George McMahon

Funeral will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Village Chapel for George McMahon, 79, Gadsden, who died Sunday, March 21, 2009. The Rev. Mark Gidley will officiate. Burial will be at Rainbow Memorial Gardens. Village Chapel Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. McMahon grew up in Miami and went to Gordon Military School in Barnsville, Ga. After graduation he went to the University of Tennessee, majoring in religion. He later joined the U.S. Marine Corps, where he was in the Special Forces and was a Golden Gloves boxer named Kid McCoy. After the military, he moved back to Miami and worked with his father at Rhodes Furniture. He later transferred to LA and began working construction before returning to Gadsden where he helped build the Holy Comforter and additions to the Baptist Hospital. Mr. McMahon was currently a member of Faith Worship Center in Glencoe.
He started in archery in the '70s and was the owner of Bowland in Alabama City and was the first certified bow hunter in Alabama. He began his ministry in 1976 and received his minister license from United Christian Church in Cleveland, Tenn. He served two years as assistant chaplain at Elmore prison. In the '80s, he became a member of the Gadsden Running Club and ran two marathons in Birmingham and also carried the Olympic Torch in Fort Payne. In the '90s, he started a clown ministry known as Clowns for Jesus, where he was known as "Hippy Hubby." He began a knife ministry where he was known as the "Knife Man" and gave away pocket knives with tracts. He loved to fly radio-controlled airplanes that he built.
He was preceded in death by his father, George Austin McMahon; mother, Carlotta Anderson; stepmother, Ruth Nasholme McMahon; and sister, Charlotte McMahon.
Mr. McMahon is survived by his wife, Kathy McMahon; daughter, Sandra (Fred) Satterfield, Ashville; son; George A. McMahon, Huntsville; grandchildren, Allison (Isaac) Patton and Jolie Satterfield, both of Ashville, Hillary McMahon, Gadsden, and Austin McMahon, Minnesota; great-grandchildren, Arianna, Sarah and Mollie; special brother-in-law, Steve (Mary Kathryn) Morton; special niece, Kayt Morton; and special godsons, Paul Argo and Manny Gregory.
Special thanks to Attalla Health Care staff of G Hall.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Faith Worship Center youth ministry or building fund, or Attalla Health Care activities center.
The family will receive friends Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the funeral home.