Former Lt. Governor and State Leader George McMillan passed away Easter weekend in Birmingham. George was 81.
McMillan had a meteoric career in Alabama politics. He grew up in Greenville where he had extensive family connections. He was a young, superstar politico coming out of high school. He went to Auburn University, where he was a sensational student leader. He was President of the SGA. He met and became good friends with another student leader at Auburn, our current Governor Kay Ivey.
Kay and George are the same age and were political allies, remaining good friends through the years. George must have been an outstanding student at Auburn because he went to the prestigious Virginia Law School after college. After graduating from UVA Law School, George came back home and settled in Birmingham and began the practice of Law.
He married Ann Roper Dial, whose father was a prominent Birmingham businessman. He and 40-year veteran State Senator Gerald Dial of Lineville were close. Gerald was George’s chief legislative ally during George’s tenure as Lt. Governor.
Shortly after beginning his law practice, a State House seat came open in Jefferson County. George won that seat. In the next election, young Mr. McMillan slayed a giant. The most powerful State Senator in the state, George Lewis Bailes, hailed from Jefferson County. George McMillan took him on in what most folks thought was a David vs. Goliath match. George McMillan won and made a statewide name for himself. He went to Montgomery and became a very effective and respected State Senator.
McMillan only served one term in the Senate, 1974-1978, because he was on a fast track. He was elected Lt. Governor in 1978. After one term as Lt. Governor, he again revealed that he had no reluctance to take on a challenge or a giant. He ran against George Wallace for Governor in 1982 and came within an eyelash of beating him in the Democratic primary that year.
In 1982, Governor Fob James decided not to run for re-election. Former Gov. George Wallace was attempting to be elected to a fourth term as Governor, after having waited out four years due to being term limited. McMillan and Wallace wound up in a run-off. Wallace ironically won the Democratic run-off because he received the bulk of the Black vote – a political irony that is still difficult for national political historians to fathom and understand. Wallace went on to win the General Election in a landslide, defeating Republican Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar. Winning the Democratic Primary at that time was tantamount to election.
McMillan was often compared to another former Lt. Governor and short-term Governor, Albert Brewer. Similar to McMillan, Brewer had all but beaten Wallace in a titanic Governor’s race a decade earlier in 1970. Both Brewer and McMillan were heralded as having the potential to give Alabama a “New South” Governor.
McMillan made a second attempt for the governorship in 1986, but he failed to gain traction. He was beaten out of the two run-off spots by Lt. Governor Bill Baxley and Attorney General Charlie Graddick. Neither Baxley or Graddick would become Governor. Guy Hunt, the unknown Republican candidate from Holly Pond in Cullman County, won the Governor’s office.
Hunt became the first GOP Governor of Alabama since Reconstruction. That 1986 election ended the Democratic Party reign in Alabama politics. The days of electing a Democratic Governor in the Heart of Dixie ended that year and probably forever. That year also marked the end of George McMillan’s political career.
In 1989, McMillan founded City Stages, a large musical festival in downtown Birmingham. It became one of the largest and most renowned musical festivals in the nation. George ran City Stages for a decade during its prime years.
George McMillan was a vivacious person with a gregarious, warm, genuinely friendly demeanor. He was a friend, and I always enjoyed visiting with him and talking politics. In fact, it can be said and is seldom said about someone who spent their life in politics, I never heard anyone say, “I do not like George McMillan.”
See you next week.
