By CASEY NEILL
FORMER Keysborough footballer Alexander ‘Alex’ Mackay has died at the age of 97.
His daughter Thelma Churchill said he passed away on 18 September and was survived by his wife Beth, 97.
She said had been a prominent member in the Dandenong and the Keysborough areas and was due to be buried at Kilcunda Cemetery on Friday 25 September at 10.30am.
“He used to play cricket, football and tennis for Keysborough and Dandenong,” Ms Churchill said.
“He worked on the market gardens at Keysborough.
“He played full back for Keysborough for many years. He was always bald but they all called him old baldy.
“Mum and dad were given a lovely send-off by the Keysborough football club when they left to come back onto dad’s father’s dairy farm at Woolamai, behind the Woolamai Racecourse.
“We still have a nice chair that was presented to mum and dad when they left Keysborough.”
Ms Churchill was the eldest of Alex’s five daughters.
“I started school when they lived on the Kingston property at the end of Bennet Street,” she said.
The family later moved to Chandler Road in Keysborough.
“We used to have to ride pushbikes three miles into the school,” Ms Churchill said.
“Then we used to have to ride into Dandenong for tennis lessons on a Saturday and back into Dandenong for Sunday school.
“Mum and dad always did their shopping in Lonsdale Street.
“We have lots of memories in Dandenong.”
