Elaine Mcconkey, Who Built Horticultural Supply Business

Even in the last days of her life, as health was quickly failing her, Elaine McConkey worried about her friends and family.

"She was saying `What are you all all doing here? You have things to do,' " recalled her son, Ed McConkey. "She was more concerned about others' problems than her own."

Mrs. McConkey, a longtime Washington resident and businesswoman, died May 1 after a long battle with cancer. She was 72.

Services were held Wednesday.

During the past 30 years, she and her husband, Jack, built up a highly successful horticultural supply business known as J.M. McConkey & Co. Inc. Today, the company, headquartered in Sumner, Pierce County, is the largest supplier to wholesale nurseries and distributors in 11 Western states, selling everything from fertilizer to plastic pots and greenhouse structures.

And it was Mrs. McConkey, her husband says, who made many key decisions leading to the company's expansion. As a business-school graduate, she not only took care of the bookkeeping but also searched out the best buys for products and property.

"She had a tremendous business mind. She was a natural businesswoman and she just loved it," said her husband, Jack McConkey of Federal Way.

Throughout their marriage, while raising their children in West Seattle, she and Jack always thought of themselves as "the team." She worked behind the scenes while he was out promoting their products to the horticultural industry.

They were preparing to celebrate their 50th anniversary on June 20.

Mrs. McConkey had fended off cancer intermittently for 19 years and was one of the few cancer patients in the country, relatives say, to beat the odds through experimental chemotherapy treatments being given at Swedish Hospital.

But the illness finally caught up with her five years ago.

To the very end, relatives say, she continued to balance chemotherapy and work and lived life with the same exuberance that had become her trademark.

"I feel my two (grown) children have a lot of stability and good feelings about themselves and life, and I attribute it to her," said her daughter, Cheryl Peterson of Federal Way.

Reared on a family farm in Rochester, Thurston County, Mrs. McConkey had lifelong interests in gardening, cooking and sewing as a member of the 4-H Club. She did so well, in fact, that she was one of four high school students selected to represent the state of Washington at a 4-H national competition in Washington, D.C.

Upon graduating from high school at age 16, she attended business college, then moved to Sitka, Alaska, to work with her uncle at a savings-and-loan company.

There, in 1941, she met her husband. After he completed military service at Fort Richards, the young couple made the trek back to Seattle over the Alcan Highway when it was still a dirt road and Alaska was still a territory.

For 23 days, they drove in a 1941 Chevrolet packed with 50 gallons of gasoline, staying at roadhouses and cabins.

"She had kind of a pioneer spirit about it," her husband said.

Surviving Mrs. McConkey are her daughters, Cheryl of Federal Way and Surain Sandeberg of Seattle; her sons, Trenton of Puyallup and Edward of Federal Way; and four grandchildren.