Judith Sue Bales McKay

Judith Sue Bales McKay, Ph.D., retired Associate Professor of English at Arkansas State University-Beebe, died June 21, 2013, after a two-year battle with breast cancer. Judy was the daughter of Franklin Willard Bales and the late Hazel Mary Lee Bales of Alton, Missouri. For 47 years, she was the wife of Eugene McKay, current Chancellor of ASU-Beebe, the mother of three sons: Shaun (Ruston, La.), Kevin (Jacksonville, Ark.), and Robert (Shreveport, La.); and the grandmother of eight children. Judy loved to read and said she had read every book in the Alton, Missouri Public Library, before graduating as valedictorian of the class of 1965. She later received a baccalaureate in English from the University of Central Arkansas and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in English from Ole Miss. She taught two years at Cabot High School and 26 at ASU-Beebe before retiring in 2010. She died on June 21, 2013. At her request, she was cremated and buried in a grave next to her mother in Alton, Missouri with a private family funeral. Memorials may be made in her name to the American Cancer Society, Mid-South Division, Inc., 901 N. University Ave., Little Rock, Ark. 72207, or to Judy McKay Scholarship at ASU-Beebe, P.O. Box 1000, Beebe, Ark. 72012. Arrangements by Westbrook, a Smith Family Funeral Home. www.SmithFamilyCares.com.