John Joseph Mackey

John Joseph Mackey was born in Boston, MA on May 18, 1917 and died in Georgetown, TX on July 30th, 2022 at 105 years of age. His parents were John Mackey and Mary A. Connolly who emigrated from Ireland. Unfortunately his mother died of influenza a year after his birth. John was sent back to Ireland for the first seven years of his life to live in Queenstown Ireland with his grandmother. He was returned to Boston at age seven to be raised by his father and other relatives. He had one sister, Alice Mackey. He grew up in this Irish Catholic family and graduated from Mechanic Arts High School in Boston.

John joined the US Navy in 1935 working toward ultimate admission to Annapolis. When he finished his commitment to the Navy in 1939, he was slightly too old to qualify for Annapolis.

He volunteered with the US Army Air Corps instead in 1940. After completing the Air Cadet training program, most of his unit was sent to the Pacific in Hawaii. An auto accident kept him from going. When he recovered, he was assigned to an anti-submarine unit based in Langley in Virginia. He became a pilot of primarily B -17s in the Atlantic, chasing German subs that were trying to destroy supply ships going to Britain. His unit would fly up and down the Atlantic to help protect the ships. The 91st anti-sub unit was always a threat to the subs. They ultimately withdrew as huge US Navy convoys accompanied the supply ships going to Britain.

John served until the end of World War Two in 1945. He went on terminal leave and completed his BA at UC Berkeley. He went back to active duty in the US Army air force in 1948 and returned with his family of a wife and child to Barksdale Air Base in Shreveport, La.

In 1948, the US Air Force became a separate unit and John became a captain in the USAF.

By 1952, when the Korean War developed, John was newly trained as a jet pilot. He was sent to Korea in the Fall of 1952 flying a three-crew RB45. His unit was based in Yakota AFB near Tokyo.

When he completed his mission in 1952, he was promoted to the rank of Major. He continued to fly TDYs to England, Norway, North Africa and other areas in the RB45s as well as locations in the US. He was based more frequently in Shreveport, LA and Montgomery, AL until he retired from twenty years of service in November 1958.

John returned to the Univ. of California primarily in Berkeley, CA and partly to UCLA to earn an MA in English. He taught high school English for about ten or fifteen years in Livermore, CA and in the continuation high school for the Livermore school district.

He became a commercial photographer in business for himself and took family and wedding portraits for about ten or more years. He bought a home in Alamo, CA and spent a number of years rebuilding this home until the early 1980s when he retired.

John was a resident of Sun City Georgetown, TX, with his wife, Marilyn L Mackey, since November 2007. They moved from Alamo, CA where they had resided for over 50 years.

He has left his wife, Marilyn Liddell Mackey; his two daughters, Lynda Lea Mackey Wilson, and Diana Mackey Gibson. He and Marilyn had a son, John Liddell Mackey, 1956 – 1983. John leaves ten grandchildren with eight living; and twenty great grandchildren (to become twenty three by the end of 2022).

He will be buried in the Alamo, California Cemetery next to his son’s grave and that of his wife, Marilyn, when she passes on.

John was a veteran of two major US wars.

John was loved and admired by all his family. He will be sorely missed. MLM