Created by DPE, Copyright IRIS 2007Jessie Mackay is an artist who lives in Pinehurst, North Carolina.  She met her friend, Tally Bandy through her Episcopal  church, where Tally was an ordained Deacon.  The two traveled across the United States – with their dogs (3) – off the interstates to see their own country and visit with friends.  Other trips followed to New England to attend one of Jessie’s art shows in Nantucket, to Washington, D.C. – again for Jessie’s art shows – but their ulitmate trip was last year to Tanzania.


Jessie Mackay

Born in Washington, D.C., to Scottish-born parents, Jessie was raised in Westport, Connecticut.  After college, she spent her adult life living in many countries as well as the United States.  Before retiring to paint, she was a management consultant, putting in behavioural management systems in business and industry.  She spent 11 years in England where she had her own, small, consulting company.  Her clients included:  Ford Motor Company, Volkswagon, Land Rover, steel mills, founderies, insurance companies, beer breweries, BP, hospitals, and other industrial accounts.  She spent a year in Zurich, Switzerland, studying at the C.G. Jung Institute, before returning to the US.  If you would like to view Jessie’s artwork, go to her website:  www.jessiemackayart.com

Tally Bandy

Tally says she is like a cat that has had at least five or six lives with several more yet to come.  In her last sermon at her church in Southern Pines she told the congregation that at 65 she was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons in the Episcopal Church, at 75 she was a missionary of sorts and for them to stay tuned because at 85 she might join the Peace Corps.

She has taught school, raised two children, worked as an administrator for the University of Virginia and served for 10 years as deacon at Emmanuel Church in Southern Pines, N.C.  She and her  husband lived in Northern Virginia for 37 years before retiring to Whispering Pines, N. C. .  Granted a sabbatical in 2007 she traveled to South Africa on a pilgrimage and in 2008 she and her friend Jessie were offered teaching positions in Tanzania and therein lies a story.