Kay Tipton MacDermott September 22, 1935 – March 24, 2025

Kay Tipton MacDermott of Douglaston, New York, daughter of Kay Tipton and Estelle Reynolds Tipton, passed away on March 24, 2025 at the age of 89 following complications of a stroke suffered in Fall of 2024. Born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Madison, Georgia, she spent all her adult life in New York, ultimately settling in Douglaston, Queens in the home she occupied for over 60 years. Kay was a graduate of Duke University and Columbia Law School. She retired in 2000 after a long career as Assistant District Attorney in the Queens DA’s office. In her retirement, she loved nothing more than her walks around the point with its view of the Throgs Neck Bridge, her swims in Little Neck Bay at the Dock, and to spend time at her beloved home in Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
An ardent lover of theatre, travel and supporting causes that mattered to her, she devoted much of her retirement years to volunteering and supporting Star of the Sea, among many others, to help those less fortunate. She traveled often into Manhattan to see the latest on Broadway, and was still making exotic trips even into her late 80’s with an African safari. She played bridge weekly and continued to socialize with her large circle of friends and acquaintances.

Kay is survived by her three children, Ian, Laura and Thomas Mackenzie; grandchildren, Harrison, Katie and Christian Steins, Andrei and Kelly Mackenzie and her two sisters, Ellen Harrison (Jimmy) and Mary Tipton, her nieces and nephews and their children.

Kay’s first marriage to Donald Mackenzie ended in divorce. She later married Malcolm MacDermott, who predeceased her in 2007. Her two step children, Evan MacDermott (Donna) and Kathy Lukasiewicz (John) and their children and granddaughter survive her as well.

A funeral service will be held at Zion Episcopal Church, Douglaston New York on March 31st at 11:00am.