Mimi Kingsbury, Aug. 30
Mimi Kingsbury passed away peacefully in Highlands Ranch, CO on August 30, 2021 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. She will be celebrated and remembered by the many people who were blessed to feel the radiance of her spirit. Born Mary Jean MacKinnon on December 31, 1942 to Eugene and Anne MacKinnon in Bryn Mawr, PA, her parents and older sister Sally gave her the nickname Mimi as a toddler due to her constantly asking for things and saying “me, me, me”. Although the nickname would remain, she evolved into a selfless giver, a loving wife, a nurturing mother and grandmother, a volunteer and community leader, and a dear friend to countless people.
She graduated from Rowland Hall School for Girls in Salt Lake City, UT, then completed one year at Northwestern University. She was always proud of her time as a Kappa Kappa Gamma while at Northwestern. She met Khalil Kingsbury after transferring to the University of Utah and they married September 12, 1964. After they moved to Iowa for Khalil’s job, Mimi finished college and graduated from the University of Northern Iowa.
In her time living in Iowa and New Mexico, Mimi was involved in volunteer activities too numerous to list, but there are several highlights. She was one of five people who brought public radio to the University of Northern Iowa (KUNI and KHKE). Always active as an alumna, she eventually served as President of the UNI Alumni Association. She helped start a Voluntary Probation Program in Waterloo, IA and helped bring that to Moline, IL while living there for two years. Mimi was also an active member of the Junior League. Mimi was appointed by Governor Terry Branstad to the Iowa Judiciary Committee for selecting judges. Along with volunteering, Mimi founded her software sales and consulting business, Systems Support, in the late 1980s as a partner to IBM.
After moving from Iowa and “retiring” Mimi became the President of the New Mexico Children’s Foundation. She was always a faithful member of the Episcopal Church and volunteered at St. Luke’s in Cedar Falls, IA and St. Bede’s in Santa Fe, NM, where she served as the treasurer. Even after her diagnosis with Alzheimer’s, Mimi continued volunteering for Las Campanas Compadres, an organization that helped people with special needs feel the joys of swimming. That organization named their annual volunteer award the Mimi Kingsbury Award after she and Khalil moved to Colorado.
All who knew Mimi will remember her fun-loving and active nature. She had many hobbies: swimming competitively at the Master’s level, hiking and fly-fishing and scuba-diving and traveling with Khalil, wind-surfing, skiing, painting water colors, and of course, knitting. Mimi loved hosting or attending parties and was always making people laugh. Her sense of humor was inherited from her mother Anne and would occasionally venture into the raunchy and inappropriate.
Mimi was preceded in death by her father Eugene, mother Anne, and sister Sally. She is survived by her husband of nearly 57 years, Khalil; son Christian, his wife Laura, and their sons Owen and Andrew; and son Jonathan and his children Nicholas, Anna, and Joseph.
The family has asked that in lieu of flowers donations be made to either the Alzheimer’s Foundation or the New Mexico Children’s Foundation. For the Alzheimer’s Foundation visit: act.alz.org/goto/Mimi_Kingsbury. For the New Mexico Children’s Foundation, donate in Memory of Mimi Kingsbury at: nmchildren.org/donate/ or P.O. Box 8182, Santa Fe, NM 87504.