Former Western News owner McMahon passes away
Former Western News owner Howard Markley “Mark” McMahon, 88, died Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017, in Davis, Calif., with his family at his side.
Mark and his wife June owned The Western News from 1981 to 2004 and made their home in Troy until a few years ago.
Mark was born Sept. 12, 1928, in Dallas, Texas, to Howard and Alma Lee Norton McMahon. His father was publisher of the Abilene Reporter-News.
Mark began delivering the Reporter-News at the age of 12 as a paperboy. This was not only his first job, but the start of a lifetime of work and love for community newspapers.
After attending five universities, including Texas A&M, Mark was graduated from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, in 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
In 1950, Mark enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was sent to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio for basic training, then to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls for advanced training as a weather forecaster.
Mark was deployed to Germany and later Libya, where he served as a corporal in the U.S. Air Force from 1952-1954. He completed his military service in 1954 and went to work for the San Angelo Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas.
It was there he met his future bride, June McDonald Hazlip, who was graduated from Texas State College for Women in 1954 with a degree in journalism and started work for the Standard-Times as women’s page editor. The two were working late on Halloween when their eyes met over the production room wall. They were wed three months later on Jan. 29, 1955.
Mark took a job at The Oil News, a publication about oil production in the Permian Basin, and ultimately borrowed $1,000 from his father to buy his first business.
He later learned there wasn’t a newspaper in Los Alamos, N.M., the site of the Manhattan Project and national weapons laboratory, and a new adventure began. Mark and June published the first edition of the Los Alamos Monitor in 1963, not long after the government opened the gates for community development.
“They really didn’t want a newspaper, but once we got rolling they couldn’t stop us,” June recalled.
During his time in Los Alamos, Mark became a founding member of the committee that saved an 1880s narrow-gauge rail line abandoned by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. Today the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is a National Historic Landmark, with the train taking thousands of tourists each year on a breathtaking trip that spans the Colorado and New Mexico borders.
Over the next 40-plus years, the McMahons owned and operated several community newspapers, including the Los Alamos Monitor (1963-1978); The Humboldt Sun, Winnemucca, Nev. (1977-1998); The Western News, Libby, Mont. (1981-2004); and The Kootenai Valley Eagle, Libby, Mont. (mid-1980s-2004).
Mark and June were fearless journalists and made a tremendous difference in the communities they served, covered and lived in. They witnessed the evolution of journalism from typewriters and hot type to personal computers and the World Wide Web.
After more than 50 years in the newspaper business, the McMahons retired to their cabin in Troy, where many summer evenings were spent drinking ice-cold gin and tonics and watching the Kootenai River flow by.
Mark was an avid, instrument-rated pilot, intrepid world traveler and truly devoted father and grandfather. He was happiest dipping the wing of his airplane into the clouds, hiking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in the wilderness, fly-fishing on the Kootenai and Bull rivers, and walking with his beloved dogs, Colby and Woody.
Mark is survived by his wife of 62 years; son and daughter-in-law, Steve McMahon and Vicki Smith of Davis; son, Brian (Gerri Steinagel) of Reno; daughter, Susan Wiesinger (John) of Chico, Calif.; grandchildren, Molly Smith McMahon, Erin McMahon, Brenna Bellamy (Tyler), PFC Griffin Brockus and Josh Wiesinger; great-grandson, Leeland Bellamy; nieces, Frances (Doug) Williamson and Kelly (Les) Campbell, both of Abilene, Texas; and adopted Montana “kids,” Bob and Kathy Egbert of Troy.
Mark was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Pat Wilson; and two feather-tailed golden retrievers, who undoubtedly were ecstatic to greet him.
No memorial service is planned. His family will gather in the near future for a true celebration of this life well lived.
Special thanks to the staff at Spanish Bay in North Davis, whose loving care was a great comfort to Mark and his family.
Donations in Mark’s memory may be made to the Mark & June McMahon Community Journalism Scholarship at California State University, Chico, where their daughter is a journalism professor and department chair. The fund was created in the McMahons honor nearly a decade ago and offers financial support to students who hope to enter community journalism. Go tohttps://www.csuchico.edu/giving, click “Give Now” and choose “other,” then designate the donation for the Mark & June McMahon Community Journalism Scholarship fund, #7822.
Or send donations to University Foundation-07822, CSU, Chico, 400 W First St., Chico, CA 95929-0999.