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Alice Kennedy Anderson McCary died peacefully in her sleep in her home at Harbor Chase Memory Care after a brief illness on Nov. 18, 2015 at the age of 97 1/2. She was born July 26, 1918, in Spring Creek, Tennessee to George and Icye Anderson, one of five children. She was a short but fast member of the high school basketball team, winning a local free throw competition, and graduated as valedictorian of her high school class. After completing secretarial training, she headed to Washington, D.C. to work in personnel near the outbreak of World War Two. While living in a boarding house with friends from Spring Creek, she met her future husband Mack (Claud Earl McCary, Jr.), and they were married on Valentines Day, 1942 in Silver Springs, MD.
After moving to Jackson, TN and the birth of their son Mack, they moved to Huntsville, AL in 1950 where they both worked at Redstone Arsenal and became lifelong members of the First United Methodist Church. Alice became a stay at home mom to care for her son and elderly mother. She always had a great love for children, and worked for years as a preschool assistant at the church school. In 1961 they were blessed with the birth of a daughter, Jan Elizabeth.
Alice was known as a southern lady with a ready laugh, but she could be a tough and determined soul, and more than once defied predictions of being on death’s door. She continued to live alone on Shades Crest Drive after the death of her husband in 1994, even recovering from a broken hip. The second broken hip sent her to assisted living, and eventually to Harbor Chase Memory Care the last three years. There she so much appreciated visits from First United Methodist volunteers. Over the last year Hospice of North Alabama and Harbor Chase provided such caring service for which her family is so grateful.
Alice was preceded in death by her parents, her late husband Mack (C. E. McCary, Jr.) and her four siblings: Morris McClain (Jackson, TN), Malcolm Anderson (Bolivar, TN), Kathryn A. Smith (Huntsville, AL), and James Anderson (Milan, TN). She is survived by her son Mack (C.E. McCary III), of Greensboro, NC, her daughter Jan McCary Tanner of Huntsville, AL, and four grandchildren: John McCary of Gig Harbor, WA; Luke McCary of Columbia, SC; Daniel Tanner of Gadsden, AL; and Nic Tanner of Huntsville, AL; as well as seven great-children.
Visitation will be at Laughlin Service Funeral home at 12:30 PM and the service at 2:00 PM on Sunday Nov. 22, 2015 with internment to follow at Valhalla Memorial Gardens.
Flowers are welcome, or donations may be made in her memory to the First United Methodist Preschool.
