The Oregonian, June 19, 2008:

Ada May McCormack

"A Mass will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 21, 2008 in St. Clare Catholic Church in Portland for Ada May McCormack who died June 12 following surgery at age 47. A vigil service will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 20, also in the church.

Ada May Smith was born July 12, 1960, in Portland and was raised in Lake Oswego. She graduated from Lakeridge High School and Washington State University and was an advertising saleswoman for KXL Radio for 27 years. She married Jack McCormack in 1985; they divorced.

Survivors include her sons, Jackson McCormack and Earl McCormack; parents, Chris and Palmer Smith; and sisters, Andrea Alexander and Betsy Tulee; bother, Jeff Smith; and former husband.

Remembrances to a fund for her sons at Washington Mutual. Arrangements by River View."

Additional remembrances from Radio Creative Land.com:
http://radiocreativeland.com/2008/06/16/a-time-to-pause-and-reflect/

Doug Zanger remembrance from Advertising Age:
http://adage.com/smallagency/post?article_id=127850

I was wondering if someone was going to post this, so, thanks Craig...

I didn't know Ada, but her father was a groomsman at my parent's wedding 51 years ago this month, and her mother helped me land my job at the Bureau of Indian affairs.

Both of her parents are very fine people, and I imagine Ada was as well.

I have sent the kind comments in the links along to my parents to pass along, they are coming home early from vacation to attend the service.

I was saddened to learn longtime KXL sales rep Ada May McCormack recently passed away at age 47. We worked together at KXL during the 1990's. She was always a positive presence and great to work with. My heart goes out to her family. -Randy O

A real class act. Everyone loved her.....and I believe the #1 sales writer at KXL.

My wife worked with Ada at KXL for several years - Ada introduced us. What a tragic loss.

I did not know Ada well, but we were competitors for 13 years, and had a number of clients in common. One thing I found out quickly was that if you were up against her on a buy, you'd better bring your A Game: she came in prepared to win every single time.

She played the game the right way, over-delivered on her promises, and her clients loved her -- in fact, I ran into one of her customers Friday evening who'd flown up from California just for the memorial service.

Saturday's Oregonian (page C6) features a more in-depth retrospective of Ada's life with a picture.

Ada was one of the people I most enjoyed working with at KXL. As a talk show host I went on numerous sales calls and Ada always made it fun and productive. She was clealy the best of a fine sales force.