Funeral service for Ella Mackey, 98, Lawton, will be at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, April 9, 2012, at Centenary United Methodist Church with Dr. Norma Quinn, Senior Pastor and Rev. Phil Jones officiating. Mrs. Mackey died Good Friday, April 6, in Lawton, with her children by her side. Burial will be in Highland Cemetery under the direction of the Becker Funeral Home & Cremation Service. Ella Mackey was born on February 10, 1914, in Marshall County, Oklahoma, four miles south of Madill, to John L. Carlton and Susan Gill Carlton. She graduated from Madill High School in 1931. She was the recipient of the Balfour Medal for scholarship and school activities. Following high school, Ella attended Southeastern State Teachers College in Durant. She was a member of Pi Kappa Sigma sorority. After only one year, she received a five year State Teaching Certificate. She was not yet 19 years old. Ella's first job was in Ada, teaching piano and trumpet lessons. She then taught 4th and 5th grades and high school glee club at Wilson Consolidated School, between Okmulgee and Henrietta. Next, she moved to Pleasant Grove School, in Seminole County, where she taught 8th grade and high school glee club. She then moved to Roff in Pontotoc County, near Ada, where she taught and played piano with a dance band at night. She went to summer school every summer until she received her degree from East Central State College, in Ada. After graduation, Ella went back to Seminole County to teach at a school called Mountain View. There she met her future husband, the school principal, B. C. Mackey. While at Mountain View, Ella started a marching band, which grew to have 62 members. She would take the band to contests. One day she would take her vocal music groups to contest, they would go home that night on buses, and the next day she would take her band students--many of them the same as the vocal students-- back to the band contest. B. C. and Ella were married on January 2, 1943. While her husband was in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Ella was the band director at San Marcos High School, Texas. After the war, they moved back to Oklahoma, first going to Holdenville. They moved to Lawton in 1950. Ella's first job in Lawton was teaching piano lessons and leading an accordion band at Hardy Suggs Music Store. She then taught music at Taft Elementary School. In 1954, Ella started teaching vocal music at Lawton Junior High, later Central Junior High, the only junior high in town. When Tomlinson Junior High opened in 1957, Ella became the school's first vocal music teacher. She taught there until her retirement in 1976. While at Tomlinson, she would have 450-460 vocal music students each year. Many of the students were football and basketball players, who would never have any other vocal music experience in their lives. All of her students would sing in the Spring Concert, at assemblies, at civic clubs, and at district and state contests. Throughout her career she taught private piano and accordion lessons at her home, after school and on weekends, in order to help to send her three children through college. After her retirement, she continued teaching piano lessons to her grandchildren, who were rewarded for their efforts with Coke floats. Ella's student groups and soloists won innumerable awards during her career. She was the first music teacher for many students who went on to become professional musicians. She was the only contact with music education for thousands of junior high students. Many former students recall their opportunities to sing in the mixed choruses and glee clubs at Central and Tomlinson Junior Highs as cherished highlights of their school years in Lawton. During her teaching career, Ella was a member of Kappa Kappa Iota teachers sorority, Oklahoma Educators Association, National Educators Association, and was a charter member of the Oklahoma Choral Music Association. She was the 1960 Lawton Teacher of the Year. Since her retirement, Ella has been a member and past board member of the Lawton Philharmonic Society, Retired Teachers Association, Lawton Book and Play Club, Quest Club, and Lawton Country Club Ladies Golf Association. She has been the piano player for all of those associations. She was the pianist and a member of the choir at Centenary United Methodist Church, of which she has been a member for 62 years. She also played piano for the Northwest Kiwanis Club, of which she was a charter member, for more than three decades. She regularly played the piano for functions at the Center for Creative Living, numerous local nursing homes, and for various singing engagements for her son John. Ella's love of life and music was passed on through her children and grandchildren to her great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, B. C. Mackey, Jr.; her parents; her brothers Arthur Carlton, Lee Carlton, George Carlton, and Jack Carlton; and her sister Alice Barentine. She is survived by her son John C. Mackey and his wife Susan; her daughter Janis K. Chaconas and her husband Bill; her daughter Sue Ann Saffa and her husband Chuck; her granddaughter Susan Amanda Halbrooks and her husband Kent; her granddaughter Megan Leigh Pool and her husband Richard; her granddaughter Emily Juliano and her husband Joe; her grandson John C. Mackey, Jr.; her grandson Christopher Chaconas; her grandson Carlton Saffa and his wife Kristen; her granddaughter Rachel Selmon and her husband Zac; and her great-grandchildren Jefferson Lydon Halbrooks, Corbett Jackson Halbrooks, Zane Edward Breedlove, Jordan Reese Halbrooks, Evan James Breedlove, Shayne Mackey Selmon, Stella Claire Saffa, and Landon Christopher Juliano. Memorial contributions may be made to the Centenary United Methodist Church Choir Fund or the Comanche County Memorial Hospital Foundation. The family invites those with memories of Ella to share them in the online guestbook at www.beckerfuneral.com.