Faye Dolores Mckinnon

The kind, smiling, athletic matriarch of the McKinnon family, originally of Wisconsin, Faye Dolores McKinnon, aged 89, passed away peacefully in Carmel, Indiana on May 30, 2022 surrounded by family. The former business education teacher in several Wisconsin school districts, most of them serving the Madison school district, fought Alzheimer’s and dementia for 16 years, the last 6 ½  in her senior living home in Carmel.

Born on February 21, 1933, the only child of Mel and Dolores Johnson, legend has it that as a teenager Faye knocked the ball out of the park one spring day during a Milwaukee Bay View neighborhood softball game. And even though they’d been friends since elementary school, Faye Johnson and Jim McKinnon became romantically tied after that shot heard ‘round South Milwaukee.

That’s the way Jim told the story anyway.

Faye would interject occasionally in the storytelling to remind Jim she wasn’t always sold on him, and there were other options, for a smart girl living on Springfield Avenue in the Bay View area of Milwaukee.

But the two would  marry on a steamy August day in 1954. Their three kids, Mark (Kathy), of Bloomingdale, IL, Kyle (Anja), of Berlin, Germany and Kim (Bill) Sarsfield, of Carmel, IN followed in their mom’s footsteps athletically and also as rabid fans of the Green Bay Packers, and all Wisconsin Badgers sports.

The children were born almost exactly four years apart.

Whether both parents had agreed on the “every four years” idea, the offspring were never certain.  But it, too, became legend within the family as retold again and again.

Faye had earned a teaching degree from Whitewater State Teachers College, now the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1954, after serving as president of her beloved sorority, Alpha Sigma. She supported Jim as he worked toward his psychology degree at UW-Madison.

Faye the teacher

She worked hard at it. She put her all into it.  It exhausted her. And she loved it.

When asked what she taught early in her career, Faye automatically replied “typing, shorthand and accounting.” Two of those three subjects  are now foreign terms to today’s high schoolers.

Her career began and ended in the Madison area, with short breaks to bear and raise her kids. Madison LaFollette and Madison West students were lucky to have her for the last 20 years of her career when she took on more and more challenging roles. For example, she taught her West High students on Apple II computers, often just a day after she had taught herself the skills needed. Teaching business education to a growing population of hard-working Hmong students (Vietnam War refugees) quickly became Faye’s new passion as she readied to retire.

In retirement

Faye settled with Jim in their home on Lake Beulah, near East Troy, Wisconsin. They also drove south to their condo in Marco Island to escape the Wisconsin cold. Tennis, travel, socializing and creative endeavors consumed their time. Jim coined the term “FunCouple” for the many close friendships they sustained until they left this earth.

He preceded Faye in death in 2015. Also passing before her were her brother-in-law Mike McKinnon, and sister-in-law Pat McKinnon. Remembering Grandma most lovingly are her seven grandchildren: Tim (Holly) McKinnon of Kenosha, WI, Katy McKinnon of Bloomingdale, IL, Jessica (Rob) Lirtzman of Deerfield, IL, Tyler (Olivia) Sarsfield of Indianapolis, IN, Trevor (Pauline Guastella) Sarsfield of Chicago, IL, Maya McKinnon and Rory McKinnon in Berlin, Germany. She is also survived by her sister-in-law Nancy McKinnon and Nancy and Mike’s children Sean (Erika) McKinnon, and Kerry (Matt) Hillebrand as well as many extended family cousins in Wisconsin.

The family plans a celebration of life at their lake home on October 23. For details and directions please contact Kyle at [email protected] (note the three consecutive Ns).

Faye’s family wishes to sincerely thank the many compassionate staff members at the Plaza at the Barrington of Carmel for their years of kindness and care, as well as the Paradigm Hospice staff.

In lieu of flowers, please consider one of three options for donations: a)The Employee Fund at the Plaza at the Barrington of Carmel  Attn: Kara Owen, 1335 South Guilford Road, Carmel, IN, USA, 46032 or/and b)The Alzheimer’s Association at www.act.alz.org, or c)mail a donation to the IU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, 355 W. 16th Street, Goodman Hall, Suite 4100, Indianapolis, IN 46202.