McCoy’s Automotive celebrates 50th anniversary

There was a 50th anniversary celebration Saturday, March 20th and the new owners of McCoy’s, Sam and Mike Arutyunyan presented McCoy with a special plaque.  

McCoy, who retired and sold the business two years ago, started in 1960 with a service station, located at 7th and Main Streets.  A couple of years later he relocated to 11th and Main and in 1975 moved to the current location at Palm and Main.  He started out with four bays and later added five more.  

McCoy worked for several car dealerships in Fillmore and Santa Paula in his younger years and then was drafted into the Army in 1958.  He started his first auto repair shop after his military stint.  He moved to California with his parents after finishing high school in Arkansas.  “I had a lot more opportunities out here then back there,” McCoy said.  He said he doesn’t miss the work and he and his wife Marie spend a lot of their time visiting family.  He still has Santa Paula attachments.  He serves on the board at the airport and he flies in frequently.  He and Marie now live in Central Texas.  They have two grandchildren nearby.  They used to visit them often and finally decided, “Well, why don’t we just buy a place here.”  He said he got to meet a lot of interesting people over the years.  “I met four live Presidents, flew Pete Wilson around the State a couple of times and worked a lot with Senator Rains and Assemblyman Imbrecht.”  He added that he flew Chip Carter from San Francisco to Santa Barbara for a fundraiser.  “Larry Hagman was one of our customers, we did some stuff with Gene Hackman and Mickey Jones.  They’re just normal people.”