Ellestine L. Mack

Ellestine Lynetta (Moyer) Mack was born on June 12, 1935 in Sherrill, Arkansas, the fifth of six children of Alex Moyer Sr. and Ethel Redwood Moyer.

The Moyer family worshiped at Pine Hill Baptist Church in Pine Bluff where Ellestine attended and later taught Sunday School and sang in the junior choir.

She attended the Laboratory Training School on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (formerly Arkansas AM&N College), then moved on to Spring Hill for 6th through 8th grades, and finally she graduated from Corbin High School in 1953. Ellestine studied education at Arkansas AM&N College and then taught in Crossett, Arkansas and Southeast Missouri before moving to Milwaukee to join her parents, her aunt and uncle, and her sister, Selma Hays and her family. 

When she moved to Milwaukee she started teaching at Twentieth Street School and began attending Mt. Zion Baptist Church. At Twentieth Street, she always taught the lower primary grades, preferring the first grade and younger students. She was an excellent educator, loved teaching children the basics of reading and writing, and mentored many young teachers over 30 years. Even after she retired, she continued substitute teaching and impacting young lives in classrooms throughout the city.

While attending Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Ellestine met and married Willie E. Mack in 1965. They had one child, Linda, and remained married until he passed away in 2003. Ellestine was a devoted wife and supportive, loving mother. As a family, they took many trips, visiting family and friends while sightseeing across the country. 

At Mount Zion, Ellestine taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, and for a few years she was the superintendent of the Primary Sunday School Department. She sang in the Senior Choir (now known as Chancel Choir), served as a Deaconess, and was a member of the Matrons Missionary Society. She would always proclaim that she loved her church, and she served her church faithfully as a reflection of her love and service for God. She attended and participated in all the church activities and programs: choir concerts, Sunday School programs, special recognition days for ushers, youth programs, and fundraising events for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).

Ellestine loved to entertain at her home in Wauwatosa. She would host many family holidays, the Christmas party for the deacons and their wives, missionary board meetings, and luncheons and cookouts for the Sunday School Department, her neighbors, and her friends. She was famous for her outsized German chocolate cake!

In her last years in Grand Rapids, Michigan, her smile brightened the days at Care Cardinal Memory Care where she was a favorite resident because of her kindness and sassiness.

She will be fondly remembered and dearly missed by her daughter and son-in-law, Linda and Aaron Berlin, of Grand Rapids, MI, and granddaughter, Sierra; her brother, Theon Moyer of Chicago, IL; and a host of loving nieces, nephews, cousins, great-nieces and great-nephews, and friends.