Sensational Seniors – June 2018

In this month’s “Sensational Seniors” article, I honor the spirit of two well-known and well-loved Jacksonville ladies, Lou McBride and Donna McNurlen, known by their business name as the “Two Macs.” It’s only fitting that these two long-time friends and self-motivated and hard-working entrepreneurs both passed away in January of 2018. I only wish I had known them before they were gone, as piecing together their story is a challenge. Thankfully, I have been assisted by talking to a sampling of their Jacksonville friends and by two newspaper articles, the first an August 1, 1988 Grants Pass Daily Courier article by Mary Korbulic and the second, a January 10, 2004 Medford Mail Tribune article by John Darling.

While there is little history of their early lives, I do know that Lou was born on May 31, 1930 in Denver, Colorado. Her parents were Eleanor and Lawrence Tall, and she had a sister, Sally. Sometime in her early years Lou was married, hence her McBride name, but how and when that marriage ended, it is not known and no children resulted from the marriage. Donna was born on April 14, 1935 in Richland, Iowa to Olive and Lloyd McNurlen. She was one of three children and was a girls’ basketball star in Iowa, a state that loved its basketball. Donna was briefly married and then divorced with no children. Eventually, both ladies ended up in Colorado and started working for the Marin-Marietta plant that helped produce Titan missiles. Seeking other adventures, the two friends decided to head west. Driving a well-used Volkswagen bus and low on funds, they arrived in Jacksonville in 1971 just as the engine on the Volkswagen died. Soon after their arrival and with their friendship still intact after the arduous journey from Colorado, they set up a janitorial business that was to be their main source of income for over 30 years. Playing on their last two names, it was dubbed “The Two Macs” janitorial service.

They had many long-time clients during those 30 plus years, including the City of Jacksonville and Brodie Dental. Besides providing cleaning services, they brought friendship to their job sites. Jeff Alvis, Jacksonville City Administrator, remembers, “Donna and Lou loved Jacksonville and being a part of our team as our janitors. We honored them as being loyal City of Jacksonville employees at a City Council meeting when they retired… and many tears were shed.” Bill Brodie relates that when his family moved here in 1974 and he started Brodie Dental Clinic, the “Two Macs” were hired to do the clinic’s janitorial work, and they continued to do it for more than 30 years. “Donna and Lou did a beautiful precise job of cleaning but, more than that, they were our close neighbors and friends. They were wonderful to our kids, more like aunts to them, often inviting them over to their California Street home to do craft projects. Donna and I shared a love for fishing but, however many fish I caught on a given day, she always would catch more. They were a lot of fun.”

Besides their successful janitorial business, Lou and Donna are noted for helping preserve a piece of Jacksonville history, the historic Magruder House. In 1971, when “The Two Macs” arrived in Jacksonville, they walked by the Magruder home that was for sale for $9,000. The small cottage was in great disrepair or as Lou said, “It was a filthy black hole.” Undaunted, they scraped together enough money to initiate the purchase, rolled up their sleeves and got down and dirty in gutting the home and excavating huge piles of cans, bottles, leaves and wire from old fences. In attempting to apply interior paint, they found that the woodwork was so coated with grease that the paint would not stick. The exterior was covered in ivy, almost hiding the cottage. To make it even worse, the home had no heat and existed with only one light bulb. Lou, in the Mail Tribune article remembered, “It took six to eight months before that awful feeling and the dirt and smell was gone. We knew nothing about home repair, so we had to learn everything as we went. It was hard work, real hard, but we’ve had a great time.” Lou and Donna were to spend 33 happy years at 455 E. California, and this long-neglected and unnoticed home eventually was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was featured several times on the Jacksonville Boosters Home and Garden Tour. Well-known Jacksonville resident Larry Smith muses, “When we visited them at their historic home on California Street, we always came away happier. These two ladies enjoyed life. There was always much laughter when you were around the Two Macs.”

After their janitorial business was established and the renovation of their cottage was well on its way, in 1982, the “Two Macs” started a new business, a wooden folk art one, that resulted in them creating over 500 wood patterns, mainly of animals, that they sold at selected fairs and by special order. While their janitorial business was primarily a weekend work schedule, they devoted four week days to making their wood patterns. Their division of labor had McNurlen using her saws and sanders to create the cutouts in a back yard shed while McBride’s painting studio was located in the cottage living room. In the August 1, 1988 article in the Grants Pass Daily Courier, McBride expounded on their new business venture saying, “We get people bringing us pictures of their dead pets, so we can make lifelike doorstops of them. That’s okay so long as they don’t start bringing in pictures of their dead relatives.” McNurlen further expounded, “The cats are probably our most popular item but Lou’s cows look like you could go up and milk them.” Their barnyard figures were not small items, standing about as tall as a German shepherd and their popular doorstop cats were made to size.

As their second business venture begin to take off, Lou and Donna realized they needed more space, especially for Donna’s saws and sanders, so they decided that they would have a shed built but, after getting a bid for its construction and hearing the words, “This is definitely a man’s job,” they once again strapped on their tool belts and built their own shed. This workshop, besides being Donna’s work space, was decorated with old tools, skates, and fishing rods. Besides serving as decorations, the fishing rods were used frequently for their favorite relaxation activity, fishing the Applegate and Rogue Rivers.

As McNurlen’s health declined and later McBride’s, they decided they needed to re-locate nearer to the Rogue Valley Medical Center, so in 2004 they put their beloved Magruder cottage up for sale but at a slightly higher price, $385.000. Eventually, they transitioned to Barnett Woods Retirement Living where in January they both died. A celebration of life was held on January 27, 2018 at Barnett Woods for these two devoted friends. The legacy they left is embedded in the wonderful memories that remain with their many Jacksonville friends. Lyn Boening of Pioneer Financial Planning remembers, “Donna and Lou loved our annual Holiday Open House and attended almost every one. They always wore their Christmas sweaters and enjoyed the food but they really liked seeing familiar faces, especially as they moved out of Jacksonville.” Their long-time California street neighbor and friend, Mary Ann Byrne, laughs when remembering that when she moved into her home on May 1, 1993, Lou and Donna were at her door the next day. “They said the Jacksonville Garden Club meets tomorrow, and we would like you to go with us, so, after two days, I had two new friends and was a Garden Club member. We became such good friends that they referred to me as their sister, which I guess was why I was listed in both of their wills as their personal representative.” The obituaries for both Lou and Donna requested that contributions in their memory be made to the Jacksonville Woodlands Association. Both women loved to relax on their front porch where they took great pleasure in the Beekman House and the Beekman Woods, the first piece of property which eventually became the Jacksonville Woodlands. True to their spirit of giving and friendship, Lou’s estate was given to the Woodlands Association and, likewise, one-half of Donna’s was given for the same purpose. These generous bequests will provide an endowment that will sustain the 300-acre Woodlands for years to come. What a legacy these two unassuming, modest and hard-working women gave to Jacksonville.