Madeline Mack: Artist Extraordinaire

An era of retail merchandising in Mooresville ended just before the Christmas season of 1993 when the inviting showcase windows of John Mack and Son were empty and dark.  There were no Mack fashions inside holiday packages that year. The source of advice on what to wear and when to wear it was gone. After more than 82 years in downtown Mooresville, John Mack's family business was closed.

The Madeline Mack-designed wonderlands became a memory for shoppers. What a memory!

John Mack (Hannah Machool Fakoury) and his sons Side and Charles moved into their new store on December 24, 1912, celebrating the season and a milestone in grand style.

The whole family was home in America, at last. Charlie was the first to leave the original business, opening a shoe store and a confectionery business. His recipe for ice cream was the basis for the development of the Mooresville Ice Cream Company. Later his wholesale operation moved to East Center Avenue, where he had one of two tobacco humidor rooms in the state of North Carolina.

John and Side ran the clothing store, eventually using the space in two buildings which were later remodeled into one. Side's children were growing up in the store, learning the fine points of retail merchandising. Madeline returned home from her studies at Traphagen Art Institute in 1935 and stayed to run the women's department. In an interview for the store's 75th anniversary, she said, "I was going to help out in the store for a while and, as things turned out, I was too involved to leave." With brothers Ed and Mitchell away during World War II, Madeline was the logical choice to work with her father.

Madeline's interest in art started in the high school and led to her study at the Maryland Institute of Art and the Traphagen School of Fashion and Design. Talent merged with training, and she became skilled in the design of fashions and the settings for their display. Her intention was to work in New York City, but a short trip home turned into a 50-year career in downtown Mooresville.

Belk manager Ray Boone admired Mack's windows. During Belk’s 100^th anniversary he said, "She created masterpieces and allowed shoppers to enjoy them. Mack windows are as much a part of the holiday season in Mooresville as parades and lights."

"Madeline Mack was such a talented, caring lady," says Center Avenue neighbor Connie Sykes. Mack enjoyed her art at work and at home, painting in watercolor and oils. "She was always making something beautiful," says Brother Mitchell Mack. He describes the one-of-a-kind edible sculptures made with candy and bits of shiny foils and other materials. Madeline brightened many days for local shut-ins with those thoughtful gifts. She often returned the favor of a wedding invitation by decorating the invitation with her own artwork.

It was in the fashion world that she excelled. Even though she was not in the New York mainstream of fashion design, Madeline produced hundreds of sketches and designs for clothing, hats, bags and gloves in a style of her own. She worked hard to keep up with trends in fashion and merged that knowledge into her designs. Her drawings tell the story of a woman who loved fashion and a talented artist capable of creating illustrations in great detail. She used those drawings and ideas in her merchandising materials, especially the large windows that served as her sidewalk gallery. Photos of those window displays show her careful use of clothing, accessories, furniture and decoration. Some of those fashion drawings can be found in her niece's Greensboro clothing store, Mack and Mack.

She brought innovative ideas to the store’s visual merchandising and set the standard for excellence in advertising and point of purchase promotions. Live models in the windows, an innovation for local business, were popular for shoppers and her fellow merchants. Dolores Koury Mack and Joan Morrow were among Madeline's favorite models. Their time in the window brought clothing and accessories up close and personal for shoppers.

It was that merchandising flair and her attention to detail that led the Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce to name her its Merchant of the Year in 1989.

Madeline Mack was an extraordinary artist whose vision and skill enabled her to create beautiful things for the people around her. He greatest talent, though, may be that she was able to adapt and change, shifting her focus from the fashion runways of the big city to the small stage of Mooresville. While her work didn't make the New York runways, Madeline Mack brought her excitement and fashion sense to the local scene, one customer at a time.

The artist died on March 31, 2006.