Zora
Fannie Hiscox McKenzie—Zora
Fannie Hiscox was born in Troy, New York,
August 29, 1874, the daughter of Gardner David Hiscox and Francis
Lodiska House. In delicate health as a child, she attended the Troy
public schools, but never completed high school, but was tutored by
her mother, a former teacher, and her grandmother, Esther Thayer
Hiscox, a graduate of the Emma Willard Seminary. At the time of her
marriage to Charles Richard McKenzie, on December 30, 1907, she was
employed
at Allen's Book Store in Troy. She made her home in Albany,
New
York during her marriage and after the death of her husband, until
the 1930's.
With
limited financial resources and a seven-year-old son, she realized
that she must equip herself to earn a living. She attended Albany
Business
College and supported herself and her son as a typist, secretary, and
public stenographer until the spring of 1932, when she was injured
in a fall on ice and hospitalized many months. Thereafter, she lived
in a number of places in the South during the winter when possible
because
of arthritis, but generally near her son, or with him, when possible,
after his marriage.
In
generally failing health, she broke her hip and failed to recover.
She
was somewhat active in politics at the local level at one period and
took an active interest in church work during her life. Baptized
into
the Church of Christ (Disciples), she attended Baptist churches in
Albany and later attended Congregational churches when she was able.
She
was predeceased by two brothers (who died in infancy) a sister, and a
brother, and survived by a brother and three nephews, as well as by
her son, Alexander A. McKenzie II and three grandsons.
Zora
was buried in Troy, New York.
-
Helen Langford
