He was a beloved newscaster in Columbus for 38 years. Chuck Leonard dies
Chuck Leonard, who for 38 years was a beloved newscaster at WTVM in Columbus, has died.
His wife of 46 years, Carole Mashburn, confirmed the news Saturday to the Ledger-Enquirer. He died Friday night in Columbus Hospice., she said. Leonard was 71.
Mashburn, a retired Muscogee County School District teacher, wrote Tuesday night on her Facebook page that Leonard had begun receiving hospice care.
A combination of problems with his kidneys, heart and liver led to his health decline, Mashburn told the Ledger-Enquirer on Wednesday. Leonard retired from WTVM six years ago at the age of 65.
The obituary and funeral arrangements for Leonard, whose legal name is Charles “Charlie” Mashburn, were pending finalization before publication, but Mashburn said they tentatively have planned the memorial service to be Jan. 10 in First Baptist Church of Columbus, starting with visitation at 1 p.m., then the service at 2 p.m.
Tributes to Leonard poured onto his Facebook page Saturday. Among them:
- “Sweet dreams,” wrote former WTVM weathercaster Mitzi Oxford, “and rest knowing that everyone who has ever known and worked with you is telling your story!”
- “I was always so thankful that Chuck took the time to help out new employees and give us tips along the way,” wrote former WTVM reporter Taylor Kincade. “He could have easily written a textbook about everything you need to know in the news industry. I will always hold his advice close to my heart.”
- “Chuck treated everyone as a friend,” wrote former Sunny 100 radio broadcaster Wes Carroll. “… Any time we shared a mic, he would make me laugh.”
Mashburn expressed gratitude for the support she and her family have received from the Columbus area community.
“I would just like to thank everybody for the prayers and the messages and the love that’s been shared,” she told the L-E. “It’s really brought us a lot of comfort, really beyond words, and we’re just so deeply thankful to everyone who’s reached out by phone calls or text messages or Facebook messages. I guess knowing how much Chuck was loved has just been a really great source of peace for us. It has just meant a lot to us.”
Asked why her husband had such a connection with his viewers and listeners in the Chattahoochee Valley for so long, Mashburn didn’t hesitate to come up with an answer.
“Chuck loved people,” she said. “He loved to talk. … He wanted to get to know people. Everywhere he went, he’d stop and say, ‘Where are you from?’ … People at restaurants would come by and ask him to sign their napkin or take a picture with them.”
Mashburn noticed Leonard conducted conversations more than interviews.
“I think he was just real easy to talk to,” she said. “He was comfortable, and he tried to make everybody else comfortable.”
She reflected on the timing of her husband’s death — less than two hours before midnight, when it would have been on the sixth anniversary of his final newscast and the mayor’s declaration of Dec. 20, 2019, being Chuck Leonard Day in Columbus.
“He was always on his own time,” she said. “That was one of the songs he loved, Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way.’”
Q&A with Chuck Leonard
Leonard grew up on an Alabama farm in the Birmingham area. The day after he graduated high school in 1972, his right leg got caught in a machine while he was baling hay, and it ended up being amputated below his knee.
Here are excerpts from Leonard’s 2019 conversation with the Ledger-Enquirer a few days before his final newscast:
How has having a prosthetic leg informed your life?
“I think it made me realize that life is precious. You could go at any moment. I remember being in the hospital, and they were going to teach me to use crutches. … I started crying. That was my epiphany. I said to myself, ‘You’re 17. Life expectancy is 70. You have 53 good years, and nothing you do will change what happened, so move on.’”
How have you overcome your disability to have such a public career?
“I don’t think I would have done this had I not had that accident. … I enrolled at Jefferson State Junior College in Birmingham as an art major to start with. Flunked Western Civ twice and decided, ‘I need something else.’ I went back in the fall of ’73 and saw in the brochure television and radio broadcasting. That looked fun — and it turned out to be fun.”
Your legal last name is Mashburn. Who decided on Leonard as your TV name and why?
“Back then, (on-air talent in TV and radio) used not necessarily their real names. I was trying a couple of them out, just at home. … I ended up going with my actual name: Charles Leonard Mashburn — just shortened Charles to Chuck and used Leonard. I didn’t realize until — I don’t know — recently that it was somewhat of a tribute to my father, who went by the name Leonard. It never hit me that was what I was doing. I’m glad I did.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2025 at 1:49 PM.
