Elizabeth Keck

Elizabeth (Jessup) Keck, 103, died of natural causes, on Saturday morning, January 12, 2008, at her farmstead in Shimerville, Pa.
Mrs. Keck was an active contributor to the community, donating countless time and efforts to the Lehigh County Historical Society, the Good Shepherd Home, the United Way, the Red Cross, the Republican National Committee, the Lehigh County Humane Society, PETA, and the Susquehanna County Historical Society.
Elizabeth Jessup Keck was born on July 10, 1904, in Wilkes-Barre, a daughter of the late Albert B. Jessup, Vice President of G.B. Markle Coal Company, in Hazleton, during the early part of the twentieth century. Her mother was the late Alice Dillinger Jessup.
Mrs. Jessup Keck was preceded in death by her husband, Thomas Butz Keck, a chemical engineer with the Rodale Institute, one of the earliest proponents of organic gardening.
She attended Smith College, where her love of Greek and the arts flourished. Later as a resident in Greenwich Village, New York City, she worked as an assistant editor for Random House, before having to return to Allentown to care for her father.
An animal lover and activist all of her life, Mrs. Jessup Keck was a board member of the Lehigh County Humane Society, where she, along with many others, aggressively worked to accomplish a low cost spaying, neutering, and vaccination clinic.
As an active volunteer thereafter, it is inestimable the number of animals whose lives were saved through her efforts. Many felines in dire need of homes ended up in the happy lap of Mrs. Keck. Over the 50 years she resided in Shimerville, it is fair to estimate that she took in just as many in numbers.
Mrs. Jessup Keck worked closely with The Rev. Conrad W. Raker during the 1950s and ’60s, laying the foundation for what would define The Good Shepherd Home as one of the leading rehabilitation centers in America. There was not a Christmas that went by without her anonymously sending a cheerful gift to many of the newly admitted patients.
Her great love and interest in American furniture was in part brought down through the direct line of the Jessup family, one of the earliest settlers of Southampton Long Island in the 1600s. Many pieces from the Jessup family were given to the Susquehanna Historical Society, where many of the family migrated after Southampton.
As a member of the Lehigh County Historical Society, she donated pieces to Trout Hill, and was responsible for cataloging, classifying, and maintaining the histories during the installation of their library.
Mrs. Jessup Keck was a proud Republican, declaring “the Jessups have always voted Republican since Abraham Lincoln,” a distinction that held special meaning, since her great grandfather, the honorable William H. Jessup (1797-1868), served as a delegate and close advisor to Abraham Lincoln.
As a chairman of the Committee for Resolution, he wrote and delivered the platform speech, nominating President Lincoln to a second term, at the 1860 Republican convention in Chicago. Judge Jessup, an ardent abolitionist even before the Civil War, also served as a delegate in 1868, nominating General Ulysses S. Grant to the presidency.
Mrs. Jessup Keck was an avid collector throughout her life, beginning from early childhood when, for a nickel you could send away for a silent screen star’s autograph. Her collection included everyone from Clara Bow, the Gish Sisters, Fatty Arbuckle to Kathyrn Hepburn and Luciano Pavarotti.
She corresponded throughout her life to and received a variety of letters from presidents, ranging from then former President Theodore Roosevelt to President George W. Bush. Her collection also included letters from John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.
In addition to her Shimerville home, Mrs. Jessup Keck also kept a residence in Montrose, the final resting place for many of the Jessup family, including Judge Jessup and a number of Jessup Civil War veterans.
Mrs. Jessup Keck is survived by her cousin, Jane Jessup Heekin, of Williamstown, Mass., and her great-grandnieces, Barbara Jay Mulford Dera, of Belle Meade, N.J., and Elizabeth Mulford Vavra, of Wilmington, N.C.; her great-grandnephew, Samuel Mulford Dera, of Belle Mead, N.J.
Arrangements are by the Horace W. Schantz Funeral Home Inc., 250 Main St., Emmaus, Pa.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Lehigh County Humane Society, 640 Dixon St., Allentown, PA 18103, or to the Susquehanna County Historical Society, 2 Monument Square, Montrose, PA 18801.