Mary Sue MacNealy

Mary Sue MacNealy, of Wichita Falls, died on Thursday, May 25, 2023. A Celebration of Life will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 28th at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 4605 Cypress Avenue, with Pastor Dale Snyder officiating. Burial will follow later in Ohio.
Mary Sue was born on June 3, 1931, in Newark, Ohio, to Walter and Gladys MacNealy. A graduate of Newark High School, she married an Army officer and moved from post to post in the United States, Germany and Korea while raising four sons. At each post, she volunteered to help the military and civilian communities, serving as a Brownie Scout leader, Red Cross Grey Lady, and teacher of English as a Second Language, this last in Seoul, Korea, at the Anglican Seminary, the KMAG School for Korean Officer's Wives, and St. Bede's Center for college students.
Following her divorce, Mary Sue completed a B.A. and M.A. at the Ohio State University, while teaching the remedial writing program. She earned a PhD at Carnegie Mellon, while teaching at LaRoche College in Pittsburgh, PA, and in Carnegie Mellon's English Department and the Heinz School for Urban and Public Affairs; the latter gave her two awards for teaching excellence. In appreciation, she recently established a permanent scholarship in the English Department at Carnegie Mellon.
In 1988, she became a professor of Rhetoric in the English Department at the University of Memphis in Memphis, TN, where she also served as director of undergraduate studies in English, coordinator of the professional writing program, and director of training and supervision of teaching assistants. She presented results of her research in articles published in the scholarly journals and at conferences in the United States and Europe. Her second book, Strategies for Empirical Research in Writing, has been used in universities in every state in the nation. In 2013, she gave the copyright to the Wichita Falls Adult Literacy Council so that the royalties will help pay for the supplies used by students and tutors. During her career at the University of Memphis, Mary Sue received the Jay R. Gould Award for Teaching Excellence from the Society for Technical Communications, and in 2005, she was named a Fellow of the society, an award given to fewer than 1% of its members. Following her retirement as full professor, she moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, to be near family, and she became a volunteer for the Wichita Falls Adult Literacy Council, helping Vietnamese immigrants learn to read and speak English.
Wherever she lived, Mary Sue was an active member of a local church, serving as Sunday school teacher, committee chair, director of Christian Education and secretary to the governing body, this last at Trinity Cathedral in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, St. Mary's Cathedral in Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Cordova, Tennessee. While at St. Luke's, she also coordinated a program that found free overnight accommodations for relief teams traveling from northern states to the Gulf Coast to cleanup after Hurricane Katrina. One Friday, she found sleeping places at her own and several neighboring churches for a crew of 300 youths and chaperones coming through Memphis on five large buses from the Diocese of Nebraska, and she recruited her friends to serve each of them a picnic breakfast the next morning.
Mary Sue was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her four sons, Casey of Tampa, FL, John of Petoskey, MI and Jim and Rob of Columbus, OH; six grandchildren, Matt of Columbus, OH, Casey and Stephen of Petoskey, MI, and Dan, Heather and Samantha of Columbus, OH; her brother, James of Bethesda, OH; and sister, Joan Kardos of Wichita Falls, TX. Also surviving are beloved local nieces and nephews: Kathy, Shawn, Dustin and Stephen Elless of Iowa Park, TX; Susan, Oscar, Tyler and Chrissy Temblador of Grapevive, TX; Kimberly and Evan McGrath of Frisco, TX; and Tom Kardos of Cleburne, TX.
Because of her lifelong devotion to education and the Christian nurturing of young people, Mary Sue asked that persons wishing to honor her memory contribute to funds used to send youth to summer camp at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 4605 Cypress Avenue, Wichita Falls, TX 76301. She also suggested the Good Samaritan Fund at Presbyterian Manor, 4600 Taft Blvd, Wichita Falls, TX 76308 and the Wichita Falls Adult Literacy Council, 2301 Kell E Blvd Ste 217, Wichita Falls, TX 76308.