Abbeville man receives DAR Medal of Honor

John Matthew McMahan spent more than 2 years in POW camp

May 29, 2005

By WALLACE McBRIDE
Index-Journal senior staff writer

ABBEVILLE — It was 60 years coming, but it almost didn’t arrive at all.
John Matthew McMahan spent more than two years in a prisoner of war camp during World War II.
When the war ended, he was freed and quickly got his life back on track, starting a family and spending several more years in the military.
Several months ago, Lucy Willis, local chapter regent for the Daughters of the America Revolution, began looking around the community for potential recipients of the group’s Medal of Honor. Tales of McMahan’s experiences as a POW had been widely circulated, most recently appearing in a Feb. 17 profile in The Index-Journal.
“I though he was just an incredible person,” said Catherine McBroom, state chairman for Americanism for Daughters of the American Revolution. “He was a prisoner of war, and it takes a lot of fortitude to go through that.”
The Medal of Honor is the most prestigious award given by the Daughters of the American Revolution, she said.
McMahan was presented the medal during a Saturday morning ceremony on the steps of the Abbeville County Courthouse.
“I don’t know how to express my appreciation and thanksgiving,” McMahan told the gathering.
“I asked my family how I should express it. Their advice was to tell you all that I love you, and thank you.”
McMahan enlisted in the Army in 1936 and was stationed at Fort Bragg when World War II began.
Serving in North Africa, he was captured by the Germans in February 1943 and remained a prisoner of war for two years and three months.
During a 25-year military career, he also was stationed in Korea and Okinawa, becoming an Army engineer in topography. McMahan retired from the Army in 1962 as a chief warrant officer and returned to Abbeville.
He worked for Davis and Floyd as a surveyor and construction inspector for 25 years before retiring.
“I think he deserved it,” said son John Lindsay McMahan of Saturday’s award. “My dad and some of his brothers and brothers-in-law would tell war stories from the time
“I could sit up and listen to them. I pretty much grew up listening to their tall tales.”
Willis said she grew up across the street from McMahan’s family but was a child during the years that he was in the military.
“I didn’t really know him until this all came about,” she said.
“This is a day in history for Abbeville to honor such a man,” Mayor Harold McNeill said.
“It is men like John McMahan that made America what it is today.”

Saying his last goodbyes

After 35 years of service to the community, leaving hard for EHS’ Frank Hill

May 29, 2005

By RON COX
Index-Journal sports writer

Frank Hill looks over the field at Viking Stadium. After 35 years in Greenwood, Hill is retiring as Emerald High School’s athletic director and football coach.

Frank Hill woke Monday morning as he always does, rising before the sun.
However, the longtime Emerald High School athletic director and football coach knew before he pulled into the school’s parking lot that it was going to be anything but an ordinary day.
Monday was the final full day of the 2004-05 school year for Emerald students, but it was also the unofficial final full day at work for Thomas Franklin Hill.
Hill announced in December his intentions to retire at the end of the school year, finishing a 35-year career, including 11 with the high school.
And while Hill’s official final day won’t come until June 30, Monday proved to be a symbolic one for him.
“We (he and wife Wanda) talked about it this morning,” Hill said Monday. “It was hard, but it is a part of the job.
“It didn’t bring a tear to my eye then, but talking about it now, it does,” he added, tearfully. “I’m not trying to be weak, but thirty-five years is a long time.”
The day was full of ordinary events.
In the morning, the A.D. made a special trip to Ro-Mac Trophies and Signs to have some plaques personalized for the school’s athletic banquet.
Then, Hill made a run to his church, St. Mark’s United Methodist, to pick up some ice for the school’s Field Day events because the ice machine in the Emerald athletic trainer’s office was on the fritz.
After that, Hill did as he had done each and every day during his tenure and opened the school’s snack stand. For 45 minutes, Hill sold chips, candy and other snacks during the school’s two lunch periods.
But there were some hidden signs this was indeed his unofficial final day.
After coming back from lunch, Hill checked his phone messages.
He had a call from his oldest daughter, Kelly Sercer, who lives in Charlotte, wishing him love and luck on his last day.
He also fielded several calls during the day from people looking to get in touch with Mac Bryan, the Vikings’ new athletic director and football coach.

WHY SAY GOODBYE

While not all of the phone calls he answered Monday may not have been for him, almost everyone on the line seemed to have one question for Hill: “Why are you retiring?”
The 57-year-old simply threw out his familiar laugh and mentioned it was the appropriate time to say goodbye.
“I thought I did about all I could do with football, and I felt like they needed a new leader over here,” said Hill, who turns 58 on June 28. “A lot of people are wanting to know why I’m getting out, but I think it was just the right time.”
In a decade of work as a high school football coach, Hill walked away with a state title. He took the 1998 Vikings, who finished third in Region III-AA, on a remarkable playoff run that ended with in a championship. It was one of 13 state team titles claimed by Emerald sport during his time as A.D.
Hill said his decision to retire, albeit a tough one, didn’t come overnight. After thinking about it during the 2004 football season, where his Vikings finished 3-9 but did enough to earn a spot in the Class AA state playoffs, Hill made up his mind in the place where he reached his highest coaching honor: at Williams-Brice Stadium during the Weekend of Champions.
Then he took on the task of notifying his family, friends and colleagues.
Hill’s decision made some sense to his top football assistant, Zeke Goode, who has been on Hill’s football coaching staff since the high school opened.
“I feel good about his decision, because I know he achieved the goals he wanted to achieve,” Goode said. “He had the opportunity to coach varsity football and he won a state championship, which is a rarity.
“I’m happy for him, because I think he was ready to move on and enjoy life. He’s still going to be a part of Emerald High School.”
While some took the news in stride, others reacted differently.
“The Tuesday after the (football) state championship game he told me he wanted to talk,” said Kristi Robinson, who spent the past seven years as Hill’s athletic secretary. “He told me he was going to retire, and I was OK until I called Wanda, and she was crying on the phone. That’s when I lost it.
“But what really got me was that I had to type his letter of resignation, because he was at Shrine Bowl practice with Chris Tommie. The more I typed, the more I cried.”

GOING OUT WITH A BANG

The Emerald athletic program has seen its far share of successful over the last 10 years, but none may have had more than Hill’s final one.
Despite failing to claim a team state title, the school achieved many accomplishments. Sixteen of the 18 varsity programs qualified for the postseason.
Seven squads finished the year with Region III-AA titles (boys tennis, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls track, baseball and golf), with four of them (boys soccer, girls track, baseball and golf) ended the season with Class AA state runners-up trophies.
The school finished third to Bishop England and Broome in the Class AA South Carolina Athletic Directors Cup, which ranks schools according to how all of their sports teams perform during the season.
“I never imagined in my lifetime that we would have a year as A.D. that we would have over here,” Hill said. “It’s made me feel great about the type of spring we’ve had. We’re fortunate enough to have some good coaches and good athletes.
“Everything is kind of ending on a fantastic note.”
But Hill knows that success does have a tendency to leave many to contemplate thoughts of just one more year.
“After the spring that we had, you start to think about maybe giving up football and staying on as A.D., because of the success we had,” Hill said.
“I don’t think there’s ever a good time, as long as you stay in coaching, that you can get out. Whether you win the state or don’t win the state, you’re always thinking about next year.
“But I can’t look back on that. I have to look forward, and go from there.”

SEEING THE UNWANTED SIGNS

The success of the Emerald spring sports managed to do two things for Hill.
Not only did it give him a certain sense of pride, but it also proved to be a sort of distraction for what was to come at the end of the school year.
However, that distraction changed one afternoon when he saw assistant coach Mark Sorrow lining the Vikings’ practice football field. Sorrow was marking the field for Bryan’s first spring practice.
That was major development for Hill, because it was the first time the field had been outlined by someone other than himself.
In fact, as far as Hill knew, it was the first time that any Emerald football field (junior high or high school) wasn’t done by him.
“That brought back a moment to me, that I’m really getting out of here, and it wasn’t necessarily a happy moment,” Hill said. “It was a moment that I realized that I was going. It was the first moment when I realized Frank Hill won’t be coaching that team. All because I didn’t line off the practice field.”
He found ways to himself occupied for the first couple of spring practices, going to Charleston with the baseball team on the first day and then driving the bus for the girls soccer team to Greenville the next.
But with the baseball team playing at home Wednesday, Hill knew he would have to face the music.
“It was the first time that I saw somebody else coaching an Emerald team other than me,” he said. “I really didn’t think about those first two days because I was involved in A.D. duties.
“But Thursday and Friday (both football practice days), I left before school was out because I didn’t want to be here, because they were practicing.”
He regrouped the following week at watched the next couple of practices.
“The guys spoke to me as they came on and off the field,” Hill said. “It was a realization that I’m past history.”

ON THE HORIZON

Hill may be moving on, but can a man that worked 70-to-80 hours a week retire to a work-free life?
Not likely.
And since he has yet to take up golf, Hill looks to find something to fill his days while he waits for his wife to get home from work at Piedmont Technical College.
One thing Hill said he planned to do was get back into officiating.
During his early years as a coach, Hill supplemented his family’s income by officiating high school and college basketball and baseball games. He was a high school official from 1972-84 and a college official from 1976-94.
“I enjoy officiating,” Hill said. “Back in the ‘70s, I even had an opportunity to go into major league ball (baseball).”
But Hill is also considering one option that may keep him inside the Emerald family.
He said the Greenwood 50 School District offered him a position that may be too good to turn down.
“They are looking for somebody to take care of the fields, cut the grass, get the field ready to play,” Hill said. “I’ve talked to our school district about it. I talked to Mac about it first, because I didn’t want him thinking I was looking over his shoulder.
“Right now, that’s what I want to do, starting in July. Just to be active in something. We’ve talked about it, they (school district) have offered it to me, but I have not taken it yet.
“I want to be on the backburner. I don’t want the spotlight. I want to let them know that I want to do all I can to be a little part of Emerald High School.”

Opinion

Many Graham supporters sending senator message

May 29, 2005

South Carolina’s senior Republican U. S. Senator Lindsey Graham has lost some of his once-solid backing, and it could hurt.
Graham has made a name for himself in Washington. The folks up there, including some of the TV correspondents and news anchors, describe him in glowing terms. Back home, though, it’s becoming an altogether different picture. That glow seems to be fading with many of Graham’s constituents ….. and there’s a good reason for that.
Graham, who used to represent South Carolina’s Third District in Congress, got a lot of support from Greenwood voters when he sought to succeed Strom Thurmond in the U. S. Senate. They supported him with their votes and their money.

NOW, THOUGH, MANY OF them – and they are long-time Republicans – are angry at Graham and swear they will look for anyone to support in the future as long as it’s not Graham. At first glance, it may appear these voters are upset over Graham’s part in making a deal on President Bush’s judicial nominees.
That is, in fact, the number one cause of displeasure. They see the deal as a slap in the face, and in no uncertain terms paint Graham as a turncoat.
Apparently, though, this disillusionment started before the filibuster fiasco. But, when Graham and a few of his associates – Democrat as well as Republican – made a deal to vote on some judicial nominees but not all, the tidal wave of criticism began. It hasn’t all been in Greenwood, either. It’s coming from all across South Carolina.
Critics are right, too. If senators are too timid to stand up and vote, something they’re elected to do, they deserve the wrath of the public they represent. Making deals smacks of back-room manipulation that is totally out of place.

THERE HAS BEEN SOME speculation that Graham is positioning himself to run for higher office ….. maybe on a John McCain/Graham presidential ticket. McCain was one of the deal-makers, of course, and Graham headed his campaign in South Carolina the last time McCain sought the presidency.
That speculation may or may not be true. What is true is Graham’s base is slipping. He has a choice, though, or so it seems. He can try to be the fair-haired boy on Capitol Hill, or he can work to mend the political fences he’s torn down back home ….. and remember where his voters are.
In being part of the “deal,” Graham seems to have misjudged many of his supporters. The way they’re talking, they’re not going to let him forget it, either.

Editorial expression in this feature represents our own views.
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Obituaries

Linda Gail Abrams

Linda Gail Abrams, of 319 Washington St., died Wednesday, May 25, 2005 at her home.
Survivors include a daughter, Pamela Abrams of Greenville; two brothers, Doug Abrams of Atlanta and Billy Abrams of Cokesbury; a companion of the home, Lloyd Crawford; three stepdaughters, Brenda Norman, Ruby Crawford and Cheryl Crawford, three stepsons, Dwight Crawford, Gregory Crawford and Harold Crawford, all of Greenwood; three grandchildren; and 13 step-grandchildren.
Services are 2 p.m. Tuesday at St. Luke Pentecostal Church. Burial is in The Evening Star cemetery.
Webb-Settles Funeral Home, Greenville, is in charge.

Mary Waller Jenkins

LOS ANGELES — Mary Alice Waller Jenkins, widow of Jacob O. Jenkins, died Wednesday, May 25, 2005 in Los Angeles.
Born in Ninety Six, S.C., she was a daughter of the late James and Sarah Brooks Waller. She was educated in Ninety Six and Greenwood, S.C., public schools. Attending Allen University and Bettis Academy, she graduated from Claflin University and received a master’s degree in early childhood development from Columbia University in New York. She was a former member of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Epworth, S.C., and Marshall Chapel Baptist Church, Ninety Six, and a member of Holman United Methodist Church, Jefferson Boulevard in Los Angeles. Retiring from teaching after 40 years, she taught at the former Westside School in Greenwood, Marian Anderson Elementary School, Willowbrook School District and Compton Unified School District.
Survivors include a daughter, Beautelle Aileen Daniels of Los Angeles; two sons, James Alexander Jenkins and Thomas Edward Jenkins of Los Angeles; two brothers, Thomas Waller of Greenwood and James Waller of Philadelphia; eight grandchildren; and four grandchildren.
Services are 11 a.m. Thursday at Holman United Methodist Church.
Announcement courtesy of Percival-Tompkins Funeral Home, Greenwood.

Lue Gene Laster

ABBEVILLE — Services for Lue Gene Laster, of 380 Old Hodges Road, are 1 p.m. Tuesday at Mount Olive Baptist Church, conducted by the Revs. R.C. Shelton, Charles Agnew and Emanuel Spearman. The body will be placed in the church at 12. Burial is in the church cemetery.
Pallbearers are Moses Calhoun, Allen Smith, James Riley, Curtis Thomas, Jackie Neal and Don Williams.
Flower bearers are Ann Burton, Mary L. Coates, Larsena Deveaux, Jennifer Dotson, Mary Golden, Denise Johnson and Women Home Aide Society No. 90.
The family is at the home.
Brown and Walker Funeral Home is in charge.

James Oliver

MOUNT CARMEL — Services for James Oliver are 1 p.m. Monday at Spring Grove Baptist Church, conducted by the Rev. Roy Andrews. Burial is in the church cemetery.
The family is at the home of a cousin, Minnie Oliver New, Fort Charlotte Road, Mount Carmel.
Walker Funeral Home, McCormick, is in charge.