Emma Kathleen O’Neill MacInnes

MacInnesEmma Kathleen O’Neill MacInnes, 97, on March 30, 2018, in Newtown, Pa. Kay was born on May 26, 1920, in Philadelphia, Pa., to Mildred Tiel and William Charles O’Neill. After graduating from Abington Friends School, she attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (now the University of the Arts) and earned a history degree at Pennsylvania State University. She taught history at Abington Friends School, and in 1942 married David Fenton MacInnes. Kay and David joined Abington (Pa.) Meeting in 1953. She began Abington Meeting’s Quakerism classes for new members, ran the First-day school program, and co-founded the Firbank Fell study group. She also served on the board of Pendle Hill study center in Wallingford, Pa.

Living in Meadowbrook, Pa., and then in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., she made her gracious homes a refuge and comfort for a wide network of family, foster children, and friends, who also will fondly remember summers spent at the family cottage at Spray Beach, N.J., and later in Jamestown, R.I. She was focused on children and was a leader and creator of adventures from camping trips to extravagantly themed birthday parties. She also enjoyed gardening, the theatre, and wide ranging travel from Yemen and Sri Lanka to Scotland. A lifelong artist, in collaboration with David, she wrote and illustrated hiking guide books for Scotland, Wales, and the Eastern United States.

David died in 2000. Kay and David are survived by six children, sixteen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

 

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