Sue McKee smiled as she crossed heaven’s threshold on May 2, 2024, in Leesburg, FL, at Mayfield Assisted Living Facility. She was surrounded by her family.
Eileen was born in Auburn, IN, to Ora & Majel Moughler on March 29, 1933. She grew up on the family farm in Butler, IN; milking cows, gathering eggs, and weeding the large garden. She fed the farm animals and tended her 4-H steers. A picture of her grand champion steer she showed at the DeKalb County Fair, circa 1950, adorned her assisted living facility wall. Her childhood memories of farm and family were truly her happy places. When her daughters visited in the past years, the farm report was requested “how many calves this spring?” “what crops are out?” and “is it snowing?”
Eileen attended Butler High School in Butler,IN, where she met a handsome basketball player, Glen McKee. After high school graduation she married Glen “Sonny” McKee on Ground Hog’s Day, 1952. While Sonny served in the Navy, Eileen stayed busy at her new job as a switch board operator for Ma Bell. The newlyweds enjoyed a three month honeymoon in Hawaii where Sonny was stationed. They rented a small apartment and purchased a motorcycle for transportation while on the island. Eileen lists the song The Hawaiian Love Song as one of her favorites.
After Sonny’s discharge from the Navy in 1954, the McKees set up their home again in northeast Indiana. They began their family; a son Kim followed by two daughters Rhonda and Debra.
Eileen worked divergent assignments; a telephone operator, a seamstress in a garment factory producing basketball uniforms, an employee on a production line in a bicycle pedal factory, a cook in the kitchen of a truck stop and she worked as a receptionist at a dermatologist’s office. On Sundays the family was in church and Eileen led Sunday School class. Eileen and two of her sisters sang as a family trio occasionally at church.
In April of 1970 the McKees moved to Leesburg. The family watched as the children graduated, married and began their careers and their families. Eileen was employed by United Telephone where she retired in 1993 from the telephone business.
She and Sonny began their retirement rendezvous in their 35 foot motor home, trekking across the United States. They enjoyed two years of travel before turning their attention to their son Kim and his cancer treatment. They parked the motorhome near Kim’s home outside of Chicago. Sonny and Eileen worked alongside one another, building a cabin in Michigan with the help from Amish neighbors and family from Indiana. They cared for Kim until his death December in 1996.
The Georgia mountains captured the interest of the McKees when they vacationed there with family. They bought a cabin under construction and relocated to Blairsville, GA, in 1999. The McKees lived in their beloved cabin for the next 15 years. Both Glen and Eileen were active in their church, First Baptist of Blairsville. They attended Bible studies and cooked in the kitchen for Family Night on Wednesdays. Eileen had a knack for homemade noodles and biscuits and gravy. Eileen enjoyed her garden, the hummingbirds, her “posies,” and Jesus in the hills of north Georgia.
The couple returned reluctantly to Florida in 2014 following Eileen’s stroke. They were near their daughters and grandchildren. Sonny entered Heaven in 2016, having enjoyed a rich 64 years of marriage.
Eileen aka Gramma, Granny Great, and The Mother Goose is survived by daughters Rhonda (Kenny) Magamoll, Debra (Jerry) Lowis, grandchildren Kyle (Heather) Magamoll, Karson (Danielle) Magamoll, Matt Lowis, Kady (Kyle) Cupal, 8 great grandchildren Mason, Keaton, Mackenzie, Kaleb, Kolby, Madden, Josie, and Knox; sisters Lila Dohner of Butler, IN, Linda Moughler of Ossian, IN, sister-in-law Elaine Moughler of Butler, IN, and many precious nieces and nephews. Mrs. McKee is preceeded in death by her husband Glen and her son Kim McKee; sisters Ima June Seltenright and brother Larry Moughler and her parents.
The family wishes to acknowledge the staff of Vitas Hospice; the hands, eyes, feet and heart of Jesus in the care of Eileen. Accolades to Lakeview Terrace Staff in Altoona, FL, where Eileen spent nine years prior to moving to Mayfield to be closer to family, July 2023. LVT was Eileen’s second family. The staff at Mayfield were attentive to Eileen’s needs in the last months of her life.
A dual interment is scheduled for Glen and Eileen at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, FL, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, at 9 a.m. “Time and space have never separated Uncle Sonny and Aunt Eileen” per nephew, Bobby Kohn.
