Obituary of Mary Ellen McKinley Harlow

MUNROE FALLS - Mary Ellen McKinley Harlow Born in Kankakee, Illinois August 7, 1931 to Fowler and Edith (née Stitzel) McKinley, she was the older sister of Bill McKinley and a cousin of President William McKinley. Mary Ellen entered into new life on February 22, 2021 at the age of 89. After graduating from Kankakee High School, she followed in her parents’ footsteps and earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Education from Illinois State Normal University. Enjoying the challenge of teaching elementary students, she taught in suburban Chicago in Elgin and Park Ridge. While in Chicago, she was one of the first members of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. It was while taking a summer school class in 1961 at the University of Colorado that she would meet her future husband, David Harlow. After marrying and relocating to Ohio, she and David would have two children, Julie and Scott. Mary enjoyed planning family vacations and especially liked traveling to the national parks. In retirement, she and her husband were able to travel around the world. As she fulfilled her life-long dream of becoming a wife and mother, Mary also served others by substitute teaching and teaching Sunday school and holding active memberships in the Indian Trail School PTA, the League of Women Voters, and the Munroe Falls Garden Club. In addition, she was elected to the Stow Board of Education, helping to select the architect for the Stow-Munroe Falls High School and committing to the initiation of the string program in the school system. A strong supporter of the arts, Mary and her husband worked for over 30 summers at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Later in life, she was a soprano in the Master Singers, the Cuyahoga Falls Community Chorus, the Stow Symphony Chorus, and her home church choirs of First Christian Church of Stow and Beneva (Sarasota) Christian Church. Placing her trust in Jesus, she was baptized as a teenager and walked the Christian life, serving in her church as an elder. She cared deeply for her family and the many dogs and grand dogs she had over the years. She was a loyal friend to many over the years and liked to keep in contact with her childhood, high school, college and teaching friends even after moving to Ohio. She would go on to make many more treasured friendships in both Ohio and Florida. Preceded in death by her parents, she is survived by her husband of 59 years, David Harlow; children, Julie (Brad) Prather, Scott (Joann) Harlow; grandchildren, Carrie Harlow, Rebekah and Timothy Prather; brother Bill McKinley. Rev. Jonathan Rumberg will conduct a service Friday at 1:30 PM at Redmon Funeral Home, 3633 Darrow Road, Stow, OH 44224. Friends may call from 11:30 until service time. Should friends desire, memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 70 W. Streetsboro Street, Suite #201, Hudson, OH 44236, The Stow Symphony Orchestra, P.O. Box 1495, Stow, OH 44224, or the Humane Society of Summit County, 7996 Darrow Road, Twinsburg, OH 44087.