farragutpress

Town founder fondly remembered

October 22, 2025 by Tammy Cheek

Fearless, rational, fair, faithful …

The Town of Farragut lost Mr. Clifton “Gene” McNalley Sr., 91, a Town founder Monday, Sept. 29, but he remains remembered.

“(Mr. McNalley) was such a good man,” said Marianne McGill, wife of the late Mayor Ralph McGill and a former alderman in the early years. “We couldn’t say enough about him. He was loyal, good, faithful.”

Born March 1934, in Morristown, Mr. McNalley was a U.S. Army veteran, serving in the ASA Division in West Germany, where he met his wife, Eva.

According to his obituary, after returning to Tennessee, Mr. McNalley joined the Tennessee Highway Patrol, moving up in rank to captain, and, in the meantime, earned an associate’s degree in criminal justice technology and worked to strengthen the drunk driving laws and safety regulations. He retired in 1990.

In 1979, Mr. McNalley and Eva, were living in Kingsgate subdivision, when he was chosen as the subdivision’s homeowners association leader to fight against a dangerous road through the subdivision. That fight led to a larger battle, trying to incorporate the Town.

While the Farragut Committee Group worked to get the Town incorporated, “he did a lot of leg work for us, working with officials and just anything you asked him to do,” Marianne recalled. “He knew everybody downtown, and the stories he used to tell us kept us laughing, kept us going.

“He pretty much did some things I didn’t even find out about until probably two years ago,” she said. “We had a lot of threats during that time we were trying to incorporate. People were calling, threatening and following us home, that kind of thing.”

Marianne did not learn until later but there were unmarked cars parked across the road from the McGills’ house, watching their house while the couple slept.

And, “he kept us all going with his sense of humor and laughter and light-heartedness,” she recalled. “Everybody was so tense about so many things, and he would always lighten up the situation whenever he was around,” Marianne said. “He was just a really, special, special guy.”

And, she remembered her husband coming home telling him what Mr. McNalley said.

“It just made us feel better to have somebody like that around,” Marianne said.

When they were speaking at one of their symposiums, “he would be in the crowd. He wouldn’t let it be known, but he was packing a gun,” she recalled.

Incorporating “was a tough road, but it was worth it,” Marianne said. “I will never forget (Mr. McNalley). He was just a wonderful, wonderful man to everybody, never said a harsh word to anybody.”

As a developer in Farragut since the Town’s beginning, Doug Horne, president of Horne Properties Inc. and owner of Republic Newspapers, which owns farragutpress, remembered Mr. McNalley as fair and rational.

“(Mr. McNalley) was one of the early community leaders for the formation of the Town of Farragut, and he worked extremely well with (the) new mayor, Bob Leonard and Eddy Ford,” said Horne, who brought in the original Walmart and Ingle’s into Town. “(Mr. McNalley) was a very responsible leader,” Horne added. “He helped forge the agreement between landowners and the Town.”

“In the very beginning, a lot of the landowners were nervous about what the Town would do with their ordinances on how you could develop your property,” he recalled. “And, over the years, it has been a struggle to develop properties in Farragut … in the early days, we were all working with the Town to make sure they were fair and protected our First Amendment rights and private property rights.

“And, Gene was always in the middle of it, making sure the Town was fair … ” he recalled.

Horne said he and McNalley were involved with the Town from the beginning, as well as Horne’s starting the newspaper in 1988.

“He was very supportive of the newspaper,” Horne recalled of McNalley.

“I knew him, I guess, because we were developing property in the Town, and he always helped us with the mayors, Bob Leonard and Eddy Ford, for them to be fair in the implementation of the ordinances,” he said.

Despite the strenuous, often difficult, nature of the Town’s ordinances, “Gene was always kind of middle-of-the-road mediator between Town officials and citizens, I thought,” Horne recalled. “(Mr. McNalley) tried to be rational and reasonable with the private landowners and private property rights.

“I always found him to be reasonable and fair about the Town’s ordinances and development of property in the Town,” the developer added.

As a state trooper, “a lot of people had great respect for him,” Horne said. “He was always a very congenial and fair person. I thought a lot of him.”

“Gene got involved with the Town because we were having water problems in our subdivision,” recalled fellow founder Eric Johnson. “You couldn’t take a shower in the morning because the water lines were insufficient.

“He called a neighborhood meeting, and that’s how it all began,” Johnson said. That’s how I met him.

“And during the incorporation, he was really an excellent person,” Johnson added. “He provided our security, which we needed; he knew local, state and federal politicians, got help whenever we needed it; and made the contacts necessary for us to be a success.”

As an individual, “he was a really good person because he cared about other people,” Johnson.

“He was worried about safety on the roads. “He was worried about the well-being of everybody in the community,” Johnson said of Mr. McNalley. “He’s the kind of person who cares about others. That’s not the case with a lot of people.

“He was the one, when we’d get discouraged during the incorporation efforts, who would tell us, ‘Go ahead and do it; it’s OK. Don’t give up on this. Keep going,’” Johnson said. “And, a lot of times, we really needed his encouragement.”

Living on a blind hill on Peterson Road, “he would go outside and direct traffic to make sure neighbors could get out (of their driveways),” Johnson recalled. “He went to the county to try to get the hill fixed; and when the county ignored him, he became very interested in forming our own town.”

“I knew Gene quite well,” said Ron Simandl, a fellow FCG member and founder. “A very kind man, always had a great number of stories to tell you — relevant and always kind of humorous — in regard to his (state trooper) occupation.

“As far as the Town, he was super helpful,” Simandl said of Mr. McNalley. “Just his presence here kind of calmed things down. That time period, back in ’79 and ’80, was rather tense,” he recalled. “Gene’s presence there in our group and his background with the State Highway Patrol kind of calmed the opposition party a little bit.

“Gene was always around for meetings and always helpful in some way or other.”

Simandl said. “He had a lot of contacts in this area, so he could talk the Town up for us … everybody was his friend, basically.”

Mr. McNalley leaves behind his wife, Eva Maria McNalley, of almost 69 years; son Clifton G. McNalley Jr.; daughters, Tina M. McNalley, Regina M. Gertsen, her husband John Gertsen, and their three children, Amanda, Harry and Henry of Knoxville; and nieces, Terri McNalley of Orlando, Florida, and Shannon McNalley of Manchester, Tennessee.