McMahan

Information and photo provided by Sally Grey Weeks

Liza McMahan (1906 - 1993)

Elizabeth (Liza) McLeary was born in Weimar, the daughter of Dr. Sam B. McLeary and his wife, Mamie Kindred, and spend her childhood there. The family moved to Columbus in 1917. Liza was a great-granddaughter of James Allen McLeary, also buried in Osage.

Liza owned and operated The Style Shop in Columbus for several years during the late 1930s, then bought The Colorado County Citizen in 1943. She married Truman (Mac) McMahan, a Houston journalist, in 1946, and together they edited and published The Citizen until 1968. She once was voted the “Woman of the Year” by the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. After selling the Citizen, Liza bought a small house near the east river bridge and established The Hodgepodge, where she started an antique business, and added a small kitchen. When she heard of British pub booths going for sale in a nearby town, she had an interior wall taken out to fit the booths into the house. Many travelers between Houston, San Antonio and Austin regularly stopped there for refreshments.

Liza supported a small local Humane Society for many years, and took in abandoned dogs and cats. To raise money for animal care and veterinarian fees, Liza and a few volunteers established The Rummage Room in a large empty building near the tracks on Milam Street in Columbus. This was an all-volunteer outfit, accepting and sorting donations of clothing and other items to sell at low prices to local customers.

Later, Liza moved to Glidden, where she had Liza’s Antiques, a small business refinishing amd selling wooden trunks from the 1800s and where she enjoyed visits from two nieces and their families.