Mary Louise McKenzie

Mary Louise McKenzie
Nov 8, 1936 – Dec 3, 2018
Mary Louise (Davis) McKenzie, born in Keyser, West Virginia, passed away peacefully on December 3rd at the age of 82. She is survived by her husband, Bernard Earl McKenzie, daughter Lisa (David) Callahan, and son Matthew (Amy) McKenzie. She was a devoted Grandmother to her four grandchildren, Lily Callahan, Hunter McKenzie, Ethan McKenzie, and Raymond Callahan. She was preceded in death by her mother Doris Anastasia Davis, father Dwight W. Davis, sisters Janice Bosley, Betty Lee (James) Scott, and brothers Forrest (Barbara) Davis, Patrick Joseph (Merrie Lou) Davis, and William (Martha) Davis.
Mary Lou was in training to be a registered nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital in Cumberland, Maryland, when a friend told her she should meet the patient in a certain room. His name was Bernard Earl McKenzie. Mary Lou and Bernie were sweethearts for several years before they began a marriage, spanning 57 years, at the Church of the Assumption in Keyser, West Virginia. Their marriage set the bar high as a shining example of partnership, hard work, love, laughter, and mutual respect.
Bernie and Mary Lou moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1965. They raised their children in Utah, alongside dozens of other transferees from ABL (Allegany Ballistics Laboratory) in West Virginia near Cumberland, to Hercules (now Northrop Grumman) in Magna, Utah. They lived their lives to the fullest, exemplifying the high value they placed in their faith, family, and friends.
Geography was never a barrier to Mary Lou’s keeping track of and in touch with family and friends scattered across the United States. She was the glue that kept the family together. Even though she retired from caring for others as a Registered Nurse soon after the birth of her first child, Mary Lou never stopped caring for her immediate/extended family and friends in a manner that was second to none in the devotion and dedication she demonstrated every day in countless ways. She became the “nurse” who applied band-aids to the damaged skin of neighborhood young children. Her beauty that showed on the outside was only outshone by the beauty inside her heart.
Mary Lou spent most of her time helping others, and in her spare time enjoyed making the world a more beautiful place by planting/cultivating countless colorful flowers in many home gardens that flourished over the years. She will be dearly missed, but the seeds of love she planted in our hearts will grow and bloom forever. Rest in peace, beloved daughter, sister, wife, aunt, mother, grandmother and best friend.
A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on December 15, 2018 at 10:00am at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 3015 East Creek Road, Sandy. A celebration of life reception will follow immediately after. Interment will be at Mt Calvary Cemetery, 4th Avenue and “T” Street, Salt Lake City, after the reception.
Arrangements entrusted to Starks Funeral Parlor.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Mary Lou’s name.