Abbeville clerk ordered to come back
before South Carolina Supreme Court

June 30, 2005

By VIC MacDONALD
Index-Journal regional editor

Already under a S.C. Supreme Court-issued order to perform the duties of her office, Abbeville County Clerk of Court Nancy King was told to be back in Columbia next month for another appearance before the court.
The justices will ask about King’s progress in fulfilling a Writ of Mandamus issued by the court in November in connection with money that an audit said had not been accounted for in her office. A Writ of Mandamus is a legal document that basically instructs an elected official to perform the duties of his or her office.
The writ ordered King and the Clerk of Court’s Office to turn over past due monies the office should have collected from fees and fines.
Last February, an audit found up to $8.5 million was unaccounted for. Results of a State Law Enforcement Division investigation were turned over to the Attorney General’s Office.
King denies that there is any money missing from her office.
“We petitioned for the order last year, and the writ was issued,” said Mark Plowden, deputy communications director for the Attorney General’s Office. “The matter in question was never resolved.”
The Supreme Court, through the writ, ordered King to resolve the money issue to its satisfaction as soon as possible, but a significant amount of time has passed since then, Plowden said.
“Any action to remedy the situation was to be passed through us, as well,” he said.
Plowden said action taken on the matter is not a prosecution by the Attorney General, but the office does have an administrative function.
“We asked for the writ, and it was issued,” he said. “We are filling the role as a resource to the court.”
King, her attorney should she choose to have one, and counsel for the Attorney General’s Office were summoned by letter from the Supreme Court to appear July 20.
Signed by the court’s clerk, the order “strongly recommend(s) that Ms. King obtain counsel to represent her in this matter.”
King acknowledged receiving a letter from the S.C. Supreme Court concerning the hearing. “It was a normal letter of correspondence,” she said.
King said she has hand-delivered copies of all monthly reports on fees and fines to the court and the Attorney General’s Office. “Everything is entirely caught up,” she said.
The money in question involves fees and fines owed by people who are in prison – and have no way to meet the obligations.
For example, King said, in the case of one person who is in prison, a first offense fine and fee totaled $51,100. Then, for a second offense, the fine and fee totaled an additional $100,100, and for a third offense, the fine and fee totaled an additional $207,600.
“There is no way people incarcerated can pay,” King said. “There is no money missing.”
Because there are multiple people in this situation, all owing money to Abbeville County, King said a large sum is reflected as unpaid, but she insisted the money is not “missing.”
Still, the letter from the S.C. Supreme Court clerk makes it clear that all parties should attempt to clear up the matter. “The Court expects Ms. King and counsel for the Attorney Generals’ office to be present for this hearing,” the letter said.
Plowden said it is within the court’s powers to cite King for contempt or remove her from office if the justices are not satisfied with her progress toward fulfilling the terms of the writ.

Cheating Death

Asleep in a foxhole, Thomas Brooks misses a date with destiny

June 30, 2005

By MEGAN VARNER
Index-Journal senior staff writer

During the battles of World War II, millions of Allied soldiers in the European and Pacific Theatres were placed in intense situations that brought them face-to-face with danger.
More than 60 years after the war, some veterans might still remember those moments during their service when they cheated death, either by luck or skill.
But Greenwood resident Thomas Brooks doesn’t have any memory of his closest encounter with possible death. His moment came while he was fast asleep.
A native of Greenwood, Brooks grew up on a local family farm, often spending his time plowing and performing other farmhand duties.
A few months after turning 16, Brooks was sitting in church when he heard of the Pearl Harbor attacks. Though young, he said he realized the consequences of the attacks would be far reaching. “If I ever reached 18, I knew where I’d be going,” he said.
Just after the attacks, Brooks’ older brothers Carroll and Loudon answered their country’s call to service by joining the U.S. Army Air Force and the U.S. Navy.
Brooks said he knew his country needed him as well, but he didn’t want to follow in his brothers’ footsteps exactly.
“They kept picking at me, but I knew I wasn’t going to go into those two (branches),” he said, laughing. “The only thing left to choose was the Marines.”
And that’s just what he did.
In June of 1943, a few weeks shy of his 18th birthday, Brooks traveled to an enlistment center in Columbia to sign up with the U.S. Marine Corps.
His first taste of soldier’s life came during basic training at Parris Island. There, he drilled with the other young men, learning how to march, fire guns and, most importantly, follow orders.
During one marching drill, Brooks said the men were ordered to take salt tablets before beginning the exercise. In the humid heat of the summer months, the soldiers would lose enormous amounts of sweat during the marches, and the salt tablets were used to keep the men from passing out during the drills.
“One day I didn’t take my salt tablet, and I melted on the march,” Brooks said. “Somebody had to carry me back to my barracks. My sergeant asked me if I had taken my salt tablet before the march, and I told him I hadn’t. He told me to go to the mess hall and tell them to put me to work scrubbing the kitchen appliances.”
Brooks said the punishment taught him a lesson about following orders.
“I didn’t have any trouble with that anymore,” he said, laughing.
After several weeks of basic training, Brooks reported to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. There, he began training to operate an amphibious tractor, a tank-like vehicle used by the military to transport personnel or equipment between ships and land.
Brooks said learning to operate the device was somewhat easier for himself than the other soldiers, due to his experience with farming machinery.
“I didn’t have much trouble with it. The tractor had two tracks, and you used one track to guide the other. You just had to keep your eyes on where it was going and keep it straight,” he said.
Brooks and several other Parris Island marines were soon assigned to a base in California, where they began training other soldiers on how to use the tractors.
When their training was complete, Brooks said the men had the option to remain in California to begin training more soldiers, or to ship out with the newly-trained marines to a base in Maui, Hawaii.
“We all decided we would stay together and go to Maui,” he said.
On the ride across the Pacific, Brooks said he learned another valuable lesson of military life.
“You have to be careful not to stand below someone who is being sick over the side of the boat,” he said, adding that, once again, he learned the lesson the hard way. “It landed on me, and then I got sick.”
After completing training in Maui, Brooks’ group was sent to Saipan, an island in the Northern Mariana Islands. Located about 100 miles north of Guam, the small island was home to fierce fighting between Japanese and Allied forces in the later stages of the war.
After transporting troops to the island, Brooks said he and his partner would dig foxholes for protection on the sandy beaches, where they would sometimes remain overnight.
“When you got in (the foxhole), you kept digging it deeper if you got a chance. You wanted to get as far down as you could,” he said, adding that he and his partner didn’t talk much in the hours spent in the trenches. “You had to stay quiet, and you just tried to go to sleep.”
Though the foxhole was designed to keep the soldiers secure from enemy fire, it was while he was in one of these trenches that Brooks came perilously close to death – and he didn’t even realize it.
As he and his partner slept in their foxhole, Japanese troops passed over the two men, stealing weapons from amphibious tractors that were parked nearby.
“They marched right over us, but we were so tired that we slept through it. We didn’t hear them,” Brooks said, adding that the Japanese soldiers must have seen the two marines, but assumed they were no threat. “They must have thought we were dead. When we woke up, we didn’t realize what had happened. When we found out, we were both tickled to death that we (had lived) to do something else.”
During his six-month stay on the island, Brooks said he came down with dengue fever, a tropical illness that lasts about a week and is accompanied with fever, muscular pain and rashes that can cover the body.
During his stay in the sick bay, Brooks received a letter from his father and, as it was for most troops, the message from home was a welcome sight.
Brooks said his father, who had been keeping up with the news of the war, would often include a guess as to where his son might be traveling.
“We weren’t allowed to include information about our location in letters to our families back home, but he would always tell me, ‘I think I know where you are,’” Brooks said, adding that his father had guessed he was in Saipan. “I couldn’t tell him where I was, but I did tell him that he was a good guesser.”
In February of 1945, after Brooks was well enough to rejoin his comrades, the men moved to Iwo Jima to begin a 30-day stint on the Japanese island.
When they arrived, Brooks said the weather was bitter cold and a light sleet had begun to fall. His duties remained the same – transporting troops and supplies to and from shore – and during one trip, Brooks’ tractor began to fill with water. He made it safely back to the base ship, where it was discovered that a cap had clogged the tractor’s bilge pump.
When his stay in Iwo Jima was complete, Brooks said the men returned to Maui, where they learned that President Franklin Roosevelt had died.
Brooks said the men expected to be moved to Honshu, but the new president, Harry Truman, instead ordered the use of two atomic bombs on Japan, bringing an end to World War II.
Brooks returned to Camp Lejeune, where he was given the option to remain in service – with his rank reduced from sergeant to private – or be honorably discharged.
On Dec. 7, 1945 – exactly four years after the attacks that launched the U.S. into the war – Brooks received $300 for his service and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps.
He caught three rides and made it back to his Greenwood home before the end of the day.
After the war, Brooks, now 79, married and had three children. He is a member of the Lakelands Marine Corps League, Detachment 1112, as well as American Legion Post 20.

Megan Varner covers general assignments in Greenwood and the Lakelands. She can be reached at 223-1811, ext. 3308, or: mvarner@indexjournal.com

McGuires leaving Lander

Baseball, volleyball coaches raise turnover to 5 since April

June 30, 2005

By MICHAEL STONE
Index-Journal sports editor

Jeff May’s tough summer just got tougher.
Having already replaced three coaches in the last two months, May — the athletic director at Lander University — will have to replace two more, as baseball coach Mike McGuire and volleyball coach Angela McGuire have resigned, the school announced Wednesday.
In April, Lander lost three coaches in the space of eight days when softball coach Doug Spears and tennis coach Jeff Cabri resigned, and women’s basketball coach Jonathan Norton left to take the over the women’s program at Berry College in Georgia.
Brett Simpson has been hired as the LU tennis coach, Kevin Pederson the women’s basketball coach and Lee Dobbins the softball coach.
“It’s been a challenging and unusual May and June,” May said.
Mike McGuire has been the Bearcats coach for three seasons, amassing a record of 90-80. McGuire, who was an assisant coach at Winthrop University for six years before coming to Lander, said he will be coaching a college baseball team in the fall.
“Lander was a great opportunity and we’re leaving a lot of great people behind; not only at Lander but in Greenwood,” said McGuire, who would not name the school he will be coaching.
“The hardest part is the players I’ve leaving behind.”
McGuire was just the second baseball head coach for Lander, replacing Rusty Stroupe, who started the program.
McGuire helped develop pitcher David Wilson, the only Lander baseball player taken in MLB’s June Amateur Draft.
Wilson was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 17th round this season, and is scheduled to pitch in his professional game tonight for the Reds’ farm club in Billings, Mont.
Angela McGuire, Mike’s wife, has coached the Lady Bearcats for the last two seasons, compiling a record of 27-39.
The couple has been married a little more than one year and has a 6 ½-week old daughter, Courtney.
May said work will begin immediately to fill the two coaching positions.
Both positions will probably be posted today, and May said he would like to have the new coaches hired in less than three weeks.
“I would say middle of July would be the latest,” May said. “We have student-athletes arriving here the beginning of August, so we have to have people in place.”

Opinion

‘Gentle’ was description that fit Bill Martin best

June 30, 2005

His full name was William Paul Martin Jr. However, his friends called him Bill, and just about everyone he ever met could be included in that category.
Bill Martin died the other day at age 78, and like so many before him, his death leaves a void that would be hard to fill. His family, church, social and business lives were marked by one word: success. And that embodies every positive characteristic that defines the human experience.
No matter the place or circumstances, Bill was always the quintessential Southern Gentleman, with the emphasis on gentle. His ever-friendly demeanor was second nature and always reassuring. It would be almost impossible to list the many qualities that made him just plain likable.
There aren’t many of us around like Bill Martin. If the Good Lord had ever wanted to try his great experiment all over again, Bill could have been the role model ….. and the world would definitely have been a better place. He was, as they say, the salt of the earth. As it is, the world is considerably diminished without him.

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

Obituaries

Frank Crenshaw

Frank Crenshaw, 60, of 101 Quince St., husband of Barbara Crenshaw, died Wednesday, June 29, 2005 at Providence Hospital in Columbia.
The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Robinson & Son Mortuary Inc.

Mary Elizabeth Fowler

Mary Elizabeth Fowler, 80, widow of William Fowler, died Wednesday, June 29, 2005 at her home.
A daughter of the late George and Lorita Cromer, she was a member of Mathews Methodist Church and retired from Greenwood Mills, Mathews Plant.
Survivors include a brother, Thomas Cromer of Galveston, Texas; a sister, Lucille Cobb of Abbeville; a niece of the home, Jean Reece; and a great-nephew of the home, Aaron Reece.
Memorial services are at a later date.

Colie Blease Harris

SALUDA — Colie Blease Harris, 71, died Monday, June 27, 2005 at Saluda Nursing Center.
Born in Saluda, he was a son of the late Joe and Cornelia Clary Harris. He was a member of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, an Army veteran of the Korean War and a retired construction worker.
Survivors include a sister, Ruth Staley of Cleveland, Ohio.
A memorial service is 10 a.m. Friday at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, conducted by the Rev. Johnny C. Gantt.
Butler & Sons Funeral Home is in charge.

Jaden Earl Heath Meeler

WOODRUFF – Jaden Earl Heath Meeler, age 2 1/2 months, of 127 Miller Dr., died Tuesday June 28th in the Greenville Memorial Hospital.
He was born in Spartanburg and was the son of Roxanna Mills and Burton Meeler of Woodruff.
Surviving are maternal grandparents, Teresa & David Nelson of Woodruff, paternal grandparents, Tom & Glenda Meeler of Myrtle Beach, and Louanne Meeler of Greenwood, three aunts, Dee Dee Jones of Woodruff, April Mack and Leslie Moore of Greenwood, one uncle Wayne Buffington of Concord, N.C.
He was predeceased by an uncle, Adrian Heath Buffington.
Memorial service will be held Saturday, July 2nd at Bellview Baptist Church from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Gray Funeral Home of Laurens.
PAID OBITUARY

Eva Mae Willis

ABBEVILLE — Eva Mae Willis, 82, of 603 Richie St., widow Edred Willis Sr., died Wednesday, June 29, 2005 at Self Regional Medical Center in Greenwood.
Born in Greenville, she was a daughter of the late Frank and Fannie Mae Nicholson Hill. She was a retired employee of Abbeville County Memorial Hospital. She was a member of Mount Clement C.M.E. Church, the senior choir and prayer band of the church and Dew Drop Chapter No. 81 Order of the Eastern Star.
Survivors include two sons, Bobby Willis of the home and Edred Willis Jr. of Belton; a sister, Eloise Smith of Abbeville; eight grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
Family members are at the homes of a son Bobby Willis, 603 Richie St. and a sister Eloise Smith, 608 Haigler St.
Services will be announced by Brown and Walker Funeral Home.

CORRECTION

For the obituary of Mary Mauldin in Wednesday’s paper, incorrect information was submitted to The Index-Journal. Survivors include her mother, Grace Palumbo Baughman of Greenwood and a sister, Sharon Puckhaber of Lowden, Tenn.