Ida Mae Fisher McKinley's Obituary
Ida Mae Fisher McKinley, 89, of Provo, Utah, passed away peacefully on July 23, 2026.
Ida was born December 29, 1936, at her maternal grandparents' home near Saxton, Pennsylvania, to Ray Monroe Fisher and Sarah Edith Miller Fisher. Named for both of her grandmothers, she spent her earliest years on the farm of her beloved great-grandmother, Mary Jane Miller Hanks, near Robinsonville, Pennsylvania. She began school at the one-room Point Pleasant school in Monroe Township and graduated from Everett High School in 1952 at just fifteen years old. She went on to Shippensburg State Teachers' College, where she majored in business education and English and graduated with honors and a teaching degree in June 1956.
On June 9, 1956, Ida married Harry Feight McKinley in the Methodist church in Bedford, Pennsylvania. They welcomed a daughter, Susan Kay, in 1957 and a son, Harry “Scott”, in 1960. Ida taught for thirteen years in Bedford County high schools, including Everett, Chestnut Ridge, Claysburg, and Bedford, where her students remembered her as smart, fun, firm but fair—and a teacher who dressed like a model.
In 1970, Ida joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, first attending in Cumberland, Maryland, and later helping to form a branch in Bedford. On June 9, 1976—their twentieth wedding anniversary—Harry, Ida, and their children were sealed in the Washington D.C. Temple.
The family moved to Provo, Utah, in 1979, where Ida worked at Utah Technical College (now Utah Valley University), first in the registrar's office and later as an academic advisor in student services. She loved traveling throughout the state encouraging high school seniors to begin their college education at UVU. She retired on January 1, 2000, after which she and Harry served as local missionaries at the Provo Tabernacle. In 2001 they began two decades of winters in Palmetto, Florida, interrupted only by a one-year record-preservation mission to eastern Pennsylvania for the Utah Genealogical Society, gathering and digitizing church records dating to the late 1700s. Ida made precious lifelong friends through golfing, bowling, political activities, and her work.
Ida is survived by her daughter, Susan Anderson (Keith), of Provo, Utah; her son, Scott McKinley (Denise), of Beaufort, South Carolina; eleven grandchildren and nine of their spouses; twenty-three great-grandchildren, two with spouses; one great-great-granddaughter; her sister-in-law, Lindi Fisher; and five nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-eight years, Harry, who passed away July 1, 2024; her sister, Mary Jeannine Baugher, and brother-in-law, James Baugher; her brother, Max Ray Fisher; two great-grandchildren; and daughter-in-law Karen Fjeldsted McKinley.
Her legacy includes fifty living family members and counting, fifteen full-time missionaries, four bishops, and thirteen temple marriages—a family who love each other and intend to be together forever. As Ida herself said: “I'll be there to greet and welcome you.”
Funeral services will be held Friday, July 31, 2026, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1555 N. 1350 W., Provo, Utah 84604. A viewing will begin at 10:00 a.m., followed by the memorial service at 11:00 a.m. Interment will follow at the Provo City Cemetery.
For those unable to attend the services, a Zoom link to the memorial service is included here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83536684287
Meeting ID: 835 3668 4287
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