George McMillan, a former politician who rose to the highest ranks of state politics and then later became the “driving force” in helping redefine downtown Birmingham by founding a popular music festival, has died. He was 81.

McMillan, a Greenville native once described as among the “hardest-working” state lawmakers in Montgomery, also came close to defeating George Wallace in Alabama’s governor’s election in 1982.

He was elected lieutenant governor in 1978, and about a decade later in 1989, founded the City Stages music festival in Birmingham, an effort instrumental to providing a much-needed jolt to the city’s downtown in the late 1980s and 90s.

“There is no one I know who had a greater passion for Birmingham and Alabama, who spent as much as he could to make things better here,” said David Sher, past chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, who is founder and publisher of ComebackTown.

Said John Montgomery, an advertising executive in Birmingham, “George was the catalyst for a lot of great things.”

McMillan’s public career in Alabama politics and his career in reshaping downtown Birmingham’s image represent a rare dual success story for the state – one that continues to inspire those who knew the longtime attorney and Auburn University graduate who rose to become student government president in 1966.

In a statement Saturday, Gov. Kay Ivey – also a former lieutenant governor and a student government president at Auburn – said her long friendship with McMillan dated back to when the two attended the university in the 1960s.

“He treasured being in public service and was a man of great ideas throughout his life, especially while he served our state as lieutenant governor and in the Legislature,” Ivey said. “He will be greatly missed.”

Meteoric political rise

A 1969 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, McMillan founded his own law practice in 1971. He was elected to the Alabama House in 1973, and then the Alabama State Senate in 1974.

Steve Flowers, a former member of the Alabama House and a longtime writer of Alabama state politics, said McMillan’s victory over Sen. George Lewis Bailes was seen as an upset at the time. Bailes was chairman of the Democratic Party Executive Committee for Alabama.

“McMillan was young, and he was a superstar,” Flowers said. “He was very energetic. McMillan would work circles around people.”

His rise, political observers say, was “meteoric” as McMillan would go from being elected lieutenant governor—the state’s No. 2 political position –to coming the closest to defeating Wallace of any candidate since 1958.

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, who was the secretary of state when McMillan was lieutenant governor, recalled the first time he met McMillan over a misunderstanding on where the two should park in Montgomery.

“I was the secretary of state, and I accidentally parked in his parking spot,” Siegelman said. “He was the lieutenant governor. He called me to his office to point out the window where my parking spot should be, and it wasn’t where I thought it should be.”

The two struck up a friendship that continued in later years, as Siegelman and McMillan would often cross paths, encountering each other as they walked to their offices in Birmingham.

“He was a role model of a good public servant and as a good man,” Siegelman said.

1982 governor’s race

McMillan’s most notable moment in elected office happened in 1982, when he forced a runoff by finishing a distant second behind Wallace but ahead of former Alabama House Speaker Joe McCorquodale and future Alabama Gov. Jim Folsom.

McMillan, like Albert Brewer in the 1970 governor’s race against Wallace, was painted as the “New South” candidate who had support from younger and more progressive voters. Wallace, at the time, was struggling with health complications following an attempted assassination in 1972. McMillan was 38 at the time of the election.

“There was a perception on the part of business leaders in urban Alabama that Alabama needed a generically talked about ‘New South’ governor,” said Jess Brown, a retired professor from Athens State University and a longtime observer of Alabama state politics. “The financial interests coalesced around McMillan. But there was enough political energy left in that Wallace crowd.”

Also boosting Wallace’s standing was that the formerly notorious segregationist had renounced his views in 1972. And even though polling, heading into the election, showed McMillan with an early advantage, Wallace won the race by securing an overwhelming share of the Black rural vote.

Wallace won the Democratic primary election with 51.19% to 48.81% for McMillan. The 2.38 percentage point win represented the closest election victory for Wallace during his lengthy Alabama political career.

“The hallmark of his political career was his race against George Wallace,” Siegelman said. “There were always some questions as to what happened to the votes after he went asleep (on Election Night). But McMillan was a person who put the state first, rather than politics first.”

McMillan ran again for governor in 1986, finishing a distant fourth place in the primary.

Revitalizing Birmingham

After that loss, McMillan began what is best described as the most impactful stint in public life – the founding, and creation of the City Stages music festival in downtown Birmingham, which would go for a two-decade run from 1989-2009.

“He was a music fan, but I think much of his drive for City Stages was about bringing the entire community of Birmingham together for a shared event in downtown Birmingham,” said Philip Foster, who served on the City Stages board while McMillan was president of the festival that he established under the Birmingham Cultural and Heritage Foundation.

Foster said in the late 1980s, there was little energy in downtown Birmingham. The city also maintained a reputation as a place few wanted to venture into “after dark.”

“He just had this vision of wanting to start something and the idea of a music festival was a good way to do that,” Foster said.

The festival, held over Father’s Day weekend, was an all-encompassing showcase of top musical entertainers from a host of genres. Major stars played at City Stages, performing side-by-side with regional acts, up-and-coming singer-songwriters, noteworthy bands and local artists.

James Brown, Bob Dylan, Kayne West, Loretta Lynn, Dierks Bentley, Black Crowes, Jason Isbell, Lynyrd Skynrd, and Kid Rock were among some of the big names to play at the festival over its lengthy run.

The festival, focused on enlivening a city’s downtown, was replicated elsewhere including in Mobile, where BayFest ran from 1995-2015.

“We tried to provide programming for everyone in a safe environment,” Foster said. “There have been other festivals, and good ones. But there has never been anything that has really replaced City Stages.”

Nancy Trucks, also a longtime member of the City Stages board, said McMillan was the “driving force” that gave organizers of the festival “motivation to do everything we did.”

“He had a great love for Birmingham, and it showed every day,” Trucks said. “Had it not been for George and his vision for Birmingham and City Stages, it would have never happened. He gathered the best people in the community together and built something great.”

Years after the festival’s final performance, Trucks said she continued to have a strong bond with McMillan who, while driven and hard-working, “had the biggest heart,” she said.

“I’ve formed permanent friendships, and he was certainly the catalyst for that,” Trucks said. “He could be very volatile and then the most loving person. I would always remember our last words to each other. We were hugging, and he told me he loved me, and I loved him and I’ve loved him and his family since those old days when he was running for governor.”