D. Michael McClain, a long-time resident of Savannah Lakes Village near McCormick, South Carolina, passed away on January 12, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was born on February 8, 1939, in Alva, Oklahoma, the oldest son of Harold and Ruby (McHenry) McClain.
As a young man, Mike left Alva to seek his fortune in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he met the love of his life, Frances (Acri) McClain. They were married in Albuquerque on December 31, 1962.
A few years later, Mike started his retail career with the Army Air Force Exchange Service. He and Fran soon left New Mexico to spend almost a decade traveling and living around the world. They went first to the mountains of Asmara, Eritrea, in East Africa, where Mike enjoyed playing golf on a course where the hazards included wandering gazelles and the occasional baboon. Then was Vicenza, Italy, where he loved to put his negotiating skills to work at the neighborhood wine store. (Many years later, when Mike and Fran returned to Vicenza on vacation, they stopped in to visit the same Italian wine merchant, who picked up the bargaining where they’d left off decades before.) Next was Munich, Germany, where the family enjoyed exploring the forests, castles, and quaint villages of Bavaria. Finally, they returned to Dallas, Texas, where they lived for many years. Mike retired at the age of 53 and spent several years after that volunteering in Dallas as the guardian ad litem for indigent children in broken families and answering the telephone on an all-night suicide hotline before Fran finally joined him in retirement. Mike and Fran retired to Savannah Lakes Village in 2003, where they have lived ever since.
Mike was a high school basketball star for the Alva Goldbugs and an enthusiastic athlete his whole life. He loved tennis, golf, and pickleball, and was still playing and organizing tennis for others in Savannah Lakes Village in the last weeks of his life.
He loved playing cards, both poker in his youth and as a bridge fanatic in retirement. He was also an online astrologer and numerologist for more than 25 years, the creator of www.astrology-numerology.com, which introduced thousands of people around the world to these “occult arts.”
Mike and Fran celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary with family and grandchildren on December 31, 2021. He leaves behind his wife Frances, his sons Scott (Christen) and David (Dawn), and five grandchildren: Ellen, Mark, Lisa, Zan, and Camden Wells.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.hmpattersonOglethorpe.com for the McClain family.
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