From Cinnamon Rolls to Celebrities -
How The Celebrity Classic Went Show-Biz
By Jamie Mitchell

In 1994, when the annual golf tournament now known as the Mercy Celebrity Classic was only four years old, a chain of oddly connected events led the late Mac McGehee, a rather stellar personality himself, to the idea of bringing celebrities into the fund-raising effort.

It started with high drama. On October 30, 1994, more than 70 passengers on a malfunctioning plane nervously sat as they circled the Fort Smith Regional Airport. Bound from Memphis to Los Angeles, the plane was waiting for an emergency landing clearance. Inside the Cloud-9 Coffee Shop, McGehee and Scott Hembree, then Airport Commissioners, were having coffee and discussing airport business with the airport manager, Bob Johnson.
After landing safely, the shaken passengers from the stranded jet swarmed into the coffee shop. McGehee, Hembree, and Johnson quickly went to work as servers and busboys, while Cloud-9's cook, Nancy Craig, rolled out the restaurant's delicious cinnamon rolls for the anxious, frightened passengers.

After learning that their servers were the airport officials, a sense of relief and fun surfaced with the group. Not only was passenger Grant Sadler of Anaheim impressed with the service, he loved the cinnamon rolls. Sadler asked if he could get some of the rolls for a Tuesday meeting in Anaheim. Being the statesman he was, McGehee agreed and shipped the rolls as requested.
At the meeting was Sadler's brother, Brooke, a member of the Florida Hospital Association. The brother loved the rolls so much that he ordered seven dozen for the Celebrity Suite at their hospital's golf tournament fund raiser in November, and invited the cook as well.

Indulging in the sense of true "southern hospitality," McGehee and his wife, Janet, and Nancy Craig flew to Orlando and served the cinnamon rolls personally! While at the Florida tournament, McGehee got the idea to expand his hometown Mercy Golf Classic by inviting sports stars and entertainers whom the public would love to see.

McGehee took the idea to the St. Edward Auxiliary, who gave full endorsement to the new concept. The Mercy Golf Classic became the Mercy Celebrity Classic in 1995.
Although State Representative Mac McGehee died in 1999, and his outgoing presence in charitable events and hometown improvement are missed, his mission is carried on through the efforts of everyone involved in the Celebrity Classic. Won't you join us?

-Reprinted courtesy of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine