JoAnn Ott McKay
Born, 1939, Cincinnati, Ohio. Moved to Pompano Beach in 1948. Received
full scholarship in 1956 to Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Valedictorian graduate of Class of 1960. Bachelor of Music in organ
performance.
Received M.A. in music from San Francisco State College, 1965. Winner
of young organists competition, 1965, San Francisco Chapter of
American Guild of Organists. Professional church organist-choir
director, age 14 to 65 in Florida; Medford, Mass.; Oakland,
California; and Champaign, Illinois. Before retiring in 2004, was
recitalist, church organist, and composer. Taught piano 1962-1965
while my husband was working on his Ph.D. in history from University
of California, Berkeley.
I met John on a ship off the coast of Ireland in August 1960. I was
coming home from a six weeks girls' tour of Europe. He was coming
home after studying his junior year at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.
It was love at first sight for me. As he completed his B.A. in
history at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and I studied
organ in New York City, we visited back and forth every other
weekend. I had a car, and he took the train down to New York. We were
married in April, 1961, in Cincinnati. Our sons are John Philip, b.
1961, and Thomas, b. 1967.
In 1966 we moved to Champaign when John was hired to teach European
Modern History at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. We
have lived here ever since.
Over the years we lived altogether 3 1/2 years in Paris, France,
where John did research to write his books. He received prestigious
grants to support his work. We put the children in French public
schools where they got a wonderful education. At first, learning
French was a necessity for me, but now over the years it is a fun
hobby reading and speaking.
Our older son got his degree in mechanical engineering here at the
University of Illinois. He lives in Hollywood, FL, and works for
Heico Corp as an aeronautical engineer and project manager. Our
second son got his certificate from ITT and lives south of St. Louis
on the McKay property acquired in 1838.
I love retirement and wish John would retire from writing college
textbooks. He retired from the University of Illinois in 1999.