Services for former State Senator George M. Callahan, Sr. are set for Saturday. He died July 19 in Mobile.
Callahan’s visitation will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Tillman’s Corner. It is followed by Mass at 1-2 p.m. The procession will go to Mobile's Pine Crest Funeral Home for burial.
A reception will follow at the nearby Elks Lodge.
Callahan was a former state senator and Republican activist. He was the brother of the late H.L. "Sonny" Callahan, who represented Alabama's first congressional district.
George had also served on the Mobile County Republican Executive Committee; the St. Vincent DePaul School Board, 1996-2000; and Commissioner of the Mobile County Racing Commission, 1984-1996.
He was preceded in death by his wife, “Miss Betty” Callahan. During their long marriage, they often travelled throughout the United States, including their week-long 50th anniversary honeymoon to Hawaii.
George and Miss Betty loved old convertible automobiles and had owned a 1967 Ford GTA convertible, a BMW and a Mercedes.
George attended McGill Institute and Auburn University. He had served in the U.S. Navy and the Marine Reserves.
He had been active in the Tillman's Corner Chamber of Commerce (now, Southwest Mobile County Chamber) and the Mobile County Land Owners Association, 1996-2002.
George’s political life included a family business, ABC Signs, which prints more political signs than any business in Alabama. He worked it with son Greg Callahan. Son Mike Callahan came aboard with a T-shirt division. Mike is a former executive with the Mobile BayBears baseball team.
ABC Signs is continuing, the Callahan name will continue, and the Callahan legacy will continue to bless Mobile and Alabama.
Retired Mobile broadcaster Ron Reams posted the following tribute to George Callahan:
I feel privileged to have been one of those your dad knew and thought enough of to pick on from time to time. Who am I kidding, he gave me some grief pretty much every time I saw him. That’s how I knew he cared. I’m just so sorry he won’t be around to do that anymore. Your parents were good people, and you have my sincere sympathy and condolences. But fear not… I have a suspicion George is getting together with people who loved him and also have gone to their reward, but George is trying to organize a poker game to meet every Monday night.
May God Bless you, Mike and the rest of your family as you go through the days which lie ahead.
You will be in my prayers.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler’s beat is the colorful and positive about Alabama -- her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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