Alice P. MacMackin

Alice Peters MacMackin died at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in Oak Bluffs on Saturday, June 13. She was 89.

Born in Worcester, she spent her early years in the small town of Grafton, attending school in the brick schoolhouse across the street from her home, and spending summers in Brewster on Cape Cod. A highlight of her childhood was the filming of Ah, Wilderness in Grafton, with all the Peters children making cameo appearances. She attended Oak Grove Seminary, a Quaker boarding school for girls in Vassalboro, Me., during her high school years, where she received an excellent education and assorted demerits. (“Alice, thee knows a lady does not whistle!”)

College education was at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, N.C., where she studied sociology and psychology. During summers she worked at a Quaker hotel in the Catskills, Wildmere, and at a settlement house in Philadelphia. Following graduation she worked in Providence for the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

In 1941 she met Stuart MacMackin, a young lawyer, at a Quaker gathering in Worcester, and they married in October, 1942. At first they lived in New York where he worked for Cadwallader, Wickersham and Taft. Tiring of city life, Stuart took a job with the General Electric Company, and there started a corporate life for them with frequent moves between New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. During those years Alice devoted herself to her family and making a loving home. When her children were grown, she was able to devote more time to her political interests and Planned Parenthood.

During all the corporate moves, the Vineyard had remained as the family vacation anchor, and Alice and Stuart moved to the Island permanently in 1980. Upon Stuart’s death in 1983, Alice continued to maintain a welcoming home for family and friends. Throughout her life her great beauty, generosity and graciousness were matched by candid assessments of politics, local and global, and a most lively sense of humor.

The caregivers at Windemere and her own special Team Alice, all of whom are considered honorary family members, made her last years comfortable and full of fun.

She is survived by her sister, Virginia Wilson; her daughter Cynthia Meisner, and her sons, Eerik (and Dorothea) Meisner and Ian (and Yasuyo) Meisner; her daughter Janet (and Jim) Wansack, and their children, Andy (and Tracy) Wansack, Heather (and Sean) Schaller, and Karen (and Mark) Bertulli; six great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson.

A memorial service is planned for mid-summer. Arrangements are under the care of Chapman, Cole and Gleason in Oak Bluffs.