Saying goodbye to Georgia McCoy
Dec 21, 2012, 12:00 PM | Updated: 12:00 pm
Al McCoy was the first Phoenix broadcast personality I ever met.
I had just come to town what seems like a century ago, and I was visiting Channel 12, which was also the location for KTAR radio. Al was on staff there.
We were introduced. We discovered we had Iowa in common and from that time, even when we were competitors, there was a warm and comfortable friendship.
Perhaps that’s because we have so many things in common. We’re both foodies with a hobby of discovering new restaurants. We are life-long big band and jazz lovers. And most importantly, we were the luckiest husbands in the world to have had the extraordinary wives we’ve been blessed with, I for thirty years and Al and Georgia for 54.
It will always be 54 years for the McCoys because Wednesday, Georgia McCoy passed away at Hospice of the Valley after an extended illness.
The thing I remember most about her is how proud she was of him, his work as the voice of the Phoenix Suns and his skills at the piano. I wouldn’t be surprised that somewhere Al is seated at a keyboard playing some old standard.
Perhaps something like “Georgia on My Mind.”
I’m Pat McMahon.
