CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Former Corpus Christi resident and Ray High School graduate Terrence McNally, one of America’s great playwrights, has died of complications from coronavirus at 81.
McNally attended Ray from 1952 to 1956. His father bought and ran a local Schlitz beer distributorship.
McNally moved away for college but would return to Corpus Christi during the summers to work for the old Times-Caller newspaper according to PBS. A scholarship was set up at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in Hubert McNally's honor for students majoring in theatre and drama, but is currently inactive.
He won Tony awards for the plays "Love! Valour! Compassion!" and "Master Class" and the musicals "Ragtime" and "Kiss the Spider Woman."
In 1996, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and in 2018, McNally was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
McNally married Thomas Kirdahy in 2003, and again in 2010.
The esteemed playwright died Tuesday at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida, according to representative Matt Polk. McNally was a lung cancer survivor who lived with chronic inflammatory lung disease.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations can be made to BC/EFA and the Dramatist Guild Foundation.
