She was born in Newark, Illinois on 5 May 1918. She lived on a farm in Lisbon, Illinois, where she attended a one room school. She graduated from Morris, Illinois High School and then completed a three year Registered Nurse program at Lutheran Deaconess Hospital, Chicago, Illinois in 1940. She served as a Lieutenant in the United States Army Nurse Corps near LeMans, France during World War II. She lived on Ainsley Street in Chicago, Illinois. She worked as a Registered Nurse at the Elmhurst Memorial Hospital for 15 years. Joseph Mackavick and Alphena Ficarrotto lived across the street from each other in Elmhurst Illinois. After the death of their first spouses in 1965 and 1968, they married in 1969 and lived in her house, at 282 East Oneida Avenue, Elmhurst, Illinois, until Joseph’s death in 1980. She had rheumatic heart disease, and was frail, but managed to live alone after moving to be near her only child, Mary, after Joseph’s death. She first lived at 5525 Tennessee Avenue, Apartment 203, Clarendon Hills, Illinois 60514, and then moved to 10 North Washington Street, Apartment 209, Hinsdale, Illinois 60521. She died at 60521 Hinsdale, Du Page, Illinois, at age 80 of end stage rheumatic heart disease. From a letter from her daughter Mary Bacon of 9 January 2000 (copy in David Moody file John Matkovich) "My dad never spent any money on dinner out or travel. I guess this came from being very poor as a child. He was quite the self-made American, putting himself through school while almost being a parent to his younger siblings as they had lost their mother to an illness when he was still a teenager and he was the oldest. He was a structural engineer-bright, but a very solitary man. After he died Joe and my mother just started going to dinner together and soon married. I think Joe was all the things that my dad was not-social, enjoyed food and wine, loved to travel, close with his family. My mom just seemed to love all of this that she had missed. Joe was such a good friend to me, right from the start-accepting of my college friends during the hippie 60’s and loved to get into political discussions with them. And he was such a good "Grandpa Joe” to my David-unfortunately Laura never knew him since he died during my pregnancy with her. My Mom was very stoic (I guess that’s the Norwegian) and never complained, but I know she missed Joe a lot. The holidays were always especially hard for her after he died. I was never successful in lifting her spirits around Christmas, no matter what I did. I think she especially missed just having him there to make little decisions with her-like what color to paint a room-something like that-she’d mention those sorts of things. She treasured her relationship with Joe’s family and was very glad that she kept in touch after his death. My dad’s family (the Fatlands) did not make much attempt to do this after he died.”