Younger acquaintances of Nancy McMahon were inclined to think of her as a second mom, as if she didn’t have enough to do raising eight children of her own.
“Nancy’s family is unique in my experience,” said Deedee Weaver of Atlanta, a longtime friend. “Never have I seen such a big family where everyone in it, sons and daughters, and even their children, turned out to be near-perfect.”
“Life in our family was full of fun and love,” said a son, Brian McMahon of Birmingham. “Mom gave motherhood her best effort every day. She had boundless energy, was well-organized, and never had need of hired help. She even found time to mother the friends of us kids.”
A niece, Pam Kelly of Garden City, N.Y., also lays claim to some of McMahon’s mothering. “I chose to go to a college near where Aunt Nancy lived at the time so she would be close by to give me support and advice. And when I needed a formal dress for a dance, she would welcome me to pick one from her closet.”
More recently, when Kelly was diagnosed with lung cancer, she said her aunt, who also had lung cancer, became “an incredible support system — often mailing me cards and little gifts or texting me messages to lift my spirits. Aunt Nancy was so thoughtful.”
A friend, Lila Shirley of Sandy Springs, said McMahon always seemed to put the concerns of others before her own. “Nancy was so pleasant and positive — the epitome of a Christ-centered lady. I never heard her utter a negative word, and the gleam in her eyes never flickered.”
Nancy Lantz McMahon, 79, died Thursday at her Atlanta home after five years of treatment for cancer. Her family plans a vigil service at 6:30 p.m. Monday and a funeral Mass at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 4475 Northside Drive N.W., Atlanta, with burial to follow at Arlington Memorial Park. H.M. Patterson & Sons, Arlington Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.
A New York native, McMahon moved to Atlanta in 1976 when her husband, Donald McMahon, accepted an executive position here.
Even watching over a brood of eight, McMahon still pursued creative avocations.
“Mom saw beauty in everything,” Brian McMahon said. “She saw it in what she painted and photographed, in the plants she chose in gardening, and in the furnishings she picked as a home decorator.
“We kids marveled at Mom’s feats of strength — as petite as she was, moving boulders and railroad ties around our hillside garden in the front yard,” he said.
“Decorating for Mom was more a part-time passion than an occupation. She worked with an established Buckhead decorator, selecting beautiful furnishings for clients not just in Atlanta but from all over America.”
She used the photos she took of children and of nature in two ways, her son said. Some, she had printed on note card covers that she sold online or to stationary stores in Atlanta and beyond; others, she used as images that she enlarged on canvas — oil paintings that she often gave to family members and friends.
Her husband of 55 years died in 2007. Additional survivors include four daughters, Gail Connell of Alpharetta, Carol Lucas of Greensboro, N.C., and Anne McMahon and Lisa McMahon, both of Atlanta; three other sons, Glenn McMahon of Newport, Calif., Bill McMahon of Wellesley, Mass., and Douglas McMahon of Orlando; two sisters, Patricia Blake of Taconic, N.Y., and Virginia Pringer of New Bern, N.C.; and 19 grandchildren.
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