Jabez Jackson MacLaughlin

Jay was the son of long-time Missouri families. Both of his parents had grown up in Kansas City. He went to Border Star School, attended Southwest High School for a couple of years, and went up to Faribault, Minnesota where he graduated from the Shattuck School. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. His grandfather and namesake had been a well-known surgeon and he studied zoology thinking he might want to become a surgeon as well. In later life, he suggested that perhaps he had enjoyed school a bit too much while a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and never followed that path.

He worked most of his life in the advertising specialties business. Originally working for his father and uncle in the Harley J Scott Company which they had purchased, he and his cousin Bill later owned and ran the company, renamed MacLaughlin & Co. They sold it in the 1980s and he continued in the industry himself with a handful of salespeople in a business named Jaymac Advertising Specialties. It would be fair to say that he never particularly liked the business and his avocations were a more important part of his life.

Jay enjoyed photography to the point of having built a dark room years ago and left a large number of slides and photographs as a legacy. He got into gourmet cooking with Julia Child in the 1960s and retained an interest in cooking until he passed. Later on, his chief interests were history and travel. He was an active student of Spanish and German, seeking opportunities to travel to expand his knowledge. He was very proud when he hiked the Inca Trail while in his sixties. He was a loyal member of El Club Interamericano and once served as president of the former University Club.

Jay married Joanna Mitchell in 1955 and they remained married until she passed away in 2013. Together they had two children, Jim MacLaughlin and Virginia McCoskrie and then four grandchildren, Brian McCoskrie, Cara MacLaughlin, Robert McCoskrie, and Ansel MacLaughlin. Virginia and her husband, Whit McCoskrie, live in Fulton Missouri. He developed an especially close relationship with his daughter-in-law, Corinne Corley, who immeasurably helped him and his wife Joanna, in their later years.

Jay enjoyed the friendship of persons from the Kansas City area and around the world. He remained in correspondence with many whom he met in his travels. His friends enriched his life as he enriched theirs.

Services will be private.