofford.
She was a devoted wife of the late Dr. George E. MacDonald of Zellwood, FL and Spofford, NH; loving mother of David of Spofford, NH, James and his wife, Judy, of Natick, MA, Susan Roy and her husband, Dennis, of Park City, UT, and Jean of Jamaica Plain, MA; grandmother of Emily Carter of Salt Lake City, UT, Jonathan Roy of Peoria, AZ, Jenna O’Connell, of Dedham, MA, James MacDonald of Los Angeles, CA; and great-grandmother of Joseph and Henry Carter, and Alice O’Connell.
A memorial service will be held on June 15, 2019 at 10:30am at the Union Church in Waban, 14 Collins Road, Waban, MA. Relatives and friends are kindly invited. Interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Union Church in Waban.
