New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-12-12
Surgeons Were Preparing
to Operate on Mrs. Don
aid Sage Mackay.
ASSUMED NAME
LONG HID IDENTITY
Reason for Calling Herself Mrs.
Stone Unexplained-Taken III
While Shopping.

Her Identification DELAYED for hours
because she gave an assumed name
Mrs. Helen l.. Mackay. widow Of DR.
Donald Sage Mackay. formerly pastor
Of the Collegiate Reformed Church
Fifth avenue and 18th street died yes
terday under an anesthctic on an op-
Grating table i'm the Lexington Sana-
torlum. No. l3S East 6lst street.
Mrs. Mackay. who was daughter OF
former Governor J. Gregory Smith OF
Vermont. went 20 the hospital at !
O'Clock YESTERDAY afternoon, intro
ducing herself as Mrs. J. II. Stone. OF
Roston. Why she disguised herself re-
mains unexplained. She lived at NO.
III Park avenue with her daughter
about twenty years old. Another
daughter. younger, is in boarding
school
I'll o'clock yesterday morning Mrs.
Mackay left her apartments. telling her
daughter she was going shopping. \
half hour later she was in the rccep-
ton room of Or. Henry Well, at No.
7S2 West End avenue. Mrs. Mackay
told the physician she had been sud
denly seized with pain in her stomach.
Or We'll made an examination and
told her To 60 at once TO the Lexington
Sanitarium for an operation.
on being asked her name she told
the physician she was Mrs. Stone. and
that she had come 10 this city on a
shopping tour. She reached the sana-
torium at noon An hour later Or.
We'll, with Or. Dcmpel Wolf. appeared.
Mrs. MaCkay was placed on the oper-
ating table and ether was administered.
The physicians were prepared to oper-
ate when DR.. We'll. on touching her, ex-
claimed, she's dead
Coroner Uotzhauser was sent for and
he turned the case over to the police.
They searched the woman's handbag
and found slips of paper bearing the
words ID. s. Mackay, No. Al Park
avenue" Detectives found nobody In
the Mackly apartment. but the super
,ntcndent. Harvey Hammerstein. said
that Mrs. Mackay lived there. Follow
inC the death of her husband she had
entered the brokerage business, he said.
While they were in conversation Miss
Mackay entered.
"Mamma's been away since II o'clock
this morning" she said, and I've been
worried over her absence Can you
tell me anything"
The detectives could, but did not, but
they took Hammerstein to the sanl-
tarium, where he identified the body.
The body of Mrs. Mackay arrived In
the Morgue at 1910 o'clock this morn
ing. a few moments later Wilder
Goodman. of No. = Wall street, the
Mackay family lawyer. arrived, with a
young woman i'm an automobile. He
said she was "A daughter OF Mrs. Mac
kay. The young woman was hysteri-
cal and did not enter the Morgue.
After identifying the body the law
yer wanted it sent to the Park avenue
home at once, but was told II could
not he done before daylight.
Mrs. Macksy was about nifty years
old. DR.. Mackay, born in Scotland.
quickly won prominence on this side OF
the water. He started out to study
I,w but rcnounced that for the min
istry. In Boston he met Miss Smith.
who lived In ST. Adams, Vt. Thither
ne went, and three weeks after his
arrival was called to the pastorate OF
tbe First Presbyterian Church there.
In 1898 DR.. Mackay was called to the
Collegiate Reformed Church. There he
remained until his sudden death in
Portland. Me-, on August "a l9oo.
Mrs. Mackay's father was Vermonts
"War Governor" He was president OF
the Central Vermont Railroad and first
president of the Northern Pacific Rail-
road.