Mary Ellen (Harris) Mackanich, 82, formerly of Harleysville, PA passed away on Saturday, December 10, 2022 at Amity Place in Douglassville, PA. Born in San Diego, CA, she was the daughter of the late Raymond Dale and Czeslawa Mary (Cendrowski) Harris. She was the widow of John Michael Mackanich.
Mary Ellen stayed at home to raise her family until the mid seventies when she began working at Harleysville Insurance Co. as a clerical manager until she retired in 2000. She understood the importance of service and spent most of her life volunteering for numerous organizations: she was a Girl Scout and a Cub Scout leader, she assisted at blood drives for the Red Cross, she gave her time to the Indian Valley YMCA and the local library and drove cancer patients to their appointments for the American Cancer Society. She enjoyed knitting, cooking, camping, and spending time with her family.
Mary Ellen lived at Amity Place in Douglasville for her last two years and was well cared for and loved by an amazing group of people. She was happy and content and frequently spoke of the compassion displayed by the staff. She participated in many activities but particularly enjoyed sitting on the front porch or back patio and just chatting with friends and family.
Surviving Mary Ellen are her two sons: John Mackanich, husband of Debi of High Point, NC and Andrew Mackanich, companion of Kerry Farricker of Washington Crossing, PA; her two daughters: Mary Beth Keenan, wife of John of Downingtown, PA and Susan Mutter, wife of Matthew of Pottstown, PA. She will also be missed by her eight grandchildren: Christopher, Griffin, Olivia, Cory, Jeremy, Meredith, Brianna, and Bailey and her three great grandchildren: Charli, Bode, and Crew.
She was predeceased by her 2 brothers: Raymond Dale and Kenneth Harris.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday, January 19, 2023 at Immaculate Conception BVM RC Church, 905 Chestnut St. in Douglassville, PA at 11:00 AM. A visitation will be held from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at the church prior to Mass.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Amity Place in the form of an Amazon eGift card which will then be used to fund the Resident Enrichment programs that Mary Ellen enjoyed so much. Choose “Gift Card” from your Amazon account, choose “purchase a gift card”, choose “eGift card”, select a gift card design and enter the amount. Choose “email” as the delivery preference and enter MHeil@enlivant.com as the recipient. Marc is the executive director at Amity Place and will manage the donations. Please feel free to email Marc or Mary Beth Keenan (mbkeenan1962@gmail.com) with any questions.