Owensboro City Commissioner Larry Maglinger — an entrepreneur and local business owner who was also well-known for his Rod Stewart impersonations — died Monday at the age of 73.
Maglinger’s obituary can be viewed here.
Maglinger was in the middle of his third term as a commissioner, having served as Mayor Pro Tem during his first two terms. A big proponent of the boating community, Maglinger was one of the key drivers behind bringing the HydroFair to Owensboro in 2021 and 2022. His other focuses as a commissioner included the safety of the community, as well as the revitalization of Owensboro’s west side along with getting businesses in town to invest within the community.
Fellow commissioners and Mayor Tom Watson provided comments about Maglinger to Owensboro Times.
Watson said: “He was a longtime friend. He was always upbeat and a good friend. We go back to high school together, and he will be missed. He was mostly ‘Steady Eddy’ and I hate to lose someone who’s a good friend and a good public servant.
Commissioner Bob Glenn said of Maglinger: “He loves our community. And he cared about it and he showed it in everything he did. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He’s a class act. I don’t think there’s anybody on the Commission who doesn’t respect and love and like Larry for his years of involvement in our community, and he will be deeply missed. The fact that he was Mayor Pro Tem twice in a row tells you how beloved he was by the people of Owensboro, and he loved them back.”
Commissioner Mark Castlen commented, “He’s just always been community-focused. You know, I feel like I’ve lost a friend, not just a coworker, and I’m just so sorry for his family for their loss because Commission Maglinger was a good man. He was friendly and outgoing. And I’ll miss him. No doubt about it.”
Commissioner Pamela Smith-Wright added, “I was honored to be his friend for 30+ years. We traveled together. We sang together. My husband and he and his wife are just great friends. When they got married I sang at their wedding, and then we all four went to Key West together. We just shared so much, so many good times. And he was a great guy. Even though everybody thought he was Rod Stewart, I knew him as Larry Maglinger, and he was a wonderful friend and a wonderful colleague.
Larry is married to Tammy Maglinger, and they have five children and eight grandchildren. OT was able to reach Curtis Maglinger, one of Larry’s sons, who consented on behalf of the family to a story being published informing the community that Larry has passed away.
Maglinger is a lifelong local resident who graduated from Daviess County High School in 1967. He received his electronic training at the Owensboro Daviess County Vocational School and Sam’s Technical Institute of Electronics.
Maglinger started his first business, Maglinger Recording, at the age of 17. It was a recording studio and record label that produced records for artists in the region. In 1976, he founded Custom Audio-Video, which was one of the first locally owned companies in Owensboro to provide professional audio, commercial video and business telephone systems. In 1994, Custom Audio-Video was named the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year.
Larry’s local involvement includes Chairman of the Greater Owensboro Daviess County Chamber of Commerce, Steering Committee for the Owensboro Convention Center, Owensboro Rotary Board of Directors and the Kentucky Innovation Network (Central Region) Board of Directors.
Outside of his business, Maglinger always had an itch to perform music. According to his personal website, when he was 15 Maglinger performed with a group called the Magsm which he left 6 years later to become a recording engineer in Madisonville at Electric Arts Studios. After 4 years and 250 projects, Maglinger was offered a position at Nashville’s Woodland Sound Studios, where he was at the controls for such diverse projects for artists including Reba McEntire and Jimmy Buffett.
Following that experience is when Maglinger returned to Owensboro to create Custom Audio-Video. After maintaining that business for 30+ years, Maglinger wanted to return to the stage.
Maglinger’s website includes a quote from him saying it was fate that steered him to performing Rod: “I was out singing to tracks (backing tracks) and I have a raspy rough voice; someone came up to me and said, ‘you sound like Rod Stewart. You should do some of his songs.’ So I really did my homework, went to see a lot of Rod concerts; watched concert footage spanning his career. Then I found a company in England that would make the backing tracks for the songs I wanted to perform, so they would record them almost identical to the original minus the voice.”
After two years, Larry decided to do a larger production and brought in a band. Their performances were quite detailed, down to replicas of authentic Stewart stage outfits.
