Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, won reelection to his sixth term Tuesday night, defeating Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. Now, with Republicans taking over the Senate, McConnell is favored to become majority leader in January.

A Kentucky resident since a teen, Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. once called Athens home.

Born at Helen Keller Hospital on Feb. 20, 1942, McConnell moved with his parents, A.M. and Julia “Dee” Shockley McConnell to Athens when he was about 5.

Published reports say that McConnell was stricken with polio at age 2 and his mother drove him to Warm Springs, Georgia, for treatment, but one former North Houston Street kid remembers him as a robust friend who romped through the neighborhood, playing games of tag, kick the can and hide-and-seek.

Helen Greenhaw — then Helen Miller — and her sisters lived almost directly across North Houston Street from the McConnell’s for about two to three years.

“It’s funny how you remember little things, but we had these bright orange squirt guns we used to shoot each other with,” said Greenhaw.

Greenhaw, her husband, Jack Greenhaw, and Helen Greenhaw’s late mother, Louise Miller, met with McConnell several years ago.

“It was when Dan Williams (now state House representative R-Athens) was still mayor,” said Greenhaw. “Mitch had called Dan and said he wanted to see the old place, so Dan took him to it. While he was there, he wanted to speak to my mother, so we all, Jackie, Mitch, my mother and I must have sat around and talked about old times for an hour or two.”

She said she has heard from McConnell since through cards and letters.

McConnell’s roots go deep in Athens. His grandfather owned McConnell Funeral Home, from hence the business still takes its name. A.M. McConnell (senior) purchased the funeral home from N.S. Hollon in 1917. When A.M. was elected probate judge in 1929, his brother, Robert McConnell, became manager of the business. McConnell’s grandparents are buried in Athens City Cemetery.

An interesting side note, according to a history by Robert H. Walker, A.M. McConnell’s first year as funeral home owner was 1918. The influenza epidemic brought a total of 584 funerals to McConnell’s — 13 in one day.

Greenhaw and Mitch McConnell attended first grade together at the nearby Athens Elementary School.

Down the next block, a young Ewell Smith lived with his parents and was also an occasional playmate.

“I doubt he remembers me,” said Smith. “We lived down in the middle of the next block.”

But Greenhaw’s memories are vivid.

“We used to have such good times,” said Greenhaw. “Our neighbors, Eddie and Wilma Ashford had a little water sprinkler. You know the type — you attach it to a hose and it spins. My sister, me, Mitch and J.C. Caine used to run through the sprinkler.”

She said her parents and McConnell’s parents became good friends for those brief years on North Houston Street.

“I remember that one day the back part of the Ashford’s house caught fire, and Mitch’s father, A.M., held me on his shoulders so I could get a better look,” she said.

A Wikipedia biography of McConnell says that his family moved to Georgia when he was 8 and then on to Kentucky when he was a teenager.

McConnell went on to the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky law school. He was elected to a Kentucky Senate seat and has served as minority leader since 2007.