Words by Terrell Manasco | Images courtesy Jonathan Mayhall

If the Lord ever spent an extra day creating a human soul, it was spent fashioning musician Marvin McCombs.

Born in 1937, Marvin grew up in the town of Ensley, Alabama. He set out to learn the guitar after being in inspired by country music star Chet Atkins, his boyhood idol, and practice became a part of his daily regimen. Because he felt peer pressure to play high school football, leaving no time for guitar, Marvin transferred from Ensley to Phillips High School (Birmingham).

After earning a music degree from The University of Alabama, Marvin taught English and Spanish at Oak Grove High School 25 years, then went on to direct the band and teach Spanish at Walker College. On weekends, he taught classical guitar at the University of Montevallo. In 1986, he studied under Andrés Segovia, widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists in musical history.

An exceptional classical and jazz guitarist, Marvin always emphasized that the talent came from practice. Bevill State psychology professor Jonathan Mayhall, who played in a jazz/bluegrass trio with McCombs, says he was always practicing in his spare time. “You could drop by his office in the afternoons, and he had tapes playing music without the lead part, and he’d be practicing,” Mayhall says.

Marvin would also practice at home with his wife, Reta, and his two daughters, Leigh Anne and Karen, experiences that would often produce comical results. Leigh Anne recalls whenever he practiced in his music room, they had to turn up the volume on the TV.

“Then the music would get louder,” she laughs.

McCombs was a voracious reader who loved Don Quixote and devoured books on Native American history. He took notes in Spanish on each book he read. “One year I bought him a Spanish Bible,” Leigh Anne remembers. “He read it five times in a year.”

Coupled with his musical talent, Marvin’s modest, unassuming manner endeared him to everyone. This writer was a music student of his in the 1980s and remembers one occasion when McCombs was complimented on his skills after a performance. Flashing an awkward smile through his Mitch Miller-esque goatee, he nodded, offering a humble “thank you.”

Marvin retired from teaching at Walker College in the late 1990s. For a while, he played with a Birmingham-based group called Marian McKay and Her Mood Swings. Marvin died May 2, 2021.

Bevill State Community College Multimedia Coordinator Andrew Brasfield remembers attending an exhibition of watercolor paintings by his grandparents, Jean & D.J. Brasfield. Brasfield, then a young boy, sat captivated as McCombs worked his magic. “It was the first time outside of church I’d witnessed a musician play without sheet music in front of them,” Andrew says. “Seeing him play that day planted a seed. It’s one reason I play music today."

To others who knew him, McCombs was more than a talented musician, teacher, and mentor.

“He was a hero as well as a friend,” says Jonathan Mayhall. “He was one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met.” 78