Local elections, plane crash, collapsed bridge top stories

January 2, 2005

By VIC MACDONALD
Regional editor

Balancing triumph and tragedy, 2004 for Greenwood and the Lakelands ushered in new leaders in local law and justice, while demonstrating the fragile nature of life and health.
Sweeping into office with the re-election of President Bush, Republicans Dan Wideman and Jerry Peace won the offices of Greenwood County Sheriff and Eighth Circuit Solicitor, respectively. They replace veterans Sheriff Sam Riley and Solicitor Townes Jones, who retired.
A plane crashing near the Greenwood Airport barely missed homes in a neighboring subdivision. A river swollen by the rains of one of four tropical storms to sweep through the state washed away a bridge, and cost a man his life.
An explosion and fire caused a local mayor and his wife to make a harrowing escape from their burning home.
A Greenwood family struggled through the latest in a series of health setbacks for its members, and found the support of a community embracing them.
And heroic actions during a 2003 standoff in Abbeville that cost two lawmen their lives were acknowledged – and the lawmen were eulogized as heroes themselves.
Here are the top 10 local news stories of 2004, compiled and voted on by The Index-Journal news staff:

No. 10 In March, Calhoun Falls Mayor Johnnie Waller and wife Bobbi lose their home in an explosion, at first thought to have been caused by a bomb. “I was in the den and I heard a loud explosion. I thought it was a bomb,” a stunned Waller says amid the wreckage. SLED and local fire officials later rule out arson and blame the blast and fire on a malfunction in the Wallers’ 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis. The vehicle’s serial number matches numbers that had been the subject of a factory recall.

No. 9 In April, officials with the state Department of Juvenile Justice announce plans to shut the department’s Green-wood facility. The move leaves 64 inmates headed to another facility, and 70 employees looking for work. A DJJ spokeswoman blames the closing on a budget shortfall that led agency director Bill Byars to conclude a Columbia facility could provide a better service for the inmates.

No. 8 In August, Pinecrest Elementary School embarks on an ambitious fund-raiser – assisting two of its teachers diagnosed with illnesses. “Operation Hope” assists Anne McKellar, diagnosed with bone and liver cancer, and Kaye Martin, diagnosed with acute myloid leukemia. Both are special education teachers and sisters-in-law.
Fund-raisers subsequent to the school’s initial hot dog supper and entertainment include a tennis tournament and in October a performance of “Love Letters,” starring actors Grainger Hines and Michelle Phillips, at Lander University.
In an October profile, Donald and Susannah McKellar say their family is “overwhelmed and devastated” by these and other debilitating illnesses that have plagued members of their immediate and extended families. But they also exhibit a fighting spirit.
“We feel like a prize fighter that has been clobbered, but tries to get back up,” Susannah says. “The loving concern of our friends and their friends helps a lot.”

No. 7 In February, several local Highway Patrol officers and an agent with the S.C. Probation, Pardon and Parole Services are recipients of the Blue Granite Award. The award is given to state employees who have achieved extraordinary results and serve as a reminder of the service they provide every day.
They are honored for being first on the scene Dec. 8, 2003 of a shootout in Abbeville in which two fellow officers were killed.
Two of the award winners from the Blue Granite ceremony are also recipients later in February of the Silver Star for Bravery – Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Steve Sluder and Agent Ed Strickland of the S.C. Probation, Pardon and Parole Service. The award is the highest granted a living officer whose act of courage places his or her life in danger above and beyond the call of duty.
In December, the year anniversary of the deaths of Constable Danny Ouzts and Deputy Danny Wilson is commemorated with a wreath-laying ceremony at a monument in Abbeville.
The state is seeking the death penalty against two people charged in the officers’ deaths – Steven Bixby and his mother Rita Bixby — and plans a death penalty action against Steven Bixby’s father, Arthur.

No. 6 In May, kids make a beeline for the new playgrounds at West Cambridge Park, Greenwood, even before the ribbon can be cut to officially open the new park. Built on the site of an old railroad switch yard, West Cambridge Park includes an open air pavilion, public restrooms, picnic shelters, benches – and to the kids’ delight – playground areas. Construction started last October.
In November and December, a series of open-air concerts is given in an effort to continue retiring the park debt.

No. 5 In November, a Charleston man said by state prosecutors to be the No. 2 breeder of fighting pit bulls is convicted by a Greenwood jury and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The case against David Tant is moved to Greenwood County at the defense’s request because of extensive pre-trial publicity.
During the trial – delayed because of falls by the defendant and his attorney at the Greenwood County Courthouse – jurors see devices such as treadmills, a “rape box” and cattle prods that the state says were used in the breeding and training of dogs for fighting. Tant’s sentence is 10 years for creating a booby trap that injured a surveyor who came onto his property and 20 years for four counts of criminal animal fighting.
Tant is successful later in obtaining a reduction in the amount of restitution he is ordered to pay for the maintenance of his dogs as “evidence” and the cost of relocating the trial.

No. 4 In June, Jamie Wilson, sent to South Carolina’s death row for killing two 8-year-old girls at Greenwood’s Oakland Elementary School in 1988, asks the state Supreme Court to stop the execution. The pleading says Wilson is not mentally competent.
In July the Supreme Court orders a hearing on Wilson’s competency, winning him a temporary reprieve from death.
A federal judge had overturned Wilson’s death sentence in January 2003. The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated Wilson’s death sentence about a year later.

No. 3 In September, Little River in McCormick County, swollen by the rains of Tropical Depression Jeanne, claims the life of a Chapin truck driver. Witnesses at the river bridge on Mars Bridge Road near Mount Carmel say they saw a vehicle go under the water as a section of the bridge collapses.
Fighting darkness and fast-moving high water divers at first are unable to find the wreckage. Later, though, the truck’s cab and trailer are found, buried under bridge debris, and the driver’s body is discovered inside the cab.

No. 2 In April, four people aboard a single-engine propeller plane die in a crash, barely missing three homes in the Wellington Green neighborhood near the Greenwood Airport. A witness who hears the aircraft approach says the engine abruptly stopped, followed by the sound of the crash explosion. “It sounded like 10 transformers had blown,” says Theresa Jacobs, who lives near the front of the subdivision. The four crash victims work for a Georgia-based construction company building the new Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Coronaca.
The accident remains under investigation.

No. 1 In November, the race for president might have been “too close to call” in the wee hours of Election Night 2004 but local races are more easily decided. Republican Dan Wideman beats out Phillip Anderson to become just the seventh sheriff in Greenwood County history. Republican Jerry Peace takes majorities in three of the four Eighth Circuit Solicitor’s Office counties to defeat Bryan Able. And in what he said will be his last campaign, state Sen. John Drummond of Ninety Six handily wins re-election over Republican challenger Dale Phillips of Abbeville.
The Lakelands also goes solidly for U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint over Democratic S.C. Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum to replace the retiring Fritz Hollings in the U.S. Senate. DeMint’s statewide victory gives the state two Republicans in the U.S. Senate.
Once the dust settles nationwide, President Bush far outdistances Democratic challenger John Kerry to win re-election. In 2004 Ohio replaces Florida from 2000 as the deciding “battlegound state” putting Bush over the top. Lakelands voters mirror the state’s results, giving Bush a solid victory – even though McCormick County bucks the trend and gives Kerry a majority of its votes.
Writing off South Carolina as a solid “red” state (pro-Bush), neither presidential candidate comes to the Lakelands to campaign. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, a Seneca native and North Carolina senator, comes to Greenwood in January to campaign in advance of the state’s Democratic presidential primary.

Obituaries

Ed Bagwell

AIKEN — Ed Bagwell, 80, of Dunbarton Circle, husband of Jewell Vaughn Bagwell, died Saturday, Jan. 1, 2005 at Aiken Regional Medical Centers.
Born in the Poplar Springs Community in Laurens County, he was a son of the late R. Brodus and Edith O’Dell Bagwell. He retired after 43 years as supervisor with Riegel Textiles and had been a member of the staff of Shellhouse-Rivers Funeral Home since 1997. He was a member of Good Hope Baptist Church and a lifetime member of Brewerton Masonic Lodge 183 in Ware Shoals.
Survivors include his wife; a son, Roger D. Bagwell, Greenwood; a daughter, Dianne B. Fortier, Bluffton; two brothers, Merrill Bagwell and Bobby Bagwell, both of Ware Shoals; six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Services are 11 a.m. Monday at Shellhouse-Rivers Funeral Home, conducted by the Revs. Robert Jackson and Jamie Rogers. Burial will follow at 3 p.m. in Greenwood Memorial Park.
Visitation is 6-8 tonight at Shellhouse-Rivers Funeral Home, 715 East Pine Log Road, Aiken, S.C.
Memorials may be made to Good Hope Baptist Church, 2118 Silver Bluff Road, Aiken, S.C. 29803.
Shellhouse-Rivers Funeral Home is in charge.

Marjorie Edmunds

CROSS HILL — Marjorie Reeder Edmunds, 75, resident of 343 N. Main Street, widow of James E. “Red” Edmunds, died December 31, 2004 at National Health Care of Clinton.
Born in Laurens Co., May 24, 1929, she was a daughter of the late Lawrence W. and Kate Pinson Reeder. She was a graduate of Clinton High School and was the former owner and operator of Edmund’s Grocery and Snack Bar in Cross Hill.
Mrs. Edmunds was a member of First Baptist Church in Cross Hill.
Surviving are a daughter, Diane O’Bryant and husband, Keith of Cross Hill; a son, Larry Edmunds and wife, Tammy of Cross Hill; three sisters, Montese R. Smith and June R. Bishop, both of Cross Hill and Patsy R. Poole of Greenwood; three grandchildren, Matt O’Bryant, Bo Edmunds and Kyle O’Bryant.
Funeral services will be conducted at 3:30 Monday from the First Baptist Church in Cross Hill with Rev. James K. Hamilton officiating.
Burial will be in the First Baptist Church Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be Marshall Wilkie, Charles Wilkie, David Coleman, Robert Whiteford, Johnny Ingle, Jimmy Sharpe, Horace Neel and Jimmy Steadman.
The body is at Blyth Funeral Home in Greenwood and will be placed in the church at 2:30 Monday afternoon. The family is at the home of Diane and Keith O’Bryant, 323 N. Main Street and will receive friends at the funeral home from 4 to 6 Sunday afternoon.
Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church Building Fund, 761 N. Main Street, Cross Hill, SC 29332. For additional information you may visit www.blythfuneralhome.com.
BLYTH FUNERAL HOME IS ASSISTING THE EDMUNDS FAMILY.
PAID OBITUARY

Alice Watson Gilliams

Alice Watson Gilliams, 70, of 310 Ellenberg Ave., wife of James Gilliams, died on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004 at her home.
Born in Saluda County, S.C., she was a daughter of the late Sam and Katie Lue Butler Watson. She was a member of the Womens Home Aide Society No. 126, the Antioch Baptist Church and was a retired supervisor of housekeeping at the University of Maryland.
Survivors include her husband of the home; a son, Jerome Jones, Greenbelt, Md.; three brothers. Sam Butler, Greenwood, Mike Watson, Washington and Millage Watson, Tampa, Fla.; two sisters, Annie Lue Ware, Harrede Grace, Md. and Vivian Kennedy, Greenwood; seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Services are 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Antioch Baptist Church, conducted by the Rev. R.C. Oglesby. The body will be placed in the church at 1 p.m. Burial will follow in the Oakbrook Memorial Park.
Pallbearers and flower bearers are family and friends.
The family is at the home.
Butler & Sons Funeral Home, Saluda, S.C., is in charge.

Bertha Mae Lewis

SALUDA — Bertha Mae Lewis, wife of Willie Lee Lewis, died Friday, Dec. 31, 2004 at the Saluda Nursing Center.
The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Butler & Son Funeral Home.

George R. Stegall Sr.

BELTON — George Robert Stegall Sr., formerly of Chapman Drive, widower of Hardoldine Chilton Stegall, died Friday, Dec. 31, 2004 at Beverly Health Care in Hendersonville, N.C.
Born in Winngate, N.C., he was a son of the late Fred Griffin and Ella Jane Wrape Stegall. He was a veteran of the Navy, formerly employed with Greenville County and a member of Cedar Shoals Baptist Church.
Survivors include a daughter, Becky Karl of Belton; two sons, Harold V. Stegall of Miami, Fla. and George R. Stegall Jr. of Greenwood; six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Services are 11 a.m. Tuesday at Cedar Shoals Baptist Church, conducted by the Rev. Frank Dooley. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
Visitation is 6:30-8 Monday at Gray Mortuary, Inc., Pelzer.
The family is at the home of Becky Karl, 134 Chapman Drive, Belton.
Gray Mortuary, Inc., Pelzer, is in charge.