Kosciusko native Dale McLean recently painted a special portrait for the Skipworth Performing Arts Center.
He is currently working on different pieces, but one of the recent paintings he did was of Charlton H. Ferguson, a tuba player from Kosciusko who was killed on the USS Oklahoma in the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Requested by Dr. Tim Alford, McLean’s painting will be displayed at the Skipworth Center for Performing Arts.
McLean started painting at a very young age. He was motivated by his teachers and family to keep it up and knew it would ultimately be a rewarding experience.
“I used to sketch, and people would brag on how good that was, and I liked that, so I pursued it,” McLean said.
Originally from Lenoir, North Carolina, McLean graduated high school in 1955 and then enlisted in the Air Force.
Though McLean retired from the Air Force, he never stopped doing the one thing he has always loved, painting. He also opened his own picture framing company out of his home.
Throughout the years, he painted pictures for the Pentagon, family members, and of other monumental moments in his life.
“I painted the B-58 plane I used to fly back in ’69, and that painting is now in the Air Force art collection,” he said.
McLean works with oil paint that brings a lifelike quality to every painting he does.
He also has mastered the art of making homemade picture frames, and custom designed pool cubs.
“I entered one of my paintings in the Fine Arts of America competition,” he said. “Out of the 932 artists, my painting received first place.”
McLean entered another competition and placed first and second on different pieces of art.
“I grew up in Lenoir. I graduated from high school, went to college, and then joined the Air Force,” he said. “I finished my college degree in the Air Force.”
McLean was one of the last graduating classes of the Aviation Cadet Corps.
“They did away with that program the next graduating class after me.”
McLean was an air crew member that flew B-52s, B-58, and F-4 airplanes. He then went to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi to learn about electronics and met his first wife Bobbie McLean from Attala County.
He was stationed in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, where he flew F-4 fighter planes, and completed over 150 combat missions.
After his time in the Vietnam War, McLean was recruited to Germany and spent four years as part of the inspector general’s team. His duties were to go across Europe to different Air Force bases for inspections. During this time, he was stationed in three different places in Germany: Spangdalem Air Base, Sembach Kaserne, where the inspector’s general team was, and then NATO headquarters in Belgium.
“I was selected and pulled off the IG team to go to NATO. They were starting a major command of allied air forces in central Europe,” he said. “I was a charter member of that. I helped write all the regs and get that started.”
After working at NATO headquarters, McLean left in 1975 and went to Homestead Air Reserve Base, close to Miami, Florida.
“It was a training base. We trained new pilots and navigators in the F-4 fighter planes.”
McLean got the opportunity to put together a squadron that graduated early due to his excellent teaching abilities and knowledge. He stayed at Homestead for a while, but McLean was selected to work at the Pentagon’s programming department.
He and his wife had two children together, Shaw Rushton and Robert McLean. The oldest child Robert completed his education while the couple was still in Virginia.
Bobbie McLean, along with her family, made the decision to move back to Attala County to care for her father. During this process, however, Bobbie’s father passed away. But the family decided they would still move.
Dale McLean retired after 21 years of working for the Air Force. The family decide they would still make the move and enrolled their daughter Shawn to Kosciusko Middle School.
According to McLean, the country home needed some touch-ups.
“I did all the work myself. I did everything from the sheetrock, wiring, plumbing, tile laying, and more.”
In 2006, McLean’s first wife passed away. Several years later, McLean remarried Dean McLean, also of Attala County. Robert McLean lives in Alabama and Shawn Rushton resides in Attala County. McLean also just welcomed his first great-grandson into the world, Brady Edward McLean.
