Dr. Charles Mackey

Dr. Charles Sigler Mackey died May 15, 2024. He was born April 1, 1935 in Houston, Texas the son of Virginia Sigler Mackey Barnes and Kennard Mackey.

Dr. Mackey attended local schools and graduated from Lake Charles High School in 1954. He attended Tulane University on a football scholarship. At Tulane he was initiated into Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity and continued this relationship throughout his lifetime. During his years at Tulane, he was a member of Kappa Delta Phi, an honorary leadership fraternity. In 1957, he was accepted into Loyola University School of Dentistry where he was inducted into the C. Victor Vignes Odonatological Society for student leadership and scholastic merit and was named to the “Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.” He received his degree in General Dentistry in 1961. He practiced dentistry in Lake Charles for one year and then was inducted into the United States Army Dental Corps as a Captain and served at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina from 1961 to 1964. Prior to his entering Dental School, he married his childhood sweetheart and wife of 67 years, Gail Barré, on August 10, 1957 in the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Lake Charles.

Upon returning to Lake Charles in 1964, he practiced for 57 years until his retirement in 2010. During his professional career Dr. Mackey was a member of the Louisiana Dental Association and served as Alternate Director, Vice-President, and Membership Committee Chairman. As a member of the Southwest District Dental Society, he served as President for two years, Secretary, Chairman of the Peer Review Committee, and as a representative to the State committee for continued education for license renewal.

He organized the children’s “Grey” Dental Clinic at the Calcasieu Parish Health Unit to provide care for children not eligible for state or federal dental subsidy. He also organized the North Lake Charles Preventive Dental Clinic. He also organized the dental rotation system for the sheriff’s prisoners in private offices until the Calcasieu Correctional Center was built. He arranged for the donation of dental equipment to have a dental unit at the Correctional Center. He originally organized the Head start Dental Program in 1965 and received the 25-year Appreciation Award as Dental Consultant and the 30-year service Award in 1995.

Dr. Mackey served as a committee of one to promote fluoridation for Lake Charles and Calcasieu Parish. For this accomplishment, he was named the Louisiana Public Health Magazine’s Person of the Month. In conjunction with the American Cancer Society, he organized the Oral Cancer Exam by dentists free of charge to the elderly. From 1972 until 1982, Dr. Mackey gave the medical lecture of the Stop Smoking Clinic for the American Cancer Society. He was also instrumental in having all public buildings in Calcasieu Parish designated as “smoke free” buildings.

In 1998, Dr. Mackey was inducted into the International College of Dentists, an award in recognition of outstanding and meritorious contribution to the art and science of Dentistry. In the same year he was also awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Louisiana Dental Association, the highest honor bestowed on a practicing dentist. In 2000, Dr. Mackey was inducted into the Pierre Fauchard Academy of Dentistry, an international honorary dental organization.

In 1985, Dr. Mackey was elected to fill an unexpired term on the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury and served seven terms as District 5 Police Juror. He served twice as President of the Police Jury and was a member and chairman of various Police Jury committees. He worked to extend and enhance the partnership between the Calcasieu Juvenile Court and Harbour House. He spearheaded the drive to save the Confederate Monument on the Courthouse lawn. In 2000, he presented and was successful in getting unanimous approval by the Police Jury to have a plaque in all parish public buildings with the inscription “In God We Trust.” He chaired the Community Service Project to start a Teen Court which incorporated Juvenile Court, the District Attorney’s Office, the Police Jury, and the Police Jury’s Office of Juvenile Justice Services. After retirement from the Police Jury in 2010 Dr. Mackey was appointed by the Jury to the Calcasieu Parish Public Trust Authority in 2012.

He was a prodigious volunteer for the community including President or Board Member of the following: Calcasieu Kiwanis Club, Chamber of Commerce Southwest Louisiana and Chamber Foundation, Family and Youth Counseling Center, Calcasieu Parish Board of Boy Scouts of America, Junior League Advisory Board, Southwest Football Referee Association where he refereed football during the 1960’s and 1970’s, W.B. Williamson American Legion Post 1, and Republican State Central Committee. He was a member of the Pioneer Club, the McNeese Foundation, the McNeese Tip-Off Club, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Alumnae Club, Krewe of Contraband where he was King in 1998, Lake Charles Racquet Club charter member, and the Serra Club. As President of the Lake Charles High School Wildcat Foundation, they placed trophies and school honor awards in the McNeese library for posterity.

Individually, professionally and as a public servant, Dr. Mackey stimulated a sense of civic responsibility in others, contributed to good government, and enhanced the understanding of the rule of law by personal example and by his leadership in public affairs.

Special recognitions and honors received by Dr. Mackey include the following: United Way “Stick-to-it” Award for children’s service, Volunteer Service Award from the Calcasieu Parish Office of Community Services, Certificate of Appreciation in service to foster children by the Division of Children, Youth and Family Services, the Liberty Bell Award by the American Bar Association which is awarded to “men and women who have promoted better understanding of the rule of law, or encouraged greater respect for the law and the Court, or stimulated a sense of civic responsibility, or contributed to good government.” He was named Public Official of the Year by the Monsignor Cramers Assembly of Knights of Columbus and received the Civic Service Award for 1998 from the Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Mackey also received the Public Official of the Year Award from the National Association of Social Workers in 1999, and a certificate of appreciation from the Preservation Society for work in restoration of the historic Calcasieu Parish Courthouse and the Pierce Waters Stable Building on Lakeshore Drive. He was honored as the King of the Krewe of Mystique in 1995.

Dr. Mackey was a member of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Parish where he served as lector and Eucharistic Minister. He served on the Parish Council. He also served as the St. Louis High School Foundation Board President and was a member of the St. Louis PTO serving as President.

Dr. Mackey is survived by his loving wife, Gail Barré Mackey, one daughter, Erin Mackey Skrnich and husband Rodney, and their three children, Christian, Ryan (deceased) and Leah of Lafayette, Guy Sigler Mackey and wife Kimberly and their five children, Kellin, Kathryn, Christopher, Matthew and Sarah of Columbus, MS, and Brian Charles Mackey and wife Elizabeth, and their two sons, Robinson and Charles Mackey of Baton Rouge. Rigsby Barclay Barnes and wife Eileen of Atlanta, GA is his surviving brother.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Virginia Sigler Mackey Barnes and father, Kennard Ivan Mackey, and brother, Ken Mackey of Houston, TX.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00 AM on Saturday, May 18, 2024 in The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception located at 935 Bilbo St., Lake Charles, LA. Rev. Ruben Buller will serve as Celebrant. Inurnment will follow in Consolata Cemetery under the direction of Johnson Funeral Home of Lake Charles. Visitation will be at the church from 9:00 AM until the start of the mass at 10:00 AM.

The family would like to give special thanks to Dr. Ronald Lewis and the nursing staff of Lake Charles Memorial Hospital and Barbara Williams, his caregiver, for their compassionate care during his last days.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The St. Nicholas Center for Children, P. O. Box 3163, Lake Charles, LA 70605, or at https://www.classy.org/give/145564/#!/donation/checkout.