When Madeline Caroline McTier was in elementary school, her parents knew they had an athlete on their hands.
Michael and Jennifer McTier lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and their 5-year-old daughter was on an all-boys baseball team.
“She was fast,” Michael McTier said of his daughter. “And she’d run and tag the boys out before they could get to first base. I finally told her she had to throw the ball to the boy on first base, and she said, ‘Daddy, I threw it to him once and he dropped it!’ That was Madeline, you only got one chance.”
As she grew into a young woman, Madeline’s confidence never waned, but she learned how to bring others into the mix, her father said.
“Now I’m going to tell you, if you asked her who was the prettiest girl, she’d say it was her,” he said with a laugh. “But at the same time, she knew when to be that girl and when it was somebody else’s turn.”
Madeline, a junior at East Coweta High School, died Tuesday of complications from a brain tumor. She was 17.
A memorial service is planned for 3 p.m. Sunday at Crossroads Church in Sharpsburg. McKoon Funeral Home & Crematory is in charge of cremation arrangements.
Madeline was a first-grader when the McTier family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, said her mother, Jennifer McTier. They signed her up for girls’ softball, where she was a standout player. But soon, another sport grabbed her attention.
“There were two really great girls who were always at the house, and they were more girlie-girlie,” Michael McTier said. “And I looked up, and my softball-playing daughter became a cheerleader. She never looked back.”
The McTier family’s move back to Georgia, where Madeline was born, introduced the young woman to new friends and a new competitive cheerleading family. For the past few years, Madeline cheered with ACE of Atlanta, a regional branch of the ACE Cheer Co. She was also on the cheer squad at East Coweta High, said the school’s principal, Evan Horton.
“She was the type of person who could bring any group of people together,” the principal said. “In her 17 years, she could do, and did, things for this school and this community that many couldn’t do in a lifetime.”
Carl McKnight said his daughter Macy and Madeline, whose fire-red hair matched his own, were the best of friends. McKnight said his “red-headed daughter,” meaning Madeline, had a level of care and compassion that was beyond her years.
“As a parent, everything revolves around your children,” McKnight said tearfully. “And this one was mine, too.”
Madeline’s diagnosis came March 19, 2012. She had surgery two days later and was cheering again by the 2012 football season, her mother said. She did get to live one of her dreams last fall, as she posed for pictures on the University of Alabama football field with the school’s cheerleaders.
“She wanted to ‘Roll Tide!’ ” her father said. “And I think at that time she thought she was going to make it back to be an Alabama cheerleader. She was just that mentally tough.”
Though Madeline never regained her health, Michael and Jennifer McTier readily tell anyone who will listen that their prayers were answered.
“I know people who prayed that hadn’t prayed in years, prayed for Madeline,” he said Thursday, choking back tears. “I was told 20 kids got saved last night at the church, and Madeline had something to do with that. I know parents who sat down and just talked to their kids, who hadn’t done that. So, just because our Madeline isn’t here, healed and walking around, we don’t want people to think our prayers weren’t answered. Our prayers were definitely answered, and Madeline is touching lives.”
In addition to her parents, Madeline is survived by brothers Mitchell McTier and Max McTier, both of Newnan; grandparents Curtis and Sandra McTier of Tucker, and Mike and Gail Murphy of Duluth; her paternal great-grandmother, Ruth McGee of Tucker; and her maternal great-grandfather, Clifford Neal of Toccoa.
About the Author
