Greenwood WWII veteran says he
was glad to do his part for his country

February 24, 2005

By MEGAN VARNER
Index-Journal staff writer

In his few months battling Japanese troops on the front lines in the Philippines during World War II, Greenwood resident Marshall Royston saw more bloodshed than some U.S. servicemen and women did during their entire tours of duty.
Just a teenager at the time, Royston left behind the comforts of his southern family farm to give his all for Uncle Sam – and he nearly gave his life.
Royston, 79, was born and raised in Royston, Ga., a small town – founded by Royston’s ancestors – near the South Carolina border. Growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, Royston worked on his father’s farm, plowing fields and hoeing cotton.
In late 1943, at 18, he attempted to enlist, but was turned down because of heart trouble.
Several months later, as more and more resources were needed to fight the battles on the European and Pacific fronts, the military had a change of heart concerning Royston. He received orders to report to Atlanta for Army induction.
“I think they needed me worse the second time,” Royston said, laughing. “They were passing men through as fast as they could get them in. We didn’t have a choice of which branch we wanted – they just pointed where they wanted us and that was it.”
In the summer of 1944, Royston arrived at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, Ark., for 13 weeks of basic training.
“They taught you to shoot rifles, and they taught you everything you could think of,” he said. “They sent you through some terrible training.”
With training completed, Royston went home for a six-day furlough before heading to an army base near San Francisco, where he boarded a liberty ship bound for the South Pacific.
“There were 6,800 people on that ship. I don’t think there was an empty place on it,” Royston said. For the 31-day journey, soldiers passed the time by guarding weapons on the ship. “It more or less gave us something to do, but there wasn’t anything we could have done if something would have happened.”
But it was a quiet journey, and in early 1945, Royston arrived safely in New Guinea. After a brief stop on Leyte Island in the Philippines, Royston landed at Luzon, entering battle on the front lines as a member of the 43rd Infantry Division.
“The first thing they did when we arrived was issue all of us new M-1 rifles, and we went onto a rifle range to set the sights. We were more or less just practicing with them a few times,” Royston said. “Then they put us right on the front lines.”
“They put us into foxholes, and we had some pretty hard fighting there for a while,” he said. “If you stuck your head up above the ground, you got shot at.”
Royston said he and another soldier were assigned to be scouts.
“We crawled up on a little rise with our binoculars, and we saw that the hill was just covered with Japanese soldiers. Bullets whizzed by, and the other boy said, ‘Let’s get out of here,’ and he went back down behind the hill,” Royston said. “About that time, a bullet hit about eight inches in front of my head and knocked dirt into my eyes, and I went back down behind the hill in a hurry.”
Royston’s company fell back into foxholes, but they were given orders to invade the hill at daylight.
“We had just started out when the (Japanese soldiers) killed eight of our men. We fell back into the same foxhole,” he said.
The company again received orders to advance to the hill at daylight, even though the company captain thought it would be suicide for his men to try again.
“The next morning we started up again and we had 13 men killed then, plus some were wounded,” Royston said. Once more, the men fell back into the foxhole to await new orders.
When the news came that they were to attempt to invade the hill one last time, Royston said his captain, who had been threatened with a court-martial if he disobeyed the order, was able to negotiate an air strike instead.
“About an hour later, they said they were loading up the planes to bomb the hill,” he said. “They came over and they dropped incendiary bombs and just burned everything up.”
With the hill now cleared of enemy troops, the men advanced further into the mountainous terrain.
But the soldiers, who were maneuvering in the dark, made the mistake of digging in behind the Japanese troop lines.
“When daylight came, we were just about like sitting ducks,” he said. “They shot at everything that moved.”
“They put a (Japanese) soldier up walking around in front of us, and they had a bunch of machine guns over to our left. If you raised up to shoot, they would open up the machine guns on you. One boy from Arkansas raised up to shoot, and they filled him full of bullets.”
When a comrade was shot in the head near enemy lines, Royston and another soldier were recruited for a rescue mission.
“The captain said we would have to get that boy out of there somehow, but we didn’t know how in the world we were going to do it,” he said.
They were able to reach the soldier by maneuvering in a nearby branch. “Just as we came up and started over a rise, they opened fire on us, but they never did hit us. We got the boy back and he lived through it.”
By the end of May, Royston’s company had suffered severe losses and had gained very little ground on the Japanese troops.
On June 4, 1945, as Royston waited in a foxhole near the front lines, an artillery shell dropped within feet from the hole. The teenager suffered ruptured eardrums and a concussion that caused severe headaches for more than 40 years after the war.
Royston stayed in a Manila hospital for 54 days before he was allowed to return to his outfit on the battlefront. By then, the American troops had managed to gain control of the area, and the men were stationed in tents awaiting their next orders.
“I walked into one of the tents when I got back and it nearly scared them to death,” Royston said, laughing. “When they took me out of there, they all thought I had been killed. I walked into the tent and they were almost ready to run.”
Royston said the troops were preparing to invade Japan between Tokyo and Yokohama, when word came that the U.S. had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Royston said he will never forget hearing the four words that millions of people around the world had eagerly waited to hear.
“We were all gathered around a little radio, and the announcer said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen of the Southwest Pacific, we’ve got bad news,’ and everybody’s head just dropped down,” Royston said, adding that the long pause after those words was agonizing for the soldiers. “Then the announcer came back and said, ‘The war is over,’ and everybody had a fit.”
On Sept. 2, 1945, when Japanese officials signed their surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri, Royston was stationed on a ship anchored of the coast of Tokyo. His final days of duty were spent guarding the city and demolishing Japanese equipment.
He was discharged from the U.S. Army on May 13, 1946, and four years later, he moved to Greenwood where he found a job working in Mathews Mill.
Royston said a “tractor-trailer couldn’t haul the $100 bills it would take to get me to go back through what I did again.”
But he added that he is proud of his service to his country.
“I am glad I had a hand in winning the war. I did what I felt like I ought to have done,” he said. “I thought that somebody had to help, and I might as well do my part. I did the best I could.”

Rally falls short

Tigers cut 23-point gap to 2, but fall to Centurions

February 24, 2005

By RON COX
Index-Journal sports writer

LAURENS - The Tigers' improbable comeback came up short.
The Saluda High School boys basketball team trailed by 23 at one point in the first half, but rallied to cut its deficit to just a field goal midway through the fourth.
However, the Tigers could get no closer, eventually falling to Broome, 80-68, Wednesday night at Laurens High School in the Class AA Upper State semifinals.
"I'm just so proud of our kids effort. It would have been so easy to fold the tent and be happy getting here, but they never quit," Saluda coach Jimmy Kinard said. "At halftime, I just told them they had 16 minutes to go out and give ourselves a chance and lay it on the line.
"I liked our chances when we cut it to two. I felt good about things."
The Tigers (22-5) got back in the game by cranking up their offensive intensity in the second half, led by the play of senior guard Montez Mathis, who scored 10 of his 18 in the fourth quarter.
Mathis penetrated the lane, drew three Broome defenders then dished to Markese Holloway wide-open under the basket.
The 6-foot-5 junior center, who finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds, hammered down a two-handed jam, emphatically slapping the backboard with his right hand, to make it 64-62 with 5 minutes, 8 seconds remaining, bringing the large group of Saluda fans to their feet.
But like the Centurions did each time the Tigers threatened, the Region II-AA champions quashed the comeback. Broome (22-6) rattled off a 6-0 run, getting four points from Markish Jones, who came off the bench and scored eight of his 13 points in the final quarter.
The Centurions outscored the Tigers 16-6 over the final five minutes of play.
"We knew they were going to make a run at us, but even though our kids are just juniors and sophomores, they are a very experienced group," Broome coach Hal McManus said. "Last year we had to win a tiebreaker game to win the region championship and we had to do it again this year. Those kinds of games really help out when you're trying to win a championship."
The Centurions will join the Broome girls team in the Upper State finals. The Broome boys will face the winner of Carolina-Keenan.
Broome point guard D.J. Moore led all scorers with 24 points. Moore, who had a triple-double in the Centurions' win over Emerald Saturday, knocked down 18 points in the first half, including six straight during the team's first big run of the game.
Saluda's William Culbreath opened the game with a layin to give the Tigers a 2-0 advantage.
Broome responded by scoring the next 11 points, including the final six from Moore.
The Tigers' Trevor Deloach, who finished with a team-high 20, ended the run with back-to-back baskets. But again the Centurions rattled off a huge run. This time the team went on a 12-2 streak to go up 23-8 with 2:25 left in the first.
"Their pressure caused us problems and they simply shot the lights out in the first half," Kinard said.
Broome went up 44-21 with 3:45 left in the first half when Junior Salters knocked down his fourth 3-pointer of the half.
Kinard called a timeout to settle his crew, and the Tigers answered the call, going on a 11-2 run to make it 46-32 with 47 seconds left in the half.
But Moore ended Saluda's momentum with a free throw then a layup off a steal at the buzzer, giving the Centurions a 49-32 halftime advantage.

Opinion

Reading and graduation are keys to S.C. future

February 24, 2005

The future of South Carolina is in high-tech jobs. At least, that’s what is being touted by a lot of people who are supposed to be experts in such things. There’s a big question, though. How are we going to do that while ranking last in the nation in high school graduation rates?
There’s an interesting comparison on that subject. According to a new report from the Manhattan Institute, almost a half of the state’s students – 47 percent – did not graduate in 2002.
According to the S. C. Department of Education, though, only 33 percent graduated that year.
The low graduation rate hasn’t been a secret, of course. School and government officials have known for years that too many of our young people drop out of school before they even get close to graduation.

THAT RATE OF FAILURE affects everyone in one way or another. It undermines that high-tech future and thereby will drastically affect the state’s economy. Not only jobs will be lost. Everything that comes because of jobs will suffer: sales of everything from homes and automobiles to bacon and eggs will be negatively affected. That, naturally, puts a squeeze on tax revenue that supports all government services, including schools. It’s easy to see that funding for quality education and positive results come full circle when graduation rates continue to drag down everything else.
Perhaps the most basic building block for education is teaching our children how to read. Unfortunately, experience shows we’re not doing that as well as we should. In fact, it’s worse than that.

IT’S SIMPLE, REALLY. UNLESS we can do a better job of teaching them to read proficiently, and by extension, carry the reading experience forward to where it will have a positive impact on the bottom line – graduation – our high-tech future won’t be what anyone envisions.
The terrible graduation rate that defines South Carolina public education is affected by different things, to be sure. Teaching reading is only one, albeit an important one. There are other factors, like parental input, economics, peer pressure and other negative influences. Trouble is, though, it’s nothing new. In fact, it seems we go backward instead of forward. South Carolina’s graduation rate has been dismal for too long. However, being last in this case may be helpful.
Maybe now the attention it’s getting will lead to better things.

Editorial expression in this feature represents our own views.
Opinions are limited to this page.

Obituaries

Catherine Bolton

Catherine A. Robinson Bolton, 82, died Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2004 at River Chase Rehab & Health Care in Birmingham, Ala.
Born in Cannon, Ga., she was a daughter of the late Clarence S. and Annie Millie Bryant Robinson. She retired from Panola Mills and was a member of Callie Self Memorial Baptist Church.
Survivors include a son, James Edward Bolton of Hoover, Ala., and two grandchildren.
Graveside services are 11 a.m. Friday at Greenwood Memorial Gardens, conducted by the Rev. Reuel Westbrook.
Visitation is at the cemetery after the services.
Harley Funeral Home is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.harleyfuneralhome.com

Olin Chandler

NINETY SIX — Olin Richard Chandler, 68, of 223 Watts Bridge Road, husband of Hazel “Inez” Williams Chandler, died Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005 at Self Regional Medical Center.
Born in Lancaster, he was a son of the late William and Mammie Dove Chandler. He retired from Greenwood Mills and attended Ninety Six Pentecostal Holiness Church.
Survivors include his wife of the home; two sons, Olin R. Chandler and Eddie Chandler, both of Patterson, N.J.; three stepdaughters, Brenda Hughes of Abbeville, Nancy Silcox of Greenwood and Joyce Howe of Chappells; a brother, Bill Barron Chandler of Greenwood; a half brother, Lester Dove of Florida; seven grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
Services are 11 p.m. Saturday at Harley Funeral Home, conducted by the Revs. Chris Stansell and Kevin Carter. Burial is in Greenwood Memorial Gardens.
Pallbearers are grandsons and nephews.
Visitation is 7-9 Friday at the funeral home.
The family is at the home of a stepdaughter Nancy Silcox, 214 Norris Road, Greenwood.
Harley Funeral Home, Greenwood, is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.harleyfuneralhome.com

Maggie Louise DeVaux

ABBEVILLE — Services for Maggie Louise DeVaux are 1 p.m. Friday at Glovers Chapel Baptist Church, conducted by the Revs. M.L. Taylor and Isaac Booker III. Burial is in Mount Zion A.M.E. Church Cemetery, McCormick. The body will be placed in the church at noon.
Visitation is 7-8 tonight at Brown and Walker Funeral Home.
The family is at the home of a niece, Molcy McCier, Highway 28 S.
Brown and Walker Funeral Home is in charge.

Lois Jester Dixon

CALHOUN FALLS – Lois Jester Dixon, age 52, of 213 Craft Street, died Wednesday, February 23, 2005 at her home.
Raised in Parksville, SC she was the daughter of the late Maxie James Jester, Jr. and Mary Lois Stone Jester. She was also preceded in death by a stepson, David Eugene Dixon. She attended the Calhoun Falls Church of God of Prophecy (Faith Harvest Fellowship) and was employed at Flexible Technologies in Abbeville.
Survivors include her husband, David Dixon of the home; son, John Mathew McKinney and daughter Staci Michelle Bryant both of Augusta, stepson Alex Dixon of N. Augusta; three grandchildren; a sister Nancy J. Brock of Due West and three brothers, James Ellington Jester of Greenwood, Warren Stone Jester of N. Augusta and Maxie James Jester also of Greenwood; as well as a host of nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held Friday, February 25, 2005 at noon in the Chapel of Calhoun Falls Funeral Home with the Reverends Mike Ford, Jerry Dalton and Haskell Gibson officiating. The family will receive friends for one hour prior to the service. Burial will be in the Iva City Cemetery.
The family may be contacted at 446 Jackson Street, Calhoun Falls.
Calhoun Falls Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.
PAID OBITUARY

William Frierson Sr.

SUMTER — William Robert Frierson Sr., 82, husband of Julia Evans Frierson, died Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005 at Sterling House.
Born in Charleston, he was a son of the late Joseph Terrell and Elise Lesesne Frierson and grew up in the Mouzon Community of Williamsburg County. He was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church and a Navy World War II veteran, serving as a medic in the South Pacific Theatre at Guadalcanal. A retired salesman with American Bakeries Co., he was a member of American Legion Post 15.
Survivors include his wife of Sumter; two sons, W. Robert Frierson Jr. and Dr. Richard L. Frierson, both of Columbia; a brother, J. Francis Frierson of Columbia; a sister, Elizabeth Dickert of Greenwood; and two grandchildren.
Services are 3 p.m. today at Trinity United Methodist Church, conducted by the Revs. Stephen Taylor and Brad Gray.
Burial is in Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery.
Pallbearers are nephews.
The family is at the home.
Memorials may be made to Trinity United Methodist Church, 226 W. Liberty St., Sumter, SC 29150. Elmore-Hill-McCreight Funeral Home and Crematory is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.sumterfunerals.com

Ruth Finley Gulledge

ABBEVILLE – Ruth Finley Gulledge, 79, of Abbeville died Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at the Agape Nursing Facility. She was born in Abbeville to the late Thomas F. and Leila C. Creswell Finley. Mrs. Gulledge was a graduate of Abbeville High School, a member of the Abbeville County Preservation Committee, the Master in Equity for Abbeville County for many years and a member of Main Street United Methodist Church.
Surviving Mrs. Gulledge is her son, Mike Gulledge of Lexington, SC, a sister, Mary Henderson of Charlotte, and two grandchildren, Finley and Brandi Gulledge of Lexington.
Mrs. Gulledge will be most remembered for being a wonderful mother and grandmother.
The family will receive friends 1:00PM to 2:00PM Friday, February 25, 2005 at Harris Funeral Home. Funeral Services will follow at 2:30PM in the funeral home chapel. Interment will follow in Forest Lawn Memory Gardens.
The family will be at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jim Craig, 704 E. Greenwood St., Abbeville.
Memorial contributions may be sent in memory of Mrs. Gulledge to the Alzheimer’s Association, 340 Main St. Suite K, Greenwood, SC 29646.
Online condolences may be sent to the Gulledge family by visiting www.harrisfuneral.com HARRIS FUNERAL HOME of Abbeville is assisting the Gulledge family.
PAID OBITUARY

Thomas C. Jackson

ABBEVILLE — Thomas C. Jackson, 89, of 108 Adams Drive, husband of the Rev. Jo R. Jackson, died Monday, Feb. 21, 2005 at Abbeville County Memorial Hospital.
Born in Ninety Six, he was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. George Jackson. He was a retired construction worker and a member and usher of Shady Grove A.M.E. Church.
Survivors include his wife of the home; two daughters, Betty Moore of Promised Land and Juanita Randolph of Abbeville; two sons, Bernard Covin of New Jersey and Chauncey Covin of Abbeville.
Services are 1 p.m. Saturday at Shady Grove A.M.E. Church, conducted by the Rev. Robert Johnson, assisted by the Rev. Larry Merrill. The body will be placed in the church at noon. Burial is in the church cemetery.
Pallbearers are friends and family.
Flower bearers are Missionary members.
Viewing is 1-8 Friday at Richie Funeral Home.
The family is at the home.
Richie Funeral Home is in charge.

Benjamin Martin

ABBEVILLE — Benjamin Martin, 70, of 505 Haigler St., husband of Sara Bell Sussewell Martin, died Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005 at Self Regional Medical Center in Greenwood.
Born in Abbeville County, he was a son of the late Richard Alexander and Emma J. Martin. He was a member of Flat Rock A.M.E. Church and a retired employee of Mohawk Industries.
Survivors include his wife of the home; two daughters, Gloria Woods of Mabelton, Ga., and Almeta Lomax of Due West; a son, Michael Martin of Anderson; two brothers, Frank Martin of Bronx, N.Y., and Len Ellis of Philadelphia; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Brown and Walker Funeral Home.

Ray B. Richardson

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Ray B. Richardson, 65, died Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2005 at Fawcett Memorial Hospital.
Born in Chester, S.C., he was a son of the late Marvin and Viola Richardson. He moved from Greenwood, S.C., to the Port Charlotte area one and a half years ago. He worked as a supervisor electrician for Fluor Daniel for 40 years, retiring in 2000. He was of the Baptist faith and an Army veteran.
Survivors include his wife, Fonda Richardson of Port Charlotte; a son, Michael Richardson of Houston, Texas; a daughter, Debbie Wiseman of Norwalk, Ohio; stepmother, Kate Richardson of Port Charlotte; stepchildren, James Hepler and Angelo Owens, both of Henderson, Ky., and Nicholas Skrumelak of Milford, Ind.; three brothers, Ronnie Richardson of Greenwood, Bobby Richardson of Hodges, S.C., and Ricky Richardson of Dallas, Texas; two sisters, Virginia Traynham of Summerville, S.C., and Marlene Stanley of Henderson; two grandchildren; and 11 step-grandchildren.
Memorial services are 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26 at Greenwood Memorial Gardens, Greenwood, conducted by the Rev. Andy Hunter.
The family is at the home of Bobby and Dianne Richardson, 118 Maness Drive, Hodges.
Memorials may be made to Hospice of S.W. Florida, 5955 Rand Blvd., Sarasota, FL 34238.
Kays-Ponger Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Port Charlotte Chapel, is in charge.

Kate Stone

CALLISON — Kate Elizabeth Rodgers Stone, 66, of 2419 Callison Road, wife of Clarence Benjamin “Ben” Stone, died Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005 at her home.
Born in Greenwood County, she was a daughter of the late Harold Johnson and Martha Witt Rodgers. She was a graduate of Greenwood High School and Lander College. She was formerly employed at the Greenwood County Vocational School and retired from Lander University. A member of Bethel United Methodist Church, she was also a member of the Ladies Auxiliary and the church choir.
Survivors include her husband of the home; a sister, Mrs. Bill (Jane) Walker of Bradley; and a grandson.
Services are 11 a.m. Friday at Bethel United Methodist Church, conducted by the Rev. Joseph Curtis. The body will be placed in the church at 10. Burial is in the church cemetery.
Pallbearers are Roger Walker, Stu Holland, Gaines Robinson, Claude Robinson, Bubba Duff and J.C. Cannon.
Honorary escorts are the men of the church along with John Moss.
Visitation is 6-8 tonight at Blyth Funeral Home.
The family is at the home.
Memorials may be made to Bethel United Methodist Church, c/o Rehoboth United Methodist Church, 1808 Callison Highway, Greenwood, SC 29646.
Blyth Funeral Home is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.blythfuneralhome.com

Herbert R. Swindler

SEATTLE — Herbert Richard Swindler, 80, died Thursday, Feb. 17, 2005.
Born in Newberry, S.C., he served in the Navy during World War II and in the Army during the Korean conflict. After World War II, he relocated to Seattle. He served with the Seattle Police Department for 33 years, attaining the rank of captain and holding various commands including homicide. Some of his cases appeared in books and crime magazines.
Survivors include his wife, Sharon, a son, Rick, and a daughter, Cathy, all in the Northwest; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; a sister, Connie Pridmore of Greenwood, S.C.; two brothers, Merle of Greenwood and Tom of Charleston, S.C.
Services are today at Columbia Funeral Home. Burial is at Mount Tahoma National Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association or American Red Cross.
Columbia Funeral Home is in charge.