Family lives ‘ultimate story of forgiveness’

June 25, 2005

By KENNY MAPLE
Index-Journal intern

Whenever he talks about Danny Rivera, Larry Barker asks the same question:
“How many people, being Christians, losing the most you can lose at that point in your life, could say ‘I love you and forgive you and I don’t want anything to happen to you?’”
Larry Barker is the father of Brandon Barker. On Nov. 1, 2002, Brandon was involved in a car wreck that ended the lives of Rivera’s wife, Kathy, daughter Dominique, 11, and son David, 9. Brandon told the story of forgiveness Friday at a monthly men’s prayer breakfast at St. Mark United Methodist Church.
Brandon was charged with reckless homicide for the wreck that happened in Fountain Inn. Brandon was facing a possibility of 30 years in prison.
Because Brandon’s Ford Bronco was in the opposite lane, investigators thought he was passing a car at the time of the wreck.
Brandon insisted he was not passing a car but was traveling behind another vehicle before he hit a pothole. The Barkers hired a research engineer to investigate.
The investigation resulted in findings different from law enforcement’s official report.
According to Brandon’s mother, Susie Barker, a woman driving the car in front of Brandon said he was not passing her.
“A lot of the (police) report was based on miscalculations,” Susie Barker said.
Despite the contradicting reports, Brandon did not want to bring back the painful memories for him and his family. At his trial two years later, on Nov. 28, 2004, Brandon pleaded guilty. He is serving 18 months of house arrest and will have five years of probation.
Despite having lost his wife and children, Rivera did not want the worst for Brandon. In fact, he did the opposite.
He forgave Brandon.
Larry Barker said Rivera, while being interviewed on television news, asked to see Brandon.
Fearing that Rivera wanted to hurt Brandon, Rivera was denied the visit.
But Rivera said he didn’t want to hurt Brandon. He wanted to give him a message: He loved Brandon and didn’t want anything to happen to him.
“This is the ultimate story of forgiveness,” Susie Barker said. “He (Rivera) is one of the most phenomenal men you will ever meet.”
“A man like that is a modern-day prophet just like the disciples that followed Jesus,” Larry Barker said.
How could Rivera forgive Brandon? When asked that question, Larry Barker said, Rivera answers with his own question: “What would Jesus do?”
“He was very understanding,” Brandon said. “Talking with him was an eye-opener for me.”
“This man was probably the main reason I am standing here today,” he said.
The Barker family and Rivera, who has another son, have become good friends. They keep in touch by e-mail and visit with each other.
“We have formed such a bond,” Susie Barker said. “He is a part of our family.”
“The big thing that hit home with me is when he (Rivera) said ‘God did not take three away from me, but gave me one.’ He uses us as his family,” she said
Brandon, a biology major at Lander University, said he has learned from the incident and has since gone through other events that have changed him.
After talking with friend Jason Wilson and going on mission trips, Brandon said he realized God has a plan for everybody.
“I gave myself back to Jesus; it felt different,” he said. “All the burden I had been carrying fell off my shoulders.”

Getting another chance

Women’s golf event returns after absence

June 25, 2005

By MICHAEL STONE
Index-Journal sports editor

NINETY SIX — Greenwood’s Teresa Sprouse is taking her golf clubs and her cell phone to The Patriot Golf Club.
Sprouse will be using the clubs as she plays in the Festival of Flowers Women’s Golf Tournament today and Sunday.
She has the cell phone in case her daughter, Tammi Mentis, gives birth.
“I’m planing on a couple of good rounds, as long as my grandbaby isn’t born,” Sprouse said.
Sprouse is one of 33 golfers scheduled to play in the women’s tourney this weekend.
Play begins at noon at the Patriot, with tee times starting at 8:30 a.m. Sunday for the 36-hole event.
The women’s tournament was last played in 1999, and Sprouse — a member at Hunter’s Creek and The Fort@96 — was one of several women from Greenwood and the Lakelands area who was happy to see it return.
“It’s good for the women golfers to have the tournament,” said Abbeville County’s Shirley Cheek. “I hope we have a good time, it will be a nice course, and we can entice other people outside of the Greenwood area to come down and play.”
Gary Moore, the head pro at The Patriot, would love that.
In fact, Moore said he would like to see the festival tournament become one of the premier women’s golf events in the state.
Cheek, also a member at The Fort, has played the Patriot twice – in a captain’s choice event more than a month ago, and in a practice round Friday.
She had high praise for the course, selected as the best new course in South Carolina in 2004. “I love the way it’s set up like a fort,” Cheek said. “I’m anxious to see what I can do playing my own ball.”
Greenwood County resident Pat McCutcheon and Greenwood’s Teenie Simmons will also be trying to beat the course at the Patriot.
“If I can be in the 80s two days in a row, I’ll be happy,” McCutcheon said. “That’s my goal.”
But no matter what the pair shoots today and Sunday, they will be heading to the Greenwood Country Club when they are done with their rounds. McCutcheon’s son Jeff and Simmons’ son Russell are playing in the men’s tournament.
Another member of The Fort, Barbara Schuster has played in the women’s tournament in the past and is looking forward to competing again.
She played a practice round with McCutcheon, Simmons and Cheek Friday, and is anxious to see what she can do on the course.
“If I could play to my handicap, which is a 20, I would be ecstatic,” Schuster said. “I always feel I’ve got a shot at anything.”

Opinion

Textiles ... some winners, but others still the losers

June 25, 2005

In Greenwood, as much as anywhere across the South, the textile industry was, historically speaking, the backbone of commerce. It put food on the table, clothes on our backs and kept the local economy vibrant.
The textile industry was central to our past, sustainer of our present, and was, without question, the hope for our future. There was every reason to believe it would go on unabated.
That, however, was not to be, as we all know all too painfully well these days.
The signs of a booming past dot the landscape. However, ghosts of the good times fill the empty buildings that once, not all that long ago, hummed with economic activity. The textile industry is only a pale shadow of the hearty and healthy industriousness that gave the whole community life.

THE INDUSTRY MOVED AWAY, though. It moved to Asia, South America and places in-between. Jobs by the thousands were lost to cheap wages in China and India and the Philippines and scores of other places. So much work shifted, in fact, that the American textile industry is hardly a skeleton of its former self.
The problem is not so simple, though, that it can be explained away with cheap wages and an endless supply of people willing to work for them. We, the consumers, are as much to blame as anyone.
We want quality clothes, for example, and we want them for what we can pay. Retailers want customers.
Textile manufacturers want a “level playing field” where fair trade rules. They don’t see that without controls.

SO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has decided to re-impose quotas on three categories of clothing imports from China. It responded to pleas from domestic producers that a surge of Chinese imports were threatening thousands more of American jobs.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Guiterrez said a government investigation found that a surge in shipments from China since global quotas were eliminated on January 1 was disrupting the domestic market. So enforcement of the trade agreement with China was reinstated.
That made manufacturers and their employees happy. On the other hand, American retailers say the move will drive up prices for U. S. consumers. They and their employees, naturally, aren’t thrilled by the move.
One sector wins, another loses. Nothing’s ever as simple as it seems. Textile manufacturers/workers and retailers/consumers leave little doubt.

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

Obituaries

Bradford Arrington

KILLEEN, TX – Bradford Merry Arrington was born August 18, 1924 in Wadesboro, NC. He was the son of the late Bradford M. and Virginia Padgett Arrington. Brad grew up in Clinton and Greenville, SC, where he graduated from high school in 1942. He enlisted in the US Army during WW II and served from 1943 to 1946. He graduated from Furman University in 1948 and received graduate degrees from the University of North Carolina.
After college, Brad taught high school in Greenville and later taught at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), the University of Montana (Missoula), Syracuse University and the University of Illinois (Champagne-Urbana).
Mr. Arrington is survived by a son, Brian R. Arrington, a former petty officer in the U S Navy; three daughters, Dee Doke of Ely, England, Melissa Mersmann of Middleton, NJ and Wendy Arrington of San Diego, CA; a brother, Padgett Arrington of Columbia; two sisters, Celeste Clyborne of Greenville and Martha Wickliffe of Martinsville, VA; an aunt, Laura A. Chovan of Gainesville, GA; a cousin, Stephen T. Rhodes of Greenwood.
He was predeceased by an aunt, Sue Arrington of Greenwood.
Brad will be remembered as a teacher at Greenwood High School from 1949 to 1951 and his participation in the Little Theatre productions.
Services were held in Killeen, Texas.
ANNOUNCEMENT COURTESY OF BLYTH FUNERAL HOME.
PAID OBITUARY

Ronald W. Barnes

EDGEFIELD — Ronald W. Barnes, 40, of Eastview Road, died Friday, June 24, 2005 at his home.
A native of Edgefield County, he was a son of Essie Bowman Barnes and George Barnes. He was a member of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. A 1982 graduate of Strom Thurmond High School, he was a truck driver for Eugene Logging.
Survivors include a son, Ronald Barnes Jr. of Johnston; his mother of Edgefield; his father of Aurora, Ill.; four sisters, Debra Johnson, Mrs. Raleigh (Frances) Yeldell, Mrs. Lawrence (Ann) Callaham, all of Edgefield and Mrs. Gregory (Lynette) Johnson of Aurora; and a brother, Kenneth Barnes of Fort Walton Beach, Fla.
The family is at the home of his mother, Essie Barnes, 240 Carroll St.
Services will be announced by G.L. Brightharp & Sons Mortuary.

Kevin Coleman

ANDERSON — Kevin Eugene Coleman, 34, of 101 Wilshire Drive, died Thursday, June 23, 2005 at Anderson Area Medical Center.
The family is at the home of his mother, Claudette Grier, 101 Willie Kay Road, Donalds.
Services will be announced by Robinson-Walker Funeral Service, Ware Shoals.

Lawrence T. Davis Jr.

Lawrence Theodore “Ted” Davis Jr., 75, of 215 Pecan Drive, husband of Margaret Dorn Davis, died Friday, June 24, 2005 at Self Regional Medical Center.
Born in Greenwood County, he was a son of the late Lawrence T. and Grace Holliday Davis. He retired from Cooper Power Systems and the South Carolina National Guard. An Army Korean conflict veteran, he was a member First Presbyterian Church in Ware Shoals and a Mason.
Survivors include wife of the home; three daughters, Becky Davis of the home, Ann Scott of Greenwood and Nancy Murray of James Island; a son, Larry Davis of Greenwood; a sister, Frances O’Dell of Ware Shoals; a stepbrother, Harold Kay of Ware Shoals; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Service are 3 p.m. Sunday at Harley Funeral Home, conducted by the Rev. Jay. Burial is in Greenwood Memorial Gardens.
Visitation is 6-8 tonight at the funeral home.
The family is at the home.
Harley Funeral Home is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.harleyfuneralhome.com

Brunson Evans Jr.

FORT SMITH, Ark. — Brunson Evans Jr., 61, husband of Mary Ann Evans, died Monday, June 20, 2005.
A son of the late Brunson Evans Sr. and Laura Williams Evans, he was a retired truck driver with ADF and an Army veteran. He was a member of Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church, where he was a deacon, trustee and choir member, and a former member of Cokesbury Baptist Church, Cokesbury, S.C. He was also a member of Widow’s Son Lodge No. 3, E.O. Trent Consistory No. 223 and C.J. Jamison Order of the Golden Circle No. 251.
Survivors include his wife of the home; six sisters, Edvina Henderson, Ruth Evans, Ella Evans and Frankie Evans, all of Hodges of Hodges, S.C., Mary Johnson of Philadelphia, Doris McClain of Washington, D.C.; three brothers, Leroy Evans of Greenwood, S.C., Williams Evans and Ralph Evans, both of Hodges.
Services were 10:30 a.m. Friday at Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church. Burial was in The National Cemetery, Fort Smith.
Rowell-Parish Mortuary was in charge.
Announcement courtesy of Percival-Tompkins Funeral Home, Greenwood.

Harry W. Larsen Sr.

Harry William Larsen Sr., 82, husband of Oliva Irene Giedd Larsen, died Tuesday, June 21, 2005. Born in St. Paul, Minn., he was a son of the late Albert Mark and Mary Rockstad Larsen. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and was a member of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville.
Survivors include his wife; a son, Bill Larsen of Clayton, Ga.; a daughter, Mary Oliva Larsen of Greenwood; two grandchildren; a great-granddaughter; two sisters, Harriet Brunnette of St. Paul and Dorothy Bergman of Aberdeen, S.D.
Services are 4 p.m. today at Mount Calvary Baptist Church. Burial is Monday in Florence National Cemetery.
Visitation is 2-3:30 today at the church.
The family is at the home in Greenwood.
PalmettoCare is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.imemorial.com

Charlene Ledford

Thelma Charlene Tittle Ledford, 76, of 112 Dublin Road, widow of John Pershing Ledford, died Friday, June 24, 2005 at the Hospice House.
The family is at the home of a son, Terry Ledford, 204 St. Augustine Drive.
Services will be announced by Harley Funeral Home.

Samuel Jerome McCall, Jr.

CROSS HILL, SC – Mr, Samuel Jerome McCall Jr., 33, of 1149 S. Main Street, Cross Hill, SC died Thursday, June 23, 2005. Mr. McCall, Jr was born December 16, 1971, the son of Samuel and Sandra Bull McCall of Simpsonville, SC. Mr. McCall was employed with Satterfield Construction Com-pany of Greenwood and was of the Church of God faith. Surviving in addition to his parents are two sons: Andy McCall and Matt McCall of Owens, S.C.; a sister, Tina Knight of Simpsonville, SC, a maternal Grandmother, Kathleen Tyner of Clinton, SC. Mr. McCall was predeceased by a brother, Donnie McCall. Funeral services will be held Monday, June 27, 2005, 2:00 PM at the Light House Tabernacle Church with burial in Rosemont Cemetery in Clinton, SC. The family will receive friends Sunday night at the church from 6:00-9:00. The family is at the home of his parents, Samuel and Sandra McCall, 17 Avocet Lane, Simp-sonville, SC 29680. S.R. Holcombe Funeral Home, Union, SC (www.holcombefuneralhomes.com)
PAID OBITUARY