Sheriff’s deputy, pregnant woman
taken to local hospital after wreck

July 21, 2006

By JOANIE BAKER
Index-Journal staff writer

Just before she made the third-to-last payment on her Toyota Camry, Joyce Wilkie saw her car resting on a concrete drain hole with two fresh dents in the passenger’s side.
According to South Carolina Highway Patrol reports, Jennifer Owens, 23, who is Wilkie’s son’s girlfriend and is about seven months pregnant, was making a left turn in Wilkie’s car from U.S. 25/S.C. 72 Bypass onto Laurel Road when the car collided with Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office deputy Jeff Scott’s vehicle, which was traveling north on the bypass.
After the impact, which occurred about 12:50 p.m. Thursday, the side of the car Owens was driving struck a metal pole before it became wedged on an elevated concrete drain. The deputy’s vehicle spun and struck Barbara Underwood’s Oldsmobile, which was stopped at the light waiting to turn left on the bypass.
Lance Cpl. Scot Edgeworth, of the S.C. Highway Patrol, said Owens was charged with failure to yield right of way.
Owens was taken to Self Regional Medical Center by Greenwood County Emergency Medical Services. The deputy, who was seen by witnesses holding what looked like an ice pack to the back of his head, was taken by deputies to Self Regional.
Edgeworth said Owens was not wearing a seat belt, but Scott and Underwood were.
Family members of Owens said she complained of her head and leg hurting and, that while she was feeling dizzy, she had not felt any pain in the abdominal area. By 2 p.m., they had been told Owens was waiting for X-rays at the hospital.
Family members said there was a little blood present in the vehicle, but that they could not see any blood on Owens.
Chief Deputy Mike Frederick said Scott sustained mild injuries.
Underwood said she was sitting at the intersection watching the light while on her way to the doctor’s office. She said that, all of the sudden, she heard a “bam, bam,” and, when she looked up, the deputy’s vehicle was coming toward her.
Though witnesses at the Kangaroo Express convenience store said they saw the deputy’s vehicle driving as though it was in pursuit of someone earlier in the afternoon, Frederick said Scott was only on patrol at the time of the wreck.
Law officials blocked the intersection for 30-45 minutes until all the vehicles were cleared from the intersection.

Gator in our lake?

July 21, 2006

By BOBBY HARRELL
Index-Journal staff writer

Mickey Reeves doesn’t think an alligator could be lurking in Lake Greenwood, despite the rumors. He’s lived near the lake his entire life and has never seen anything like a gator.
“I’ve put a fish hook in every inch of this lake,” said Reeves, broker-in-charge at Grand Harbor Real Estate near Ninety Six.
It’s just not probable for something meant for warmer climates to live in the Upstate, Reeves said. But the rumors still fly.
WYFF Channel 4 televised a story July 14 about an alligator sighting in Lake Greenwood.
Jim Swink, of Cross Hill, told WYFF he saw something bumpy with big eyes in the water.
Reeves watched the same program and still doesn’t believe it.
One person reportedly seeing an alligator doesn’t make it true, Reeves said.
But Willy Simmons knows alligators have been found this far north in the state.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has captured alligators from as far away as Spartanburg, said Simmons, a wildlife biologist for DNR.
Alligators are more widely seen in South Carolina below Columbia, he said.
DNR went to Lake Greenwood to look for the alligator, but wildlife officers didn’t find anything.
Residents reported seeing something three feet long that resembled an alligator, Simmons said. If it is an alligator, it couldn’t be more than a baby.
Finding an alligator that small in a lake the size of Lake Greenwood will be difficult, he said. Alligators tend to stick to coves and they almost never return to the same one.
If an alligator is found, a trapper will be sent to capture it, Simmons said. The alligator most likely will be sent to a wildlife reserve in South Carolina.
John Moody, owner of the Harbor Light store on S.C. 702, was surprised to hear about an alligator sighting in Lake Greenwood. He thought the rumor was based on the urban legend about a vacationing couple bringing back a gator from Florida and disposing of it in a toilet. It could also just be a prank, Moody said. He doesn’t think alligators will hurt his business.
“I don’t think it’ll scare too many people off the lake,” Moody said.
Alligators mostly have brown, olive or blackish skin, Simmons said. That might make alligators harder to spot in the lake.
Alligators eat frogs and small fish most of the time, he said. They don’t normally attack people, preferring to slip back into the water and swim away undetected.
Reeves thinks people could have seen an alligator gar fish. The gar fish has a long, stretched out jaw with twin rows of teeth and can grow as long and as wide as an alligator, Reeves said. Gar fish have been seen in Lake Greenwood, but not alligators, he said.

Best weapon to protect your car
from thieves? Try common sense

July 21, 2006

By MEGAN VARNER
Index-Journal senior staff writer

It was about 6 a.m. last Friday when Wayne awoke to an unusual sound. The Greenwood resident, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, was napping in his vehicle in the parking lot of New Haven Apartments after dropping off a friend earlier that morning. About two hours into his nap, he had a rude awakening.
“The next thing I knew, I heard somebody pulling on the passenger door. I unlocked the door, and they opened it from the outside and then I had a gun pointed at me,” Wayne said.
Three men, including two who had scarves over their faces, held Wayne at gunpoint while they searched his pockets and took the cash from his wallet. After the men ran away, Wayne said he immediately called 911 and then tried to follow the men, whom he described as black males, between the ages of 18 and 24, and about 5-foot-6.
“I wasn’t scared,” Wayne said, “but they caught me off guard ... They woke me up out of sleep, so I wasn’t in the right state of mind.”
Greenwood Police Chief Gerald Brooks said incidents such as this — where people are robbed while resting or waiting in a car — are extremely rare in the Greenwood area, but he added that it was important for people to take precautions to keep themselves from being vulnerable to the crime.
First, he said, people sitting or waiting in cars should lock their doors and keep the vehicle’s windows closed.
“If the doors are locked and the windows are up, that gives you a few minutes to react” to someone approaching the vehicle, Brooks said.
He said if a driver must pull over to rest, sleep or wait in a vehicle, it is important to choose a safe location to do so.
“Try to park in an area where the car is readily observable,” he said, adding that if the car is in sight of others, criminal activity would draw immediate attention.
Though Wayne was parked in a dark area, he said he thinks the robbery could have happened at any location. He said he wanted the public to be aware of the problem and to take precautions to keep it from happening again.
“I could have been parked anywhere. That area has been known to be bad, but who would have thought I would have been robbed?” he asked. “You can be at risk anywhere you are ... Even if you are at a shopping center, if you are not paying attention, you could be at risk.”
One of the most high-profile cases of robbery and murder in a car involved the father of famed basketball player Michael Jordan. In 1993, James Jordan was shot and killed in a holdup attempt as he awoke from a nap after parking his Lexus on the side of a highway near Lumberton, N.C.
While people sitting in a car could be at risk for a robbery, Greenwood city and county law enforcement officials said criminals are much more likely to break into a vehicle that is unoccupied, either to steal valuables left in view or stereo equipment.
Autobreaking, as the crime is known, hasn’t been on the rise in the city or county, though officials said the crime occurs regularly.
“We see a nonstop, steady flow of reports about it,” said Lt. Tara Scott, with the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office. The most important step to keep from becoming a victim, officials said, is to keep vehicle doors locked.
“You wouldn’t leave your house open for anyone to walk in, so you should use the same common sense for your vehicle,” Scott said. “That’s the number one deterrent. If they (criminals) have to go to the trouble of breaking a window, that alone is a deterrent.”
Scott said “opportunistic” thieves usually walk through a row of vehicles and check to see which ones are unlocked for a quick rob.
High-dollar after-market items, such as stereo equipment, can draw attention to a vehicle, and Scott said placing stickers on the windows that advertise the type of stereo equipment inside can attract criminal activity. To deter that activity, some radios can be removed from the vehicle when the driver or passengers exit, and some expensive car stereos can be disguised with plain faceplates, Brooks said.
But valuable items — such as purses, cell phones or CDs — left on seats or in plain view from the windows are the biggest temptations for thieves, and Brooks said the car trunk is a safer alternative for storing expensive items. If possible, the items should not be left in the car at all.
“The typical thief will look into a car window before they go to the effort of breaking in,” Brooks said. “If they see the car is plain and empty, chances are, they’ll move on.”

Post 20 heads to state tourney

July 21, 2006

From staff reports


Greenwood Post 20 is one step closer to the ultimate prize.
Post 20 cruised past Lancaster 9-5 Thursday to advance to the state tournament in Sumter, which begins Wednesday.
Justin Lawson pitched a complete game.
Lawson was aided offense of his teammates.
After Post 20 took the lead in the second inning, they never trailed.
Brent Wham went 1-5 with a single in the game. Kyle Behrendt went 1-4 and also had a single for Greenwood Post 20.
Cruse Tollison, stayed in the scoring groove that he was in throughout the series and went 2-4 with two RBIs.
Tollison also had a single and double in the game.
Keith Hill went 2-5 in the game and picked up two RBIs while picking up a single and triple in the final game of the series.
Matt Titus and Trey Wimmer went 1-4 with singles.
Nick Milford went 2-5 in the final game of the series and also had a single.

Opinion

Chairman of joint chiefs a role model for America

July 21, 2006

It’s easy sometimes for free people to forget what they have, especially opportunity. That appears to be a routine situation.
We usually are so caught up in petty quarrels and concerns that we overlook the obvious. Once in a while, though, we get a reminder of how fortunate we are. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, did just that the other day.
At a congressional field hearing in Miami on immigration, attended by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S. C., Gen. Pace, the first Marine to be chairman of the joint chiefs, brought a hush to the room. He broke down in tears while talking about his Italian immigrant father and the opportunities his parents gave their children by coming to the United States.

THE FIELD HEARINGS ARE being held around the country on the separate House and Senate immigration bills currently before Congress. The subject in Miami was the contributions immigrants have made to the U.S. Armed Forces, which is why Pace was there.
Pace’s father was born in Italy in 1914, immigrated to this country and became an electrician in New York City. He raised four children there.
“There is no other country on the planet that affords those kind of opportunities to those who come here,” Pace said. With that the people in the hearing room burst into applause.
What an emotional and uplifting mental image that presents for all of us. Unfortunately, too many of us at times either fail to recognize what we are blessed with or are too busy worrying about and wasting time on such things as politics and the mundane pursuits that fill our lives.
WHILE THE HEARINGS MAY be useful, you have to wonder if they are really necessary. There’s no reason whatsoever for us not to know already what the hearings are trying to find out. Immigrants have almost always been a positive factor in the makeup of our military. Nevertheless, when the American people hear about legal immigrants and people like Gen. Pace, along with the appreciation they have, it should be a good lesson for each of us.
In that respect, maybe the hearings are worth the time and money they cost. On top of that, though, officials will hear how people all over the country feel about immigration and what should be done to solve the problem. If control of the border isn’t’ tops on the list it will be a shock.

Obituaries

Frank Jacob Alsbrooks Jr.

CALHOUN FALLS — Frank Jacob Alsbrooks Jr., 49, died Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at his home.
A memorial service is at a later date.
Calhoun Falls Funeral Home is in charge.

Joy W. Callaway

ABBEVILLE — Joy Williams Callaway, 34, of 710 McIlwain Road, wife of Scotty E. Callaway, died Tuesday, July 18, 2006 from injuries received in an automobile accident.
Born in Abbeville, she was a daughter of Joyce Purdy Clark and the late Homer “Doc” Williams. She received certification as a phlebotomy technician from Piedmont Technical College.
Survivors include her husband of the home; her mother and stepfather, Eddie Clark, of Abbeville; maternal grandparents, L.C. and Lula Smith of Abbeville; a sister, Tracy Willingham of Chapin; a stepsister, Ginger Crawford of Abbeville; two stepbrothers, Craig Clark of Abbeville and Trey Marsh of Lexington.
A memorial service is 3 p.m. Saturday at Harley Funeral Home, Greenwood, officiated by the Rev. Tony Beauford.
Visitation is 1-3 Saturday at the funeral home.
Family members are at their respective homes.
Harley Funeral Home is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.harleyfuneralhome.com

Lonnie Gregory, 101

NINETY SIX — Lonnie “Doc” Gregory, 101, of 133 Coldwater Drive, husband of Darlina Arnold Gregory, died Thursday, July 20, 2006 at Saluda Nursing Center.
Born in Union County, he was a son of the late Bee and Nola Ivey Gregory. He retired as a self-employed fence contractor and was a member of Temple Baptist Church.
Survivors include his wife; three daughters, Annette Blackwell of Greenville, Mary Jo Shehan of Spartanburg and Nancy McGill of Campobello; a sister, Ferrell Palmer of Union; eight grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren.
Graveside services are 3 p.m. today at Greenwood Memorial Gardens, conducted by the Rev. Roger McCoy. Visitation is graveside after the services.
The families are at their respective homes.
Memorials may be made to Temple Baptist Church, 95 Saluda St., Ninety Six, SC 29666.
Blyth Funeral Home & Cremation Services is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.blythfuneralhome.com

Karlin Jones

HODGES — Karlin Jordan Jones, infant daughter of Glenn and Linda Jones, resident of 2320 Dixie Drive, died July 19, 2006 at Self Regional Medical Center.
Born in Greenwood, July 19, 2006, she is survived by four sisters, Caitlin and Ashley Sowell of Abbeville and Kelli Howard and Haylea Jones of the home; a brother, Glenn Jones of the home; a maternal grandmother, Geanie Jordan of Greenwood; paternal grandparents, Billy and Trudy Johns of Hodges.
Karlin was predeceased by a maternal grandfather, James Jordan and a paternal grandfather, Roy Jones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 4 pm Saturday from the Blyth Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Chuck Sprouse officiating.
Burial will be in Elmwood Cemetery in Ninety Six.
The family is at the home on Dixie Drive and will receive friends at the funeral home from 3 to 4 Saturday afternoon. For online condolences please visit www.blythfuneralhome.com
Blyth Funeral Home & Cremation Services is assisting the Jones family.
PAID OBITUARY

Gwendolyn Compton Wilkes

Gwendolyn Compton Wilkes, age 65, of Greensboro, GA, died Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. Mrs. Wilkes was born on August 20, 1940 in Greenwood County, SC to the late L.E. Compton and Gladys Belle Barnwell Compton. She graduated from Ninety Six High School in Ninety Six, SC and from Lander College in Greenwood, SC in 1961. She married her husband, Richard “Dick” Wilkes, in 1962. She had worked at Midlantic Bank in New Jersey where she was branch manager. They retired to lake Oconee in 1997. She enjoyed reading, doing crosswords, and had an extensive collection of teddy bears.
She is survived by her husband, Richard “Dick” Wilkes, of Greensboro, GA; a daughter, Ginger Renee Wilkes Davison & husband Robert “Bob” Davison III of Delanco, NJ; a son, Richard L. Wilkes Jr. and wife Kristi Ann Wilkes of Shamong, NJ; three grandchildren, Tyler Christine Wilkes, Austin Richard Wilkes and Hayden Elizabeth Wilkes and a host of other relatives and friends.
The family will receive friends from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon, July 22, 2006 at McCommons Funeral Home.
The family requests that any memorials be made to the American Heart Association, P.O. Box 672648, Marietta, GA 30006. McCommons Funeral Home, 109 W. Broad St., Greensboro, GA, (706) 453-2626, is in charge of arrangements.
Visit us online at www.mccommonsfuneralhome.com to sign the guest register.
PAID OBITUARY