A photo of Beverly McCoy from around 1990
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
When Malcolm McCoy, educator, activist and bringer of smiles, died August 29, 2013, his wife of 55 years told the Lima News she wouldn’t remember him through a veil of tears.
“I’ve lost the love of my life, but cry?” Beverly McCoy said. “I can only smile every time I think of him. Malcolm always had a way of making people smile.”
In truth, both Malcolm and Beverly had a way about them – a way of helping, a way of educating, a way of getting involved and giving to the city they had called home since 1974. Between them they were seemingly involved in everything in their adopted hometown.
Malcolm Douglass McCoy was born December 30, 1931, in Columbus. He was educated in the Columbus city schools and served in the U.S. Navy from 1952 to 1955, continuing in the Naval Reserve from 1955 to 1972. He attended Ohio State University and Central State University. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education in 1960 and a Master of Educational Administration in 1970. From 1960 to 1974, he taught in the Columbus city schools.
Beverly Lois Owens was born July 12, 1934, in Cleveland. In her early childhood in Cleveland, Beverly was cared for by family friends while her mother battled tuberculosis. She graduated from John Hay High School in Cleveland and went on to study education at Ohio State University. She later obtained a master’s degree in education from the University of Toledo in 1994.
On July 7, 1958, Malcolm McCoy and Beverly Owens were married. Together they raised three children: Malcolm D. McCoy II, Erin Theresa Marie McCoy, and Kelly Lois McCoy Williams. Malcolm McCoy II died in November 2022.
The McCoy family arrived in Lima from Columbus in 1974 when Malcolm took a job with the Lima schools. He would serve 16 years in the Lima school system and, along with Oscar Marshall, become one of the first black administrators in the city system. He was a principal at Garfield, Faurot, Lincoln and Westwood schools before retiring in 1990. Beverly, too, retired from the city schools and, like her husband, continued to volunteer, advocate and educate, and act like anything but a retiree.
“Since she and her husband Malcolm moved to Lima in 1974, McCoy has been involved in enough activities to take up a book the size of Webster’s College Dictionary,” the News wrote August 23, 2004, adding that she traced her activism to her upbringing in Cleveland.
“I’ve always felt like it’s not enough to complain. It’s not enough to talk about what somebody else ought to be doing. And for me it’s a matter of saying, ‘Well, what can I do? Where can I lend my voice or my presence or my opinion?’ … That was the way my family was, so it just seemed natural,” she told the News.
“From that foundation,” the newspaper wrote, “McCoy began her political involvement with the Allen County Democratic Party and its Minority Caucus and the League of Women Voters.” In March 1991, William Angel, the outgoing chairman of the county Democratic Party, said his proudest moment was when Beverly was chosen for the board of elections in 1990.
Her belief in the importance of an educated electorate was highlighted in an article she co-authored with her husband for the News. It was published on New Year’s Day 2000. “When people come together to learn about issues, race becomes a secondary matter. The common good for the community becomes the main item on the agenda,” the McCoys wrote.
Beverly also served as chair of the county Democratic party for a decade and represented her region as a delegate at the Democratic National conventions in 1984 and 2008. Her dedication to community involvement extended to her work with Lima Metropolitan Housing Authority, the HYHO (Help Yourself, Help Others) Club, and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She served as vice-president of the Sisters in Service Community Foundation and the League of Women Voters.
Both husband and wife worked to ensure Black history and Black contributions to America were not forgotten.
In November 2000, Malcolm, after researching his own family’s history, wrote a guest column for the News on the role of Black soldiers during the Revolutionary War. “This research has been vital for me,” he wrote. “I didn’t know that 5,000 black troops and militiamen fought for freedom during the Revolutionary War. This is a fact that is not taught in schools and is virtually unknown to many historians. A general misunderstanding is that Blacks didn’t fight in the war.”
For her part, Beverly often gave talks on Black history and hosted a local radio show on Black history and issues. “During Black History Month, we do such a focus on the black community and then the rest of the year you never hear anything about it,” she told the News in 2004.
Malcolm, like his wife a member of the Democratic Party, worked as an Election Day poll worker, was a Boy Scout leader and an associate member of the Tuskegee Airmen. “At various points in his life he could be found on Saturday afternoons in the fall at Ohio State football games in Columbus, wearing a Boy Scout uniform as he ushered fans to their seats,” the News wrote in August 2013. “In the summer, he enjoyed windsurfing at Bresler Reservoir. He also was well known for the yellow and orange Volkswagens he drove around Lima.”
In June 1996, Malcolm, an avid jogger, among his many interests, was one of 10,000 runners chosen to carry the Olympic Torch from Los Angeles to Atlanta for the 1996 games. His kilometer was in the Wood County village of Portage. “McCoy was chosen to run through a nationwide ‘Community Heroes’ program,” the News wrote, adding that those who traveled from Lima to Portage to watch felt he was a good choice. “He does so many things (in the community), and he’s into everything,” said one person, while another called McCoy “the best that Lima has. He’s in so many things, and he just gets you involved, too.”
Both Malcolm and Beverly were deeply interested in Browns issues.
In addition to her “charm, sense of humor, endless curiosity, and deep love for family,” Beverly’s “passions,” her family wrote after her May 19 death, “included playing the piano, traveling, reading books by Black women authors, and cheering on OSU and Cleveland Browns football games.”
For his part, when word got out during the 1995 season that Browns owner Art Modell planned to move the team to Baltimore, Malcolm was moved to pen a letter to the News. “If the Browns must move, so be it. However, the name of the Cleveland Browns should stay in Cleveland,” he wrote, concluding his letter with: “Take him to court. Keep the name. Send the scoundrel-extortionist out of town.”
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SOURCE
This feature is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Allen County Museum and Historical Society.
LEARN MORE
See past Reminisce stories at limaohio.com/tag/reminisce
Reach Greg Hoersten at [email protected].
