Marty passed away peacefully April 11 at Sunrise on Connecticut, an elder care facility in Washington, DC. She had coped courageously with the challenge of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis received nearly six years ago. Her illness followed a lifetime of family foreign service postings on four continents. Her husband Alan and adult children Alex and Amanda were at her side during her final days.
Born June 20, 1942, to Stanley and Ada (Dutille) Berry in Lebanon, NH, Marty (and big sister Sandra) attended local public schools, where she held leadership roles in virtually every extracurricular activity. Her high school yearbook forecast that “she can do anything she sets her mind to.” Marty graduated with high honors from the University of New Hampshire, joined the English faculty at Rippowam High School in Stamford, Connecticut, and later also taught in Columbus, Georgia.
For better or worse, Marty married Alan McKee on July 16, 1966, in Stamford, and joined him for his final year of military service at Fort Benning, GA. During his three ensuing years of graduate study at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, she worked as a librarian at the Medford, MA, public library. After Alan joined the Department of State, he and Marty were first sent to postings in both Kaduna and Lagos, Nigeria. During the following 30 years, they lived in Senegal, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa and Swaziland (where Alan was U.S. ambassador), plus numerous tours in Washington.
It was widely recognized in the Foreign Service that Marty was the secret to her husband’s success. She was equally at ease brushing flies off raw meat on sale in village markets or entertaining kings and prime ministers at representational events which sometimes numbered hundreds of guests. She contributed her own historic photographs to published materials commemorating South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994, and the queens of Swaziland honored her with framed necklaces depicting bilateral friendship. Marty herself served as Community Liaison Officer at Embassy The Hague and later travelled around the world teaching computer software applications to American personnel in Hong Kong, Rome, Amman, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire and Botswana. She developed a wide network of cherished friends at home and abroad, and the Canadian connection has been especially persistent.
Marty chose an African hospital in downtown Lagos to give birth to their son Alex, who now teaches at the University of Delaware, along with his wife, Professor Emily Davis. Daughter Amanda McKee, born more conventionally in Washington, is Senior Communications Writer and Editor at Blue Shield of California in the San Francisco Bay Area, where her husband Néstor is Lead Technical Director at Pixar. Marty took great pride in her family’s accomplishments and for years published annual photo albums documenting the “Big Adventure” of her much-loved grandchildren, Oscar and Iris.
A big part of the McKees’ lives has been building or renovating successive homes around Washington and even in Ottawa, where Marty, learning from bitter past experience, wisely refused to set foot until there was a complete new kitchen that met her specifications. That was crucial, since she had by then incorporated recipes from around the world into a repertoire of tantalizing dishes she loved sharing with friends. She patiently landscaped one new garden after another, often growing herbs called for in her favorite recipes. Yet she also devoted two days a week for 13 years in retirement caring for a distant relative in nursing care 40 miles away; fortunately, she really liked driving that BMW. Somehow, in recent years, Marty and Alan found time to travel widely in South America, Asia, Europe, and Africa, in many cases on trips which allowed her to introduce her husband to cities where she had worked. This was a remarkable woman.
A reception for Martha will be held Sunday, May 26, 2024, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM at Joseph Gawler's Sons, LLC, 5130 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016. In lieu of flowers, a remembrance can be made through a donation to the Alzheimer's Association.
Local hotel accommodation suggestions from the family are with The Courtyard by Marriott (Tel: 301-656-1500; Address: 5520 Wisconsin Ave, Chevy Chase, MD 20815) or The Embassy Suites (Tel: 202-362-9300; Address: 4300 Military Rd NW, Washington, DC 20015). The Embassy Suites has a special rate for those attending a Gawler's Sons service. To make a reservation with this rate, please email [email protected] or book through:
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