Jackie Straub McMakin — Obituary
Jackie McMakin died on October 2nd, 2022, at age 88 in Shelburne, VT. She left this world the way she tried to live in it – present, active, and mindful. Her last week was spent reading contemplative texts, taking long canoe rides in Lake Champlain, writing, corresponding with friends, walking in the forest, skinny-dipping in the Lake, listening to Verdi’s Requiem, and enjoying time with her children.
Jackie grew up in New Rochelle, New York, the daughter of Robert and Virginia Straub. There she met the three great loves of her life – religious studies, her husband Dave (they were the Presbyterian church youth group together), and music. At the College of Wooster in Ohio, she majored in religion, kept dating Dave, and directed the campus choral group. Her junior year, she studied at the University of St. Andrews University in Scotland.
Jackie and Dave were married after graduation, and she moved to Japan where Dave was serving in the Air Force. Called to service, she and Dave then moved to Taegu, South Korea where they worked at a Presbyterian mission for two years, helping that nation with its post-war healing and reconstruction. From there they took the trip of a lifetime, taking a year to explore Korea, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Nepal, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt.
Jackie’s early passions were church and civil rights. Integration was on everyone’s mind in the early sixties, and Jackie helped create sister bonds between white and black churches in DC. This interest in what we have in common versus what separates us led to her focus on bringing together different denominations and faiths in ecumenical settings, a master’s degree in religion from the Catholic University of America, and teaching posts at DC-area seminaries.
Jackie and Dave joined the Church of the Savior, an ecumenical church on Massachusetts Avenue, and were active members there for many years. During this time, Jackie began to write professionally, publishing more than 130 articles in national religious publications, mostly on ecumenism, spiritual development, and lay leadership as well as co-authoring the Doorways to Christian Growth series of books with Rhoda Nary.
Later, she joined Sonya Dyer to create The Lab, a series of workshops focused on vocational discernment that started rooted in the Christian tradition but which they then broadened to include the full breadth and richness of human spiritual experience. With Sonya, she co-authored Working from the Heart.
In retirement, she and Dave moved from D.C to Vermont. For fifteen years, they would volunteer to help various communities overseas (in places as far-flung as South Africa, Australia, and Lithuania). Most recently, Jackie did a series of workshops for young people in Ukraine, an experience that gave her great joy but that has caused her concern as she has seen conflict envelop that country.
Jackie loved adventure. She and Dave took a big walk or bike ride every summer for more than two decades. Among many trips, they walked across Great Britain, biked from Amsterdam to Marseilles, and biked the length of the Danube.
On her 82nd birthday, Dave bought her an ultra-lite single-person canoe. It was her greatest joy to take that boat out on Lake Champlain during the summer and swim. She also had an abiding love of music. Her grandfather was a noted piano maker, and the apple did not fall far from the tree. Jackie played piano, flute, saxophone, clarinet, harmonica, violin, and accordion as well as being able to sight read. Throughout her life, she enjoyed conducting choral ensembles.
In her final years, she became passionate about the environment, penning Our Defining Moment: A Pocket Guide to Creating the Future We Truly Want as well as the death-with-dignity movement that works to guarantee the right of people to choose how they die. She wrote about her commitment to this cause in Looking Forward: Discovering the Art of Dying Well, her final book. At the end of her life, she decided to, “choose her exit ramp from life and not wait until it is too late to make that choice” by voluntarily stopping to eat or drink (VSED), an option for which she was an advocate.
Jackie was preceded in death by Dave and leaves behind two children, Tom McMakin who lives in Montana, and Peg Marshall who lives in Pennsylvania
Posted in on October 15, 2022.
