Karen (Maiju) Mackey, more commonly known as the “Licorice Lady” or “Granny” to Kent State’s football team, found her purpose in her later years by caring for the team by handing out candy and support from 2013 until shortly before she passed on Oct. 27 of this year.

Maiju Mackey always loved helping young people, according to her family. Not only were she and her husband school teachers, they also adopted both of their children, said her daughter-in-law Kim Mackey. 

“Having children around her was very, very important,” said Kim Mackey. “Helping guide them and make sure that they felt like they had somebody in their life started early.”

Maiju Mackey, originally from Painesville, Ohio, was born on March 11, 1938, and died at the age of 85. Maiju Mackey was a proud Finnish-American. She attended Lake Erie College, and while in attendance there, she traveled to Switzerland to volunteer at an orphanage. After college, she pursued a career as an elementary school teacher and taught in the Fairport Harbor and Madison school districts. 

She was known by her family as a giving and selfless person, having hosted many exchange students from around the world throughout her life.

As her own children grew older, Kim Mackey said, she began to bring her grandson Ryan around Kent State and to the football team’s practices.

“If the boys had a trauma going on in their lives, or they had something going on, she would sit and talk with them,” said Kim Mackey. “She gave that to them, but they gave her the purpose of something to look forward to, the purpose of being that granny that was right there for them.”

Many of the players, faculty, and staff of the football team knew her only as “the Licorice Lady” or “Granny” — not by her first name — because her health was declining, and she didn’t want them to be worried when something inevitably would happen to her.

“She did not want to make them ever feel bad,” said Kim Mackey. “But of course, when she wasn’t there to pass out that licorice, the boys wondered what was going on with Granny.”

Before Maiju Mackey was completely wheelchair-bound, Stephanie Boyle, the administrative secretary for Kent State’s football team, helped her get around practices and games with a transport chair. 

“It wasn’t just the team she cared about, either,” Boyle said. “Post-practice, post-game, she’d be handing out stuff to the trainers, the video staff, the coaches, and she really got involved with the environment all the time.”

Even after losing a leg, Maiju Mackey still made it to practices, riding her motorized wheelchair through the streets to pass out her candy and support. 

“She knew no boundaries,” Boyle said. “She would drive across the bridge to the Stadium [by herself] and all of a sudden she’d be there.  I would have to follow her back, especially on the days she wasn’t feeling very well.”

Though she wanted her identity to be hidden because of her declining health, the team still found ways to support her while in the hospital. 

“One time when she was in the hospital, Coach [Sean] Lewis (head football coach from 2017-2022) got a helmet for her and had the whole team sign the card for her,” said Boyle. “That helmet was just the total bright spot of her hospital room. She was telling everybody about her helmet and how she got it.” 

Maiju Mackey eventually got a prosthetic for her leg, with a KSU emblem on the thigh that she loved to show off, Boyle said. However, she said that the prosthetic fell off and got stuck under her chair a few times when she rode it alone, so she could only use it if family was with her. 

“She was a very determined lady — she loved Kent State, and she loved the football team,” said Boyle. “To her, that was her family as well.”

Maiju Mackey’s memorial service will be held at Zion Lutheran Church in Fairport Harbor, Ohio on Nov. 25 at 11 a.m.

Willow Jernigan is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].

Leah Shepard is Team Editor. Contact her at [email protected].