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Former ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä television anchor Tom McGee died Sunday at age 78.
Former ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä TV anchor Tom McGee is shown in late January 2013 at Mark Hunt Associates in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, where he worked as an attorney.
Gazette-Mail file
Former ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Mayor Danny Jones said Tuesday that McGee's personality and ability outshined many.
"He was an enormous talent and a generously warm individual," Jones said.
McGee was born Feb. 20, 1947, in Huntsville, Alabama. He attended the University of Alabama in the late 1960s before serving in Vietnam for a year in the early 1970s. When he returned, he went back to college on the G.I. Bill and graduated with a degree in political science, with a minor in communications.
McGee took his photography portfolio around to different news stations to try and get a job. Three weeks later, he had an offer from a newspaper and television station. He took the job at a Huntsville TV station as a photographer.
McGee then went to Buffalo, Detroit and CNN in Atlanta before coming to ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä in 1984 to work for WCHS-TV. According to a 2002 Associated Press report, he was fired from WCHS-TV in 1993. He worked at WOWK-TV for seven years before being fired after a contract dispute. McGee returned to WCHS in the early 2000s under new management.
'Life is a series of comebacks'
Former ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä TV anchor Tom McGee is shown in 2009 after graduating from the West Virginia University College of Law.
McGee pleaded guilty to DUI charges in Kanawha County in 1997 and 2003.
In a 2013 interview with The ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Gazette, McGee acknowledged his history with alcohol and how it might have affected him personally and professionally, saying he was "not bitter about the past."
"I got charged three times with DUI. I pleaded guilty twice. It took a lot of whipping for me to understand what was going on. Some overnight visits to the regional jail is enough to know that's not a place you want to be," McGee said at the time."
While working in TV, law school stayed on his mind. In 2006, with news stations downsizing, McGee, in his 60s, went to law school.
McGee graduated from West Virginia University College of Law, became a personal injury attorney in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä and worked at Mark Hunt & Associates Attorneys in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. He said he took a lot of DUI cases, to help those who went through events similar to what he went through.
"Life is a series of comebacks, and he certainly made his," Jones said Tuesday. "Like me, he was an alcoholic, and we helped each other through that process."
McGee's visitation will be at noon Thursday at Henson and Kitchen Funeral Home, at 1592 East Pea Ridge Road, Huntington. Services will follow, at 1 p.m. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation.
McGee is survived by his wife, Julianne McGinnis McGee, stepdaughter Laura Foor (Cole) and their children, Addie, Leland and Poppy.
Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at hensonandkitchen.com.
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