Fun loving, joyful, always smiling and magnetic are just some of the attributes friends and loved ones associated with a former Jemison High School graduate who passed away earlier this week.

Michael Fallin, 20, died March 29 after suffering from severe burns due to an incident in Chilton County involving a gasoline can explosion near an outdoor fire.

As friends and family learned the news of Fallin’s death, many of them spent the week recalling memories of the person that touched the community.

“Michael never knew a stranger,” said Genia Blankenship, who taught Fallin in the college and career group called “Crossroads” at Amazing Grace Worship Center in Alabaster.“He was definitely the lively part of our group. He always left everyone laughing and rolling with his stories. He could tell some stories, and I don’t know where he came up with all of his stories but they were always hilarious and would keep everyone laughing. You couldn’t help but like him; he was always telling something funny.”

Blankenship said Fallin often made a difference in other people’s lives through his positive demeanor or kindness shown to those around him.

“I just think that people who really make a difference in other people’s lives are those people who show other people kindness,” Blankenship said. “Michael was that person. He seemed to touch so many people’s lives because he was an upbeat, jolly, joyful person, and life was not always easy for him but you would never know it.”

Blankenship said Fallin often spent time at the church helping out in the children’s department and spending many Sundays picking up kids in the church van to bring to church.

“The younger kids adored him,” Blankenship said. “He would always take the little kids in the sanctuary after church and spin them around and around in the sanctuary. They would just follow him wherever he would go, and they just adored him.”

At the time of his death, Fallin worked as a welder at Saginaw Pipe and was a 2013 graduate of Jemison High School where he was a member of the Jemison High School Blue Regiment Band.

Former JHS Band Director George Martin said Fallin started his band career playing the trombone but later picked up the tuba and became a “staple” of the band program.

“He picked the tuba up immediately,” Martin said. “He was one of the main cogs in that program and I don’t think everyone knew that, but I knew that. I understood that he needed the band, and we needed him. He was an extremely personable guy and loved to see others laugh.”

Martin said Fallin touched everyone around him with the little things he often did that made him who he was.

“The thing about Michael was he did a lot of small things that equaled one big thing,” Martin said. “He was always tremendously reliable and was at school every day. If he wasn’t there, you knew something was wrong.”

Jemison City Councilman Rex Bittle knew Fallin through the band program as Bittle’s children have been a part of the program for several years.

“My daughter Ansley was the drum major during her and Michael’s senior year,” Bittle said. “Michael was the lead tuba player, and he really knew how to blow that horn. One of the stand tunes the band plays begins with a tuba solo lead, and Michael could fill up a Friday night stadium when he played that song.”

Brittany Wakefield, who was Fallin’s youth pastor at Amazing Grace Worship Center, said Fallin’s goal each day was to make people laugh or smile.

“I taught Michael from the time he was 13 to when he was 18 and he was hilarious,” Wakefield said. “He had so many stories to tell. He was the center of attention but we were all OK with that because he was hilarious.”

Wakefield said her 4-year-old son would look forward to Fallin doing the “airplane” with him after each church service.

“He was great with kids, and the kids adored him,” Wakefield said. “He was an amazing man who touched a lot of people. He will be greatly missed in my home and the homes of many others in this community.”

A Celebration of Life service will be held on April 3 at 11 a.m. at Amazing Grace Worship Center. Fallin’s burial will follow in the Community Cemetery in Brierfield with the Rev. Kevin Blankenship officiating.

To view Fallin’s obituary, click here.