MRS JESSIE MACKAY

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 2

MRS JESSIE MACKAY

Work For Heritage Praised A tribute to Mrs Jessie Mackey for 15 years of uninterrupted and devoted work for widows and children of servicemen who lost their lives in and through the war was paid at the monthly meeting of the executive of Heritage (Canterbury). Mrs Mackay’s recent death, said the president' (Mr J. Stewart), had been a severe personal loss to many hundreds of fatherless children and from 200 to 300 war widows in this district. He could think of no-one who had given'so greatly of her willing services for the welfare of the less fortunate members of the community. Mrs Mackay had been appointed official visitor to Heritage in 1947, said Mr Stewart, when it became obvious that many Heritage cases needed the sympathetic guidance and confidence that only a woman could provide. From that time on her ‘ friendly care had become a by-word not only with Canterbury Heritage families, I but with all other branches 1 throughout New Zealand which adffiired the work she was doing in Canterbury and the West Coast At many annual meetings of the New Zealand body Mrs Mackay had impressed delegates with the sincerity of her feelings for the widows and children and had made Canterbury the envy of the rest of New Zealand. In her passing, said Mr Stewart, innumerable families felt ■ a sense of personal bereave-