Continued from page 78 Skeptics wonder if the young gun isn’t really just gunning for greater prominence, and the political fishbowl he swims in has a way of distancing some, like the man McCarthy replaced, Eric Cantor, from their constituents. But McCarthy stays tethered to real life. His Bakersfield upbringing was nourished by his quiet firefighter father and strong mother. His roots are fortified by his high school sweetheart and their two children, one of whom battles Lyme disease. His personality, bubbly from the beginning, has also played a key role in his success.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUDY MCCARTHY
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUDY MCCARTHY
Kevin Owen McCarthy, who turns 50 this January, is the youngest of three children in a close-knit family. At 10-pounds, 11ounces, McCarthy was the “happiest of babies,” according to his mother. “He was a good kid, a good eater, always had a good attitude and would wake up happy,” said McCarthy’s mother, Roberta ‘Bert’ McCarthy-Zablin. McCarthy was especially close to his grandmother, Cora Ingram, who raised his mother. He spent hours at her Quincy Street home listening to her tell tales about working the family farm, raising dahlias and chickens. His mother believes Ingram opened his eyes and heart to the needs of the elderly. According to his mother, His father, Owen, an assistant McCarthy was the “happiest city fire chief, was not a man of of babies.” many words but doled out nuggets of wisdom in “McCarthy-isms.” “My father always talked in little sayings. He would say, ‘Any job, big or small, if you surpass expectations, there will always be other opportunities,’” McCarthy said. He and his sister Shelley and brother Mark grew up in the middle class College Heights neighborhood near Washington Junior High and Noble Elementary schools, nestled between Columbus Street and Panorama Drive. Their house on Nelson Street was the epicenter of activity for friends and neighbors who played football in the street and swam in the McCarthy pool, one of the few on the block. Owen was the family barber and cut his boys’ hair. “We never had great wealth, and no money for carpeting, so we would go get carpet scraps,” McCarthy remembered. “But we had friends, food, and on occasion we would dine out at Bob’s Big Boy.” Dad would be gone for 24-hour periods or more working. The task of discipline fell on Bert, whom McCarthy describes 80
Bakersfield Life Magazine
January 2015
McCarthy and his wife Judy were high school sweethearts.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUDY MCCARTHY
A FATHER’S ADVICE
as strict. The man who today has the gift of gab struggled to talk as a child. Diagnosed with tongue thrust, McCarthy worked with a speech therapist until fifth grade. The impediment, however, would be no match for the gregarious personality Kevin inherited from his mother. “He is the same guy now as he was in fourth grade,” said lifelong friend Darin Brown, who has known Kevin for 45 of his 50 years. “(The McCarthy’s house) was the house to go to. Looking back, all my childhood memories are with Kevin,” Brown said. “He generally loves people. But there are probably a thousand people who would say the same.” The days of McCarthy’s youth were a tumultuous time in politics. “We would watch the Watergate hearings with our TV trays, and that was intriguing to me,” McCarthy said.
A WELL-LIKED TEENAGER By his own admission, McCarthy was neither a standout in the classroom or on the gridiron where the ’83 grad was a tight end for the Bakersfield High School Drillers. But he was well-liked, and people gravitated toward him. “He enjoyed coming in to visit (the counselor’s office). Occasionally a teacher would send him out of class because he was doing too much socializing,” former high school counselor Ruscel Reader said. McCarthy’s mother often worried that his girlfriend, Judy Wages, would get away. Lucky for her, the pair wed in 1992, more than a decade after sparks first flew in biology class. On Nov. 7, 1984, 19-year-old McCarthy had a rendezvous with Lady Luck. He bought a lottery ticket on the second day