Speaker McGee warmly remembered by hundreds at memorial service

LYNN – Former Speaker Thomas W. McGee was a formidable politician and tenacious leader who also cared deeply about his constituents in Lynn and making the world a better place, according to family, friends and colleagues in the Massachusetts Legislature who honored McGee on Saturday.”He was tough as nails on the outside and soft as silk on the inside,” said former House Majority leader Jack Murphy of Peabody, who worked under McGee in the 1970s and ’80s.Murphy was among the hundreds of federal, state and local politicians who joined McGee family members and Greater Lynn residents at a memorial service Saturday at St. Mary’s Church in Lynn to honor the late speaker, who died Dec. 21 at the age of 88 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.View a photo galleryA long line of well-wishers formed out the door of the church that McGee attended Mass in every Sunday with his family. Lynn residents Pat Donnelly and Vin Fabucci braved the chilly morning air to pay their respects to a man they said made Lynn a better place.”We’re here to a honor a man that did a lot for the city of Lynn,” said Donnelly, who said she remembers McGee checking in on her family after her father, the late City Councilor Peter Donnelly, died.”He’s a warm-hearted guy if you got to know him,” said her husband, Fabucci.McGee’s final Mass was peppered with memories from his four children: Catherine McGee Kavanaugh, Shawn McGee, Michael McGee and Thomas M. McGee, the current state senator representing Greater Lynn.Shawn McGee had much of the church laughing out loud with his memories of his sports-loving father who used his connections as speaker to score the best seats at just about every sporting event imaginable – from boxing matches in Las Vegas to Super Bowls to Olympics abroad.”I never met anyone as excited about sport events as Dad,” he said.Shawn McGee said his father also made a point to attend the Thanksgiving Day game between McGee’s alma mater, Lynn English High School, and Lynn Classical High School.That’s the way McGee was, said his son, Thomas M. McGee. He could be in the Oval Office of the White House one day and having coffee with his constituents at a diner in Lynn the next.”He liked to say, ?I’m just a kid from West Lynn,'” Thomas M. McGee said.But the longest-serving speaker in the history of the Massachusetts House of Representatives also had a reputation as an intimidating leader.David Bartley, who preceded McGee as speaker, said tough negotiating skills comes with the job description.”It’s not a young boy’s league. It’s a tough job to be speaker,” he said. “You had to rule with a combination of love and fear.”Amid the scandals of some of the state’s most recent speakers, Bartley said he and McGee served the post with honor.”He walked away with pride, and so did I,” Bartley said.Bartley was among some of the state’s most powerful politicians who filled St. Mary’s pews to honor McGee. They included: Lt. Gov. Tim Murray; Senate President Therese Murray; Speaker Robert DeLeo; U.S. Congressmen Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch; Secretary of State William Galvin; former Boston mayor Ray Flynn; former acting U.S. senator Paul Kirk; state Treasurer Steven Grossman; and president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO Steven Tolman.More than 100 state legislatures and several former speakers and senate presidents also attended, including just about every speaker since 1965.Former Senate President William Bulger, who also served with McGee, said he admired McGee’s toughness, which Bulger said was always guided by a good moral compass.”He didn’t run around deciding what to do on the basis of what was popular,” Bulger said. ” ? He could be persuaded, but it was almost always by reason.”Former Majority Leader Murphy said McGee used his “blustery” leadership style as a mechanism to stand up for the average person.And Thomas M. McGee said his father held fast to a motto of helping at least one person a day – all the better if those people were from his beloved city of Lynn