Two weeks ago, this column celebrated the lives of Doyle and Janie McMullan. After recovering from a recent illness, I am now able to follow up by writing about their son, Stephen, and his family.
Born in 1970, Stephen Lee McMullan is Doyle and Janie’s oldest child, who followed his father in being voted Mr. Decatur High School in 1988. He also earned the rank of valedictorian that year. He went on to graduate from Mississippi State University with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering in 1992. This April marked his 25th year working for Raytheon Space and Airborne System in Forest, presently as a program manager.
Eileen Ruth Frank McMullan is his bride from “up north,” calling Omro, WI, her home. Her parents are Glen and Loretta Frank, who now live half the year in Florida and half here in Decatur. She has two older brothers, Tom Frank and Garry Frank. In high school Eileen played volleyball, ran track, was a cheerleader and played flute in the band. She was also a Key Club state officer and graduated from Omro High School in 1985 with highest honors.
While a high school senior, Eileen came down to visit her brother, Garry, who played football for Mississippi State and decided to attend State also. She and Stephen both graduated from State in 1992, but did not meet there. She earned B.S. degrees in Business Education in both 1992 and 1994, and her M. Ed. in 1994. Eileen was teaching in Forest when she and fellow teachers and Stephen and other Raytheon employees “happened” to be eating at Pizza Hut at the same time. They took note of each other, later met, dated off and on, and married on June 7, 1997, at Clarke-Venable Baptist Church.
Ethan Lee McMullan was born Feb. 13, 1999, followed by three sisters, Alana Ruth, March 20, 2001; Alyssa Emmae, Sept. 24, 2003; and Aleah Coralie, Feb. 24, 2006. The family lived in Forest, and after Alana was born, Eileen became a stay-at-home mom for ten years. They moved to Decatur in 2009, after which all four children have attended Newton County Schools. Eileen has been teaching English at the East Central Alternative School since 2011. The family has long enjoyed attending Mississippi State football and basketball games together and Florida vacations to visit Eileen’s parents.
Both Eileen and Stephen were reared in Christian homes, Eileen as a United Methodist and Stephen a Southern Baptist. She became sure of her salvation at the age of 10 at summer camp but was baptized at First Baptist Church in Starkville. A meaningful experience for Eileen was being a member of the First Baptist University Singers and going on choir/mission trips to Jamaica and New Orleans.
Stephen remembers attending an East Central basketball camp when he was 12, then going to the revival at Clarke-Venable that night. He went down and was saved also, and throughout high school and college he felt that responding to the Lord in Christian growth kept him “steadfast.”
Ethan was the third generation McMullan, after school consolidation, to earn the title Mr. Newton County High School. A student in the TAG program, he was FCA President, a two-time state tennis champion and all district in football and basketball. Graduating in 2017 with highest honors, he also played football at ECCC and graduated with highest honors in December 2018. Ethan is now playing for the University of North Alabama in Florence, AL, and is pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Alana was an NCHS highest honors graduate in May 2019. She played basketball and tennis, danced with the Blue Stars, and qualified for TAG, FCA Leadership Team and Beta. Alana was also elected by the student body as 2018 Homecoming Queen.
Alyssa is a sophomore at NCHS, and, being very much like her older sister, is involved in the identical list of activities as Alana.
Aleah is an eighth grader at NCMS. She also plays basketball and tennis and is a member of TAG and Beta, but she chose cheering instead of dancing. She competed on the Miller Gymnastics Team for six years. The family is all active at Clarke-Venable Baptist Church.
Though their situation seemed perfect, cancer began to stalk the family: Eileen’s father, Glen, was diagnosed in 2015, Stephen’s mother, Janie, in 2016 and his father, Doyle, in 2017. They then experienced the shock of March 6, 2018, when Alana was diagnosed with a brain tumor behind her left ear. Alana’s diagnosis led to circumstances orchestrated by an unseen hand, and the family realized early on that, “God’s got this!”
After making plans the next day for Alana’s surgery the following week in Jackson, Eileen received a phone call from Mr. Brian White, their Farm Bureau agent, that allowed miracles to unfold. Mr. White had a connection with Dr. Frederick Boop, chair of neurosurgery at LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, and was able to secure an appointment that very day for Alana.
Dr. Boop performed an almost ten-hour surgery on March 14, 2018. Le Bonheur has an intraoperative MRI machine, which is not available anywhere in Mississippi. Dr. Boop and his team were able to run two MRI tests during Alana’s surgery to determine at which point they should stop operating. The MRI tests revealed that they could safely remove 90 percent of the tumor. If they had removed too much of the tumor, Alana would have been in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
Just five days later, Alana was admitted to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She was treated by Chair of Neuro-Oncology Dr. Amar Gajjar, the world’s leading neuro-oncologist for medulloblastoma, the type of tumor that Alana had. Dr. Gajjar used a groundbreaking chemotherapy to dissolve the remainder of the tumor, with total treatment involving six rounds of chemo and 30 days of radiation.
Alana’s first day at St Jude, March 20, 2018, was her 17th birthday. Three carloads of students and parents brought banners, gifts and cards from the students of Newton County Schools. The McMullan family expressed gratitude for the ongoing support of the wonderful people of Newton County, and of the students, staff and administration of the Newton County School System.
The end of March 2019, she came back to school. In less than eight months’ time, Alana went from a wheelchair to a walker, to leg braces with a cane, to walking. In May 2019, she was able to walk across the stage to receive her high school diploma. Since Dec. 24, 2018, she has been getting physical therapy three days a week and is now living on campus at East Central Community College.
The family praised St. Jude for going above and beyond in every way for their patients and families. There is a St. Jude school program that allowed Alana to continue on her path to graduating with highest honors. Alana even took two dual-credit classes during her treatment, earning A’s in both. Rachel Westbrook, former NCHS counselor, saw to it that Alana’s schoolwork was received by St. Jude in a timely fashion. Eileen was able to stay with Alana in Memphis, while Stephen made sure that things ran smoothly with everyone at home in Decatur. He and Alana’s siblings drove the four-hour drive to Memphis every weekend for nine months when Alana and Eileen could not come home.
In June 2019, Eileen was diagnosed with colon cancer, underwent surgery, and will soon begin chemo, just to reduce the recurrence rate. This family still needs our prayers, as we all do, but, as they have said repeatedly, “God’s got this!”
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
