Lloyd McDonough

Summary

Lloyd McDonough was a Beaver Island store operator and civic official, born on the island February 1, 1903. He operated the McDonough General Store for 39 years, served St. James Township as supervisor for 20 years, and was a vice president of the Beaver Island Boat Company and an officer of the Beaver Island Telephone Company. He died May 10, 1972.

History

The May 1955 Beaver Beacon identifies McDonough as vice president of the Beaver Island Boat Company. He had been in Sturgeon Bay for the last details of the Emerald Isle and made the delivery trip back to the island with the crew; at the April 23 christening at St. James he was named among the Boat Company’s board alongside Dr. Harry F. Vail, Karl J. Erber, and Theodore Hine, under company president Henry Allen.¹ The same issue notes that “the Lloyd McDonoughs” were building two new cabins on their land next to the store, complete with showers, electric stoves, and refrigeration, with a third planned at their existing group of cabins at Sand Bay — evidence that the family’s store business was expanding into visitor lodging in the mid-1950s, alongside his son Joseph L. “Bud” McDonough.

The May 1972 obituary, headlined “Lloyd McDonough Passes,” reports that he died at Little Traverse Hospital on Wednesday, May 10, 1972, after a short illness following his return home from Florida. He was married to Eva C. LaFreniere in 1926; she died in 1964. In 1967 he married June Coleman Quartermaine at Battle Creek. He was a member of Holy Cross Church and of the Elks. Besides his wife, he was survived by two sons, Joseph L. “Bud” of St. James and Bruce of Charlevoix; two daughters, Mrs. Walter (Vera) Wojan and Mrs. Russel (Joy) Green, both of St. James; 32 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; 10 step-grandchildren; two brothers, Lawrence M. of St. James and Robert J. of Wyoming; two sisters, Mrs. Frank O’Donnell of St. James and Mrs. Charles Teter of Oakbrook, Illinois; and three stepsons and three stepdaughters from the Quartermaine marriage.

The Rosary was recited at the Winchester Funeral Home in Charlevoix on May 10, and again at the McDonough home on Beaver Island on May 12. Funeral services were held at Holy Cross Church at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 13, with the Rev. Herbert Graf, O.F.M., officiating, assisted by Rev. E. G. Donahoe; five grandsons and a nephew served as altar boys. Burial was in Holy Cross Cemetery on Beaver Island. The family suggested memorial contributions to the Beaver Island Medical Center Fund.

The obituary also remembers, in its own retrospective words, that McDonough “had seen many changes take place on the Island during his lifetime; from the horse and buggy days to the jet age,” including its economic shift from fishing and farming toward tourism. That is a retrospective description, linked here to the commercial-fishing theme and not read as a measured population or industry series.

Evidence and limits

The 1955 report and the 1972 obituary carry the same name and the same Boat Company office, which is what joins them into one record. Neither supplies a civil birth or marriage certificate, a complete company history, or a full family reconstruction beyond the obituary’s own survivor list.

Added 1 August 2026 · revised 3 August 2026. Recent changes