daily awards presentation - part 3 of 5

NEWS HEADLINE WRITINGNEWS HEADLINE WRITINGDaily Under 20,000 Division

FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEIndex-JournalScott J. Bryan

NEWS HEADLINE WRITINGNEWS HEADLINE WRITINGDaily 20,000 - 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEHerald-JournalPhillip Randall


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEIndependent MailMike McMillan

BY VINCE JACKSONSpecial to Independent Mail

PENDLETON — A Pendleton el-ementary school received a visitFriday from a team of nationaljudges who came to taste theschool’s new lunch food.

The new dish vaulted theschool into the semifinals offirst lady Michelle Obama’sRecipes for Healthy Kids compe-tition.

Last year the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture launched a cam-paign to develop school lunchfoods that are healthy, taste goodand are fun to eat.

The first lady made the initia-tive part of her Healthy Kidscampaign to remove sugars andfats from school lunch menus.Mount Lebanon ElementarySchool answered the call withtheir Crunchy Hawaiian Chick-en Wrap entry in the DarkGreen and Orange Vegetablecategory.

The wrap was the brainchildof team members Vikki Mulli-nax, a school nutrition profes-sional; Chef Lorett Arnold-Hayes of 1826 on the Green inPendleton; community memberKristi Martin; parent andteacher Edie Wilkinson; andstudent Chandler Wilkinson.

The Mount Lebanon recipewas among 15 chosen to moveforward in the competition fromschools in 11 states, includingArizona, South Carolina, Flori-da, California, Massachusetts,Colorado, North Carolina, Min-nesota, Ohio, New Mexico andConnecticut. From among the340 entries submitted, five wereselected in each of three cate-gories: whole grains, dark greenand orange vegetables, and dry

beans and peas.“Recipes for Healthy Kids

draws on America’s culinarycreativity and dedication tohealthy lifestyles,” said Tim O’Connor, USDA associate ad-ministrator for Special Nutri-tion Programs. “Chefs are pro-viding culinary expertise,school nutrition professionalsare sharing insight as to whatcan be accomplished in a schoolsetting, and kids and parentsare making sure that studentswill choose these nutritiousitems in school and beyond.”

Winning recipes will also re-ceive monetary prizes totaling$12,000: Grand prize winner -$3,000; first place (whole grains)- $1,500; second place (wholegrains) - $1,000; first place (darkgreen and orange vegetables) -$1,500; second place (dark greenand orange vegetables) - $1,000;first place (dry beans and

legumes) - $1,500; second place(dry beans and legumes) - $1,000;Popular Choice Award - $1,500.

For a complete list and to voteon your favorite recipe, visit theRecipes for Healthy Kids web-site at www.recipesforkidschallenge.com. Voting ends May31.

A host of school officials anddignitaries, from the South Car-olina Department of Educationto the mayor of Pendleton, filledthe school cafeteria as the na-tional judges set about theirwork.

“It is exciting that MountLebanon is a semifinalist,” saidLee D’Andrea, superintendentAnderson District 4. “All of thisfits into our healthy lifestylesand wellness teaching. We areaddressing childhood obesityand positive eating habits in ourschools.”

Dressed in the attire of a chef

with student chef assistants byher side, Lorett Arnold-Hayesdemonstrated for the judgeshow the wrap is made.

“It is really very easy, eco-nomical and time efficient,” shesaid.

“All of the students here atthe school have really gotten in-to this contest,” said schoolPrincipal Mona Fleming. “Wehave seen a rise in interest inhealthy eating spurred by thisevent.”

After tasting a sample of thechicken wrap Pendleton MayorRandy Hayes said, “It is so goodit makes me want to go back toschool.”

The judges will determinewhich three entries, in each cat-egory, will move on to the na-tional competition in July. Thefinals will be in Texas. Judgingis based on taste, appeal to stu-

dents, creativity and presenta-tion, according to ChartwellsSchool Dining Services.

Chartwells provides diningservices for more than 550 pub-lic school districts and privateschools nationwide.

“We are excited about the op-portunities that this recipe con-test brings to the school commu-nity in Anderson County SchoolDistrict 4,” said Barbara Gard-ner, director of dining forChartwells in District 4.

After sampling the chickenwrap and marking their scorecards the judges awaited the ar-rival of the first group of stu-dents to eat lunch. USDA nutri-tionist Ann Hall said she wasanxious to gauge the acceptanceof the food by the students.

“That is what it is all about,”she said, “The kids have got tolike it, too.”

“It is so good itmakes me want togo back to school.”Randy HayesPendleton mayor

Hawaiian Chicken entry at Mount Lebanon school gets good grades from judges

KEN RUINARD Independent Mail photos

Mount Lebanon Elementary School students Chandler-Brooke Wilkinson, 12, right, and Kennedy Harrison, 11, left, discover the chef hat is too big for Colt Martin, 12, as student council members prepare to serve a chicken wrap that is asemifinalist in first lady Michelle Obama’s Recipes for Healthy Kids competition.

Video and photosof food tasting atwww.independentmail.com.

A Crunchy Hawaiian Chicken Wrap, one of several made forjudges at Mount Lebanon Elementary School in Pendleton.

Pendleton Mayor Randy Hayes, right, sitting beside Todd Bedenbaugh, director of the South Carolina Department of Education Office of Health and Nutrition, tries a chicken wrap.

It’s awrap!

MOREONLINEMMOORREEOONNLLIINNEE

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A big thank-you to the beeman! Hearsayer Audrey B.of Hart County had a lot to

say about a recent encounter witha bunch of honeybees on Easterweekend. “They were hugging theside of a tree about 10 feet up andthe swarm was about five inchesthick!” Mrs. Aud allowed as howher fam didn’t know what to doabout the bees but rememberedhaving “bought a quart of honeyat Morgan Hardware (in Lavonia,Ga.) and it was Mr. Walker’s Hon-ey from Martin, Ga. We got thetelephone number of Mr. Walkerfrom the jar of honey. He came inhis overalls and beard and said hehas been keeping bees and mak-ing honey since he was a youngboy. Mr. Walker climbed a ladderand gently swept the bees into oneof his boxes. As long as the queenbee enters the box, they will allfollow. Mr. Walker asked for a cupof coffee, waited a while and con-tinued another sweeping of bees

into the box … Our familylearned so much that day and re-alized the miracle of pollinationand new life. Thank you, Mr.Walker, for all your experienceand knowledge!” And by the beeway, Mr. Walker’s first name is“Rollo” (pronounced “Rah-lo”)and if you are beset by a swarm ofbees, by all means, call the beeman at (706) 599-1073.

■ News from 13-Year Cicada Cen-tral! “It’s like being in a sci-fimovie!” Hearsayer Cynthia ofAbbeville opined on May 3. “I wasoutside with my dog, PJ, and thenoise was like we were getting at-tacked. You could hear them crawl-ing around. They were flying every-where and hitting the house. It wasreally spooky!” Thanks, Cyn, andread this from Hearsayer Moma-gain45: “I live near the EbenezerFire Department, just off Highway413. I noticed the buzzing soundSunday (May 1). The buzzing neverstops and seems to get louder dur-ing the day!” And from HearsayerJRB1953: “They have been buzzingall day today (May 3) in the Cray-tonville area.” And from HearsayerMdale, who lives between Iva andAntreville, on S.C. 184. “I camehome to an irritating noise today(May 6). It sounded like a lot ofemergency vehicles. I rode up theroad and down the road but didn’tsee anything and couldn’t tell

where it was coming from.” Severalhours later, Ms. M said, she discov-ered “these huge bugs on the playset. Lots of them — cicadas! I wouldnever have predicted the soundscoming from such small creatures.”Well, all you fine Hearsayers whohave been hearing cicadas, thankyou for letting Hearsay know aboutthe noise. Just wish they’d come toHartwell so Hearsay could hear ‘emtoo!■ Fried cicadas for supper? NowHearsayer Martha, who lives in theSlabtown community near Ander-son, tuned in with — believe it ornot — a really fine fried cicadarecipe! “I found an Indian cookbookat a yard sale,” Mrs. M mentioned.“This is one of the recipes: ‘LO-CUST. Gather locust (cicada) atnight, then pick up those out ofshell, remove shell from others. Donot let sunshine on them or theywill spoil. Wash and then fry in asmall amount of grease. Eat hot orcold.’ “ Or maybe not at all?

The Bee Man gets an A for his response to uninvited guestsHearsay

PSST … PASS IT ON

HEARSAY is writtenby Salley M. McIner-ney. If you have acontribution forHearsay — some-thing you’ve seen orheard that struckyou as funny, silly, in-teresting, entertain-ing, odd or other-wise — get in touchwith Salley. Her e-mail address is [email protected].

The Bee Man


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEIndependent MailKylie Yerka

23a

Rubber meets the roaduck flips, spills hundreds of tires on I-85/

BY THOMAS HARGROVE Scripps Howard News Service

Every spring, millions ofAmericans rush to the postoffice to file their taxes be-fore the April deadline.

Paying taxes unites us. Italso divides us.

People can pay five andeven six times more in stateand local taxes than otherfolks in similar circum-stances making similar in-comes, according to recentstudies of relative tax bur-dens.

“Taxes vary by a prettysignificant amount in Amer-ica,” concluded MarkRobyn, a staff economist atthe Tax Foundation, a con-servative study group basedin Washington, D.C.

“The highly taxed statestend to be in the Northeastand in the mid-Atlantic re-gion. They have more gov-ernment services, biggergovernment, and so theyraise more revenue to sup-port that government,”Robyn said.“The South andSouthwest tend to be lower-taxed.”

For example, a marriedcouple with three childrenearning $50,000 will payabout $10,348 a year in stateand local income, property,sales and automobile taxesif they live in Bridgeport,Conn., according to a studythe District of Columbiacity government released inSeptember 2010.

But if that family lived inCheyenne, Wyo., it wouldpay only about $2,186,thanks to modest propertytaxes and no state incometax.

“We are a very conserva-tive state, very frugal in ourspending. It’s always beenthat way,” said WyomingState Revenue Director EdSchmidt. His state, the na-tion’s top coal producer,levies mineral-productiontaxes that help hold downother taxes, he suggested.

Although methods of cal-culating tax burdens varyenormously — as do the con-clusions they draw most

BY MIKE ELLISIndependent Mail

ellism@/260.1277

South Carolina’s ovetaxes are the second-lowin the nation,accordingstudy by the conservaTax Foundation.

“South Carolina is julow-tax state, generasaid Mark Robyn, authothe tax burden study.

But other studies —the government of Waington, D.C., and by Lity Tax Service, whichbased in Virginia — putPalmetto State at 37th 31st in terms of its tax bden.

When it comes to stax,the state’s 6-percent is tied for 13th highest incountry.

Its income taxes, hoing around 7 percent for ical residents, are averRobyn said. Property taare lower than the natioaverage, but close to it.

All told, South Carolwinds up as a strikingly tax state, Robyn said.

“When I think of sand local taxes, I thinkcome, sales and propetaxes,” he said. “South Colina isn’t particularly in any of those. But ifadd it all up, it’s there. Oer states tend to tax thing or something else pty highly.”

Robyn said his study

Feeling taxed?As deadline looms, how states stack up

Independent Mail file photos

J d Elli tt f A d i fl g l g S C 28 B i A d t tt t

TAX DEADLINEFederal taxes are due

typical April 15, which fais delayed only for weeke

April 15 is not a federaD.C., typically celebratesdent Abraham Lincoln’s f16, but moved the celeb

The April 18 deadline wgovernment shutdown, aPayment of tax refunds, down happens and lasts.

South Cis a low

GA$going broke to pay for

BY KIRK BROWNIndependent Mail

a week on gas.E li thi th th U S

Prices in South Carolina nearly a dollar morethan this time last year, but headed down

NEWS HEADLINE WRITINGNEWS HEADLINE WRITINGDaily Over 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe Post and CourierBeth Harrison

A mom’s world falls apart

BY GLENN SMITH and ANDY [email protected]@postandcourier.com

Teal Baptiste felt a knot form in her stomach when her 8-year-old son came through the door without his older brother by his side.

Young Ahmad had gone off to play Sunday after-noon with his 12-year-old brother, Corion, and two other boys during a family visit to North Charleston’s Union Heights neighborhood. Now, Ahmad had re-turned alone, wet and dirty.

She asked him what happened. Ahmad wouldn’t say. He seemed out of sorts. He kept asking for a blanket, though it was 100 degrees in the house.

Baptiste took to the streets to search for her miss-ing son, the sensitive boy she called her hero. Hour after hour, calling his name, looking in yards, ask-ing others if they had seen him. Sunset came, then darkness. Quickly, hope began to fade for the single mom of six.

“I could feel it in my stomach, like a mother’s intu-ition,” she said, a tear sliding down her cheek. “I just knew something bad had happened to him.”

Boys’ daring adventure leads to tragedy for 12-year-old

WADE SPEES/STAFF

Teal Baptiste, mother of 12-year-old Corion Baptiste (top), talks about her son who was found dead late Sunday, several hours after he and three others entered a locked shipping-container facility and drove heavy machinery through the yard at ConGlobal Industries off Spruill Avenue in North Charleston. On the right is a friend, Ajanaclair Lynch.

FILE

This is an example of a top loader much like the one that was involved in the accident in which a 12-year-old boy was killed.

PROVIDED

MULTIMEDIATo hear a 911 call about the top loader tragedy, go to postandcourier.com/audio.

He waved and said ‘Bye Mama.’ That was the last time I saw him.

Please see TRAGEDY, Page 7A

Hoax spurs bank hoopla

BY DAVID W. [email protected]

Craig and Gayle Voelker of Illi-nois were enjoying their first visit to Charleston on Wednesday when they walked out of the Daughters of the Confederacy Museum and into what looked like a scene from “Dog Day Afternoon.”

“We walked out, and the first thing we see is cops with machine guns,” Gayle Voelker said. City police offi-cers were kneeling behind their police cars with rifles and semiautomatic weapons aimed at the entrance to the Wachovia Bank at the corner of Meet-ing and Market streets, she said. Her husband began shooting video.

Rumors spread quickly in the throngs of tourists who were watching all the commotion. It was a bank rob-bery. There were guns and hostages. Someone tried to rob the bank with a bomb strapped to his body.

None of it was true, police later said. No robbery. No hostages. No weap-ons. No bomb.

Though no one was injured, the bi-zarre incident tied up dozens of police and firefighters and snarled traffic in the heart of Charleston’s tourist dis-trict for more than three hours.

At 2:43 p.m., police received a call from a clerk at the Wachovia office at 177 Meeting St., police spokesman Charles Francis said.

A man had gone to a teller and said he was being held against his will and

Scare captivates onlookers, ties up traffic, first responders

Please see INCIDENT, A

0078)1182

2A

9B4B1C2B7B

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Awendaw beaver population a gnawing problemBY PRENTISS [email protected]

AWENDAW — When night falls here, the problems start.

That’s when the beavers come out to build dams and create their own private pools.

Trouble is, they also flood about an acre of Mike Taylor’s land on Sewee Road.

He joked about setting up a stand on his property offering three shots at the rodents for $5.

Taylor said a beaver dam in a drainage pipe under Sewee Road

causes his flooding problems. The state is taking aim at the issue. But that may not be enough.

Last week, the Department of Transportation awarded a $55,000 contract to the state Department of Natural Resources to trap and re-locate beavers that affect highway drainage in Berkeley and Charles-ton counties.

“Beavers take up residence in pipes throughout the state system,” said Kirk Richards, DOT assistant district maintenance engineer.

Mike Taylor said stagnant water in the drainage canal next to his house does not drain because beavers build dams that block the canal. The backup causes about an acre of his land to be under water.PRENTISS FINDLAY/

STAFF

Please see BEAVERS, Page 7A


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe State

Robert J. Venturella


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe Post and CourierTony Brown

Roadhouse bluesMusic, liquor, young crowds can be magnet for trouble, authorities say

Declaration of ‘war’ BY BO [email protected]

FOLLY BEACH — It looked like a shiny blue balloon, bobbing across the surf be-tween the Washout and the Morris Island Lighthouse. The woman wading started to go see when someone on shore screamed for her to stop

Portuguese man-of-war — the gorgeous, jellyfish-like creature with tentacles that can hang as long as a tree is high and a sting that burns like fire. The man-of-war spot-ted Wednesday was one of at least three or four spotted near Lowcountry beaches over the past few days. A beachgoer reported

Be alert:Painful ‘blue

bottle jellyfish’ are lurking in Please see ‘WAR’ Page 6A

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chain hoists.

Hunley on a slow roll BY BRIAN [email protected]

The H.L. Hunley was never a fast boat, but it probably never moved this slowly.

On Wednesday, engineers and sci-entists at the Warren Lasch Conserva-tion Center began rotating the Con-federate submarine into an upright position — 3 millimeters at a time. The pace was plodding, the progress

by slowly adjusting the 15 straps that cradle the Hunley, and keeping a la-ser sight running from stern to bow that would detect any twisting of the hull.

perfectly aligned.”Barring any complications, the ro-

tation should be finished sometime today.

This is a major step in the Hunley project, one last engineering puzzle before conservators put the sub through the restoration process. The move attracted the attention of myri-ad people who have had a hand in the project, from State Archaeologist Jon-athan Leader to former Friends of the

The Hunley has rested on its star-board side since it was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean in 2000. Archae-ologists wanted the sub lifted in the position it was found to avoid moving artifacts inside the sub. The Hunley has remained in that position ever since.

But now the entire hull needs to be exposed so that conservators can re-move the crusted sand and shell that covers the hull in preparation for the

Confederate sub rotated a few millimeters at a time; should be upright todayVIDEOSee provided video of the Hunley rotation at postandcourier.com/videos.

SPOT NEWS REPORTINGSPOT NEWS REPORTINGDaily Under 20,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe ItemNick McCormac, Jade Andersonand Robert J. BakerFor Many, Quake Hits Close to Home


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe Times and DemocratRichard WalkerWoman Dies in Train Crash


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEAiken StandardJeremy TimmermanCut Draws Workers’ Ire

A proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives to cut $1.7 billion from the budget of the Social Security Administration will have local consequences, according to protesting employees out-side of the administration’s office on Corporate Parkway.

The main issue for the 12 to 14 protesters, who were giving up their lunch breaks for the demonstration, was the monthlong furloughs that could result from the cut.

Ardell Campbell, who has been working for the admin-istration for 15 years, said that the level of service the office is able to deliver will suffer if workers are forced to take a month off from their duties.

“The federal government is proposing furloughs of Social Security employees, so we wouldn’t be able to produce the kind of world-class service we have been,” Campbell said. “The Ameri-can public deserves the kind of world-class service we’ve been providing.”

Campbell added that, due to the amount of work she and her coworkers face in a given day, they find it dif-ficult to keep up, even when the office, located off Whis-key Road, across from South Aiken High School, is fully staffed.

“We struggle to pay people in the right amount, on time, all the time,” she said.

One option that might be given to qualified workers who are 55 years of age and have been working for the agency for at least 20 years is a buyout. Campbell said that she was “not in a position” to take the buyout, but if she met qualifications, she would “have to think long and hard” about leaving under buyout terms.

Campbell added that the number of experienced work-ers who would potentially accept a buyout and leave the agency would also have negative consequences on the quality of service offered.

Multiple media outlets reported similar protests across the country in response to the proposal.

The reports also indicated that the other protests had been organized by a national trade union.

Not all of those involved with the Aiken demonstra-tion were current employees. At least one retiree, Glenda Corbett, donated her time for the cause.

Corbett, a 2002 retiree after more than 38 years with the administration, agreed that expecting the necessary amount of work with employ-ees taking monthlong fur-loughs was unreasonable.

By JEREMY TIMMERMANStaff writer

Cut draws workers’ ireProposed budget cut protested by Social Security employees

Staff photo by Michael Gibbons

Ardell Campbell stands on the sidewalk on Corporate Park-way during her lunch break from the Social Security office.

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Please see PROTEST, page 5A

SPOT NEWS REPORTINGSPOT NEWS REPORTINGDaily 20,000 - 50,000 Division

HONORABLE HONORABLE MENTIONMENTION

Independent MailNikie MayoHaven Struck by Blaze


THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEMorning NewsTucker Mitchell

DOJ Weighs in on Vote Map


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe HeraldNicole Smith, James Self, Shawn Cetroneand Andrew DysStorm Packs a Punch

THURSDAY May 12, 2011 Rock Hill ● South Carolina h e r a l d o n l i n e . c o m

The Herald 50 CENTS

S E R V I N G Y O R K ● C H E S T E R ● L A N C A S T E R C O U N T I E S

HOSPITALIZED GRAHAM ‘IN GOOD SPIRITS’ ● 3A

SPECIAL STORM COVERAGE | UPDATES AND PHOTOS AT HERALDONLINE.COM

Storms pack a punch■ Rain and hurricane-force winds hit York,Chester and Lancaster counties overnight

■ Extensive damage reported as fallen trees,power lines leave thousands without power

By Nicole E. Smith and Jamie Self

[email protected]@heraldonline.com

Severe thunderstorms with hur-ricane-force winds pummeled YorkCounty early Wednesday causingwidespread power outages and, forsome, severe damage reminiscentof Hurricane Hugo.

Mike and Shirley Brown woke tonews that midnight winds shearedoff the roof of their church, LivingHope Freewill Baptist, on old NorthMain Street in Clover. Only blue skycovered their flooded sanctuaryWednesday afternoon.

“It’s a total loss,” said Ed Le-mieux, an owner of the building thechurch leases. He drove to theBrowns’ home to break the news.“They just put in all new bath-rooms, all new walls,” he said.

“This is sister Shirley calling,”Shirley said to church membersfrom her couch Wednesday morn-ing. “The wind has torn our churchdown.”

Winds between 60 and 80 mphswept the Piedmont after midnightTuesday in a storm with rare intensi-ty, meteorologists from the NationalWeather Service said. A line of tight-ly packed thunderstorms developedlate Tuesday in Ohio and movedsouth through York County beforereaching the coast.

The storm was more severe thansimilar storms in this area, NWSmeteorologist Neil Dixon said.Tuesday night’s storm frontspanned more than 100 miles, pro-ducing hurricane-force winds.

Meteorologists are now survey-ing damage in York, Cherokee, andChester counties to determine howhigh the winds speeds were, hesaid.

Local authorities reported hun-

See STORMS ● 5AJAMIE SELF - [email protected]

Members of the Living Hope Freewill Baptist Church in Clover survey the damage in the sanctuary. The church was recently renovated, but the building was not insured.

By Andrew [email protected]

CHESTER — Storms with winds that reached 90mph ripped through Chester County early Wednes-day, causing damage emergency officials are sayingis the worst since Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Damage totals could reach into the millions of dol-lars, emergency workers said, as dozens of homesand businesses were smashed by falling trees or hadroofs ripped off.

No injuries had been reported by late Wednesday. The only deaths were scores of baby turkeys at a

farm in northwestern Chester County – but propertydamage is severe over much of the county.

“There are spots where it looks like a war zone,”said Ed Darby, the county’s deputy emergency man-agement director. “The city of Chester seems to havegotten it the worst.”

After meeting with National Weather Service in-vestigators who had done a field survey Wednesdayafternoon, officials determined the storm was mostlikely “straight-line winds” of up to 90 mph.

The same storm line running northwest to south-east damaged western York County and areas inNorth Carolina, said Eddie Murphy, Chester Coun-ty’s emergency management director.

Tornados probably were not the culprit, he said,because damage to most structures was on the wind-ward side of the buildings.

“Safety, with all these power lines down, is firstpriority for all of us,” Murphy said. “From what wehave seen so far, this is the worst we have had since

CHESTER COUNTY

Chester’s ‘hard hit’ drawsHugo, war comparisons

See CHESTER COUNTY ● 6A

By Shawn [email protected] GROVE — Rebecca

Blackwoodwas lying in bed at mid-night watching the weather on tele-vision, when she saw that a danger-ous thunderstorm was encroach-ing on her Hickory Grove home.

Outside, lightning flashed amidroaring thunder and bawlingwinds.

She elbowed her husband, whoawoke, saw the TV and glanced outthe window.

“I jumped up and grabbed myflashlight and said, ‘Let’s get to thecellar,’ ” said Thomas Blackwood.

As they rushed through the bed-room door, an enormous oak treecrashed through the roof and land-ed on their bed.

“It fell right where we were ly-ing,” Thomas said.

As Thomas, 66, and Rebecca, 61,headed for the cellar, two more oakscollapsed on their home of 32 years.

“Everything was falling down,”he said.

Their path was blocked.Wearing only shorts, Thomas

grabbed a blanket and wrapped itaround himself and Rebecca, whowas in pajamas.

They rushed for the back doorand stepped out into pouring rain.Barefoot, they pushed aside fallentree limbs and stumbled over de-

HICKORY GROVE

Couple:‘Everythingwas fallingdown’

Storm coverageSCHOOLS: Chester County schools

on two-hour delay. Most otherdistricts on regular schedule. 5A

THE REGION: Residents andbusiness owners share theirstorm stories. 5A

PHOTO PAGE: How nature left itsmark in York and Chestercounties. 1B

ONLINE: See video of damage to aLowrys turkey farm, plus morephotos.

DAN O’MARA - [email protected] clings to the rootball of a hugetree that toppled over in the yard of this homenear downtown Chester.

MICHAEL CARRTom Blackwood of Hickory Grove stands next to an oak tree thatcrashed through his home during Wednesday’s overnight storms.

See ESCAPE ● 5A


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe Sun NewsJanelle Frost, Adva Saldinger, Jake Springand Gina VasselliPlane Crash Kills 2 in NMB RV Park

Two people were killed Tuesday when a single-engine plane crashed into a trailer parked at theBriarcliffe RV Resort in North Myrtle Beach.

The crash happened just after 1 p.m. Tuesdayat the RV park located on North Kings Highway.Witnesses reported seeing the Cessna planecrash into the park and hearing screams fromvictims.

Horry County Coroner Robert Edge said thatthe plane’s pilot and a woman in a camper werekilled. The woman was Eve Sullivan, 70, fromNew Hampshire. The pilot’s idenity was not avail-

able Tuesday. Authorities were notifyingrelatives.

Autopsies are planned for today, Edge said. The woman and her husband were sitting on

the couch inside the RV when the plane crashed,North Myrtle Beach spokesman Pat Dowling said.

Dowling said the woman’s husband, who wasable to make it out of his trailer after the impact,suffered first-degree burns and was taken to

Plane crash kills2 in NMB RV park

Courtesy of Cliff Douglas

Flames engulf the single-engine plane that crashed Tuesday. Two were killed at Briarcliffe RV Resort in North Myrtle Beach.

BY JANET BLACKMON MORGAN [email protected]

A trailer that was hit by the plane at the resort.

BY RANDALL HILL [email protected]

Briarcliffe RV Resort residentSusan Turner composes herselfas her husband Joe gives hiseyewitness account of the planecrash Tuesday at the resort.

Cessna hits trees, smashes trailer

View more

photos and a

video from the

scene of the

plane crash at

TheSunNews.com .

BY JANELLE FROST, ADVA SALDINGER, JAKE

SPRING, AND GINA VASSELLI

The Sun News

See CRASH | Page 6A

InsideView a list of the area’s fatal plane crashes since 2006

| Page 6A

Shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday, whenmany residents at the Briarcliffe RVResort were watching TV or cleaningup, their day was upended by a loudroar, a series of explosions and a fireball as a small plane crashed into one ofthe trailers.

The plane’s pilot and a woman in atrailer were killed in the crash, accord-ing to officials. The plane hit a tree

Ball of flamesfollows loud roar

BY ADVA SALDINGER

[email protected]

See RESORT | Page 6A

Grand Strand Regional Medi-cal Center. His name was notavailable. Another individualwho was in the vicinity at thetime of the plane crash sufferedminor injuries and refusedtreatment, Dowling said.

Grand Strand Regional Med-ical Center spokeswoman JoanCarroza said a man hurt in thecrash was transported to thathospital and was evaluatedTuesday for non-life-threaten-ing injuries.. She said the hos-pital is not treating any otherpatients for injuries related tothe incident.

The incident is the secondplane crash in the North Myr-tle Beach area in less than ayear. The earlier crash killedthree people.

The plane Tuesday clippedsome trees as it crashed anddamaged three RVs in the park,according to Dowling. Theweather was cloudy with lightdrizzling rain at the time of theincident.

Emergency crews closed offtwo blocks inside the RV parkafter responding to the crash tosecure the area, Dowling said.The plane crashed on the northend of the RV park, close toU.S. 17.

Joyce Bertschy, an employeeat the RV resort, said she heard

the plane come in low over theoffice building.

She said she was in the officewith about eight other employ-ees when “we heard it come inand then we heard the explo-sion.” She said the resort is inthe flight line for Grand Strandairport and they sometimeshear planes come over.

“Thank God our resort is al-most empty at this time,” shesaid. But she said there were“quite a few people” in the areawhere the plane crashed.

The 2004 Cessna plane, ac-cording to the Federal AviationAdministration’s website, isregistered to Flynfish LLC inPlymouth, Massachusetts.

The pilot had been parkingthe plane at Ramp 66 in NorthMyrtle Beach for the last twomonths or so, Dowling said. Of-ficials think the pilot had ahome in the area.

He said the pilot was “doingtouch-and-go landings” Tues-day, which officials believe wasto keep up to date his instru-ment flying certification orp r a c t i c e t o a c h i e v e t h ecertification.

FAA spokeswoman KathleenBergen said the crash occurredafter one of those take-off ma-neuvers.

Investigators are working todetermine more. Officials fromthe National Transportation

Safety Board expect to be thecrash site today.

The last fatal plane crash inNorth Myrtle Beach happenedon July 14 and killed DannyCarroll, 54, his wife, RaychelCarroll, 66, and their grand-daughter, Mallory Fields. Thatcrash occurred soon after thepilot took off from the GrandStrand Airport in North MyrtleBeach.

That crash remains underinvestigation, but a preliminaryreport showed Danny Carroll,who piloted the plane, was notrated to fly that particularplane at night, according to apreliminary report released bythe National TransportationSafety Board.

The Carroll family had spentthe day with family on vacationin North Myrtle Beach.

The plane crashed into theback of a mobile home andcaught fire when it exploded at1306 Toucan Road in CreeksideMobile Home Park.

Sandra Freeman, 54; RobertJohn Werkheiser, 38; and KeithLewis, 35 were treated and re-leased from area hospitals forinjuries they suffered in thecrash.

A fourth person, Ronnie Bry-ant, 34, suffered burns.

➤ Contact JANELLE FROST at443-2404, ADVA SALDINGERat 626-0317, or GINAVASSELLI at 443-2434.


The pilot’s body is looked at beneath a pink sheet atBriarcliffe RV Resort on Tuesday. A plane crashed in theresort and hit a recreational vehicle.

BY CHIP SANDERS [email protected]

CRASHFrom Page 1A

SPOT NEWS REPORTINGSPOT NEWS REPORTINGDaily Over 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe Greenville NewsBen Szobody, Ron Barnett, David Dykes, Jenny Munro, Abe Hardesty and Eric ConnorMax Heller: He Made Upstate a Better Place



Noelle PhillipsMurder-Suicide Leaves Four Dead


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe Greenville NewsPaul Alongi, Ben Szobody and Staff Winter’s Icy Mess May Linger for Days

ENTERPRISE REPORTINGENTERPRISE REPORTINGDaily Under 20,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe Times and DemocratDale Linder-AltmanAudit Questions Spending

day after less than a year and a half on the probing the use of state purchasing cards him. “We certainly want to wish you well

Audit questions spending

By DALE LINDER-ALTMANT&D Staff Writer

After months of specula-tion, the S.C. Legislative Audit Council has confi rmed what South Carolina State Univer-sity has said all along: millions set aside for the James E. Cly-burn University Transporta-tion Center are not missing.

The LAC review began last September at the request of 10 South Carolina lawmakers fol-lowing a news report that the university couldn’t account for millions given to transpor-tation-related programs.

While the audit found vari-ous problems with delays and expenditures, it says there is no evidence that any money is missing.

University officials have continuously said that about $24 million in federal funding was designated for programs and spent on research, schol-arships, grants and faculty salaries.

Another $26 million was designated for construction. As of March 2011, about $8 million of that had been

By DALE LINDER-ALTMANT&D Staff Writer

South Carolina State University’s manage-ment of its James E. Clyburn University Trans-portation Center makes the Keystone Kops look like a professional organization, a S.C. Legisla-tive Audit Council board member says.

Malcolm Factor said an LAC review of the center released Tuesday “was mind-boggling to me.”

While the LAC said reports of missing money were unfounded, it said the university could owe up to $1.7 million for a shortfall of match-ing grants and improper expenditures, including reimbursements for mileage, lodging and food.

Factor noted that audits only look at samples of expenditures, and the LAC review could in-dicate many more problems.

“I have something called the cockroach theory,” he said. “If you fi nd a cockroach in your house, I guarantee you there’s a lot more in the woodwork.”

LAC Director Tom Bardin said the audit has been turned over to the State Law Enforcement Division.

The university fi rst announced plans for the then-$80 million research and training center in 1998. The fi rst building is under construction now, even though the university has had millions set aside for the project over the years.

The report says the center is now projected to cost $107 million, but the university only has $27 million for the work.

“Although SCSU lacks the $80 million to complete the center, it has begun work and has exposed the University to future fi nancial obli-gations,” the review found. It said the univer-sity has no viable plan for raising the rest of the money.

It plans to use lottery money — which should be used for students — to go toward some of the costs, Factor said.

“As a citizen of this state, I fi nd that wrong. That’s my personal opinion. It’s about educat-ing our students, not building edifi ces in people’s names,” he said.

Factor also questioned whether the project should go forward with the university needing 84 percent of the funding.

“It’s inexcusable, wrong and I think the Legislature should look into this in more detail,” he said.

The review found questionable spending, and that the university had inadequate controls to catch the spending problems.

For instance, the LAC found instances where employees registered for conferences where food was provided — but were still reimbursed for food, contrary to university policy.

And one employee was reimbursed for four nights of lodging. When LAC checked, however, it found the employee was recorded as spending only one night.

The university said the policy on reimburse-ments for meals will be amended to fall under the South Carolina meal rates and guidelines, but stated that it is not legally bound to follow

government guidelines for other expenses ex-cept those paid for by general funds.

The report also questioned why employees were paid more when they were paid with the center’s funds. For example, an employee with a base rate of pay of $15 per hour was hired as an administrative specialist at $31 per hour.

The university noted that it has to follow fed-eral guidelines for overtime pay, but a committee has been set up to review its policy.

The LAC recommended that the S.C. State trustees take on more oversight of the plans and funding for the center to ensure that resources provided for student programs are not being spent on the center.

It also recommended that the board hold the president responsible for controlling internal weaknesses by evaluating him on the issue.

The LAC looked at delays in construction of Phase I of the center, which includes land prepa-ration and construction of the research center.

“I have something called the cockroach theory. If you fi nd a cockroach in your house, I

guarantee you there’s a lot more in the woodwork.”

— S.C. LEGISLATIVE AUDIT COUNCIL BOARD MEMBER MALCOLM FACTOR

LARRY HARDY/T&D

The James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center under construction on the campus of S.C. State was the focus of a Legislative Audit Council review following 12 years of delays in constructing the center and media reports that the university could not account for millions in federal funding.

Auditors: S.C. Statenot missing millions

See DENMARK, A5

LARRY HARDY/T&D

Legislative Audit Council Director Tom Bardin and board member Mallory Factor discuss the LAC review of South Carolina State University’s James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center.

[email protected] Visit us online to watch video from the press conference and Jonathan Pinson’s video statement.

TheTandD.com/news See AUDITORS, A5

SLED given LAC report on SCSU’s Clyburn Center

See SCSU, A5


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe Island PacketGrant MartinLost in the Shadows


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe ItemNick McCormacGetting Photo ID Diffi cult

ENTERPRISE REPORTINGENTERPRISE REPORTINGDaily 20,000 - 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe HeraldDon WorthingtonS.C., N.C. Diff er on Carowinds Records

y ,

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By Don [email protected] South Carolina agency responsible

for ensuring the safety of rides atCarowinds does not keep records of prob-lems discovered during annual inspec-tions at the amusement park.

In North Carolina, inspectors docu-ment all concerns found during reviews atthe park, which straddles the state line.

An official with the N.C. Department ofLabor said detailed records allow theagency to track any recurring problemswith rides. The records also would bevaluable if the inspection became part of alawsuit.

The director of South Carolina’s De-partment of Labor, Licensing and Regula-tion, or LLR, said Friday her agency’s re-cords policy will change. LLR has been re-viewing its inspection practices since theMarch death of a 6-year-old boy on a min-iature train ride in Spartanburg County.

State Sen. Wes Hayes of Rock Hill saidkeeping more detailed records is “thecommonsense thing to do. … South Caro-lina needs to go to school on what NorthCarolina is doing.”

Catherine Templeton, the LLR director,and a Carowinds spokesman say theamusement park’s rides are safe.

Bryn Winborn, spokeswoman forCarowinds, said safety is the park’s No. 1priority and rides are inspected daily.

Templeton said no ride is allowed toopen if a significant problem is discoveredduring an inspection.

In fact, all minor issues are resolved be-fore a final inspection report is issued, shesaid.

“It’s not running if anything is wrong,”she said.

After the Spartanburg train accident,The Hera ld reques ted records o fCarowinds inspections from both states.

LLR’s records from Carowinds inspec-tions showed no problems at the 26 ridesin South Carolina. The inspections wereconducted in March.

The records show each ride was ratedon 25 factors, including structural integri-ty, electrical safety and operations. Eachride was given a satisfactory rating in ev-ery category.

No details were written in the notes sec-tion of the forms. No list was made of whatrepairs, if any, were required for certifica-tion.

The N.C. records show inspectors iden-

S.C., N.C. differ onCarowinds records

1997 OBSERVER FILE PHOTOThe Thunder Road roller coaster at Carowinds is the only ride that operates crosses the state border. Because theentrance to the ride is in south of the state line it is inspected by South Carolina.

N.C. ride inspectorsmust follow stricterdocumentationprocedures than S.C. inspectors.

See CAROWINDS ● 7A


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEIndependent MailNikie Mayo and Jennifer HowardA Legal Drug You Can Buy Anywhere

a6/local Wednesday/10.5.11/www.independentmail.com

BY NIKIE MAYOIndependent Mail

mayon@/ 622.1708

AND JENNIFER CROSSLEY HOWARDIndependent Mail

jchoward@/ 260.1248

Justin Dial’s cousin methim in Piedmont with acompound bow in one handand a pistol in the other.

Dial had gone to hiscousin’s garage to check ona truck.

“They are after me,” Di-al’s cousin screamed. “Theyare coming to get me.”

He pointed the bow overhis shoulder and toward thewoods.

“I’m not going to let themget me,” he said.

Dial’s cousin was talkingabout men that only hecould see.

“He was hallucinatingand ready to shoot,” Dialsaid in an interview. “I justleft the yard and got out ofthere.”

Dial’s cousin, whom hedescribes as “a really de-cent guy,” had snorted bathsalts that night. Thecousin’s admission ofsnorting bath salts anddrinking is included in anAug. 17 report from the An-derson County Sheriff ’s Of-fice.

While Dial left the garageto call the sheriff ’s officethat night, his cousin wentinside the home that heshared with his parents and“began to toss the wholehouse,” according to thedeputy’s report. Dial’scousin turned over furni-ture, knocked pictureframes off every wall, andthrew “just about every-thing he could get his handson” down on the floor.

He went back to thegarage with a loaded gunand fired several shots in-side. Afraid for their lives,his parents ran from theirhome on River Road andsought refuge at a housenearby.

It took the efforts of theAnderson County SWATteam to keep the halluci-nating man and his familysafe.

Medical experts say thekinds of behavior that Di-al’s cousin exhibited — hal-lucinations and signs ofparanoia — are classicsymptoms of the effectsthat bath salts have on thebody and the mind.

The stimulants are soldin crystal and powder formin small, brightly coloredpackages that are labeled

to cocaine.But there is a big differ-

ence between bath salts andcocaine: In many parts ofthe United States, buyingbath salts is a perfectly legalactivity.

They’re cheap, too.A gram of cocaine can

fetch $120 in AndersonCounty. At an Iva gas sta-tion and an Anderson con-venience store, IndependentMail reporters bought thesame amount of bath saltsfor $20 to $30.

Doctors say that whenthese bath salts are snortedor injected, they can pro-duce an effect on a person’sbody that is worse than co-caine or methampheta-mine, and lasts muchlonger.

Just two weeks ago, aCentral man who was highon bath salts threatened to

gredients. Some packagesbear messages like “not forhuman consumption” or“must be 18 to purchase.”Some packages found bythe Independent Mail boreno warnings at all.

The U.S. Drug Enforce-ment Administration re-cently announced that itplans to use its emergencypowers to make bath salts il-legal for at least one year sothe agency can study themand decide whether thechemicals in them shouldbe permanently controlled.Areas in at least 33 stateshave taken measures to banor try to control the chemi-cals used in bath salts.

In South Carolina, Rep.Anne Thayer of AndersonCounty introduced a bill inMarch to outlaw bath saltsin this state. But the bill re-mains stalled.

In the meantime, bathsalts are sold in tiny vials orpackets, often found behindshelves at gas stations, headshops and conveniencestores, including some inAnderson County. Underbrand names includingIvory Wave, Vanilla Sky,Tranquility and Locomo-tion, the salts are sold —legally — and can cost as lit-tle as $1 per high.

A challenge to medicine

In their purest forms,bath salts are composed ofthree synthetic stimulants:mephedrone, methylone,and methylenedioxpy-rovalerone, or MDPV.

A spokesman for the fed-eral Drug Enforcement Ad-ministration said bath saltswere seen in the UnitedKingdom and Germany asearly as two years ago, wellbefore they were on theradar of authorities in theUnited States. In Britain,buying bath salts has beenillegal since 2010.

Because the product isnot regulated by the U.S.Food and Drug Adminis-

“You’re basically playingRussian roulette anytimeyou take one of these.”

In Iva, an IndependentMail reporter bought aproduct labeled CloudNine. The package turnedout to contain what ap-peared to be herbs ratherthan powder or crystallizedbath salts.

However, that same Ivagas station sold a brand ofpowdered bath salts calledTranquility.

The purple packagepromised “an invigoratingand scentual (sic) experi-ence” and cost $15 for half agram.

At an Anderson conven-ience store, another Inde-pendent Mail reporterbought two brands of bathsalts — Locomotion andBang — for a total of $20.

Those bath salts werebought at a conveniencestore less than a quarter-mile from Robert AndersonMiddle School.

They were sold in jarsthat contained 500 mil-ligrams each, but doctorssay that a person who takesbath salts can begin to have

In 2010, the American As-sociation of Poison ControlCenters had taken 303 callsabout bath salts. As of Aug.31, the association had an-swered almost 5,000 callsabout them.

The Palmetto PoisonCenter in Columbia has al-ready answered at least 118calls related to the bath saltsthis year. That’s up fromjust two calls in 2010.

Dr. Wally Davies of An-Med Health Medical Centerhas seen firsthand how bathsalts affect patients thathave come into his emer-gency room.

The hospital does nothave official statistics onhow many patients have in-gested them because bathsalts are not easily traceablein available drug tests. ButDavies said the hospitalstarted noticing cases of pa-tients having reactions tobath salts in the summer of2010, and saw a “smatter-ing” of cases last fall andwinter. In a recent period ofjust a few weeks, the hospi-tal treated at least five pa-tients who had ingestedbath salts.

A legal drug you can buy anywhere‘Bath salts’ leave users high, paranoid — and in danger

NATHAN GRAY Independent Mail

Bath salts are being used as a recreational drug and are available at many gas stations and smoke shops around the United States.

“Anything could be in them. You’rebasically playing Russian rouletteanytime you take one of these.”

Jeffrey Scott spokesman for the DEA


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe Sun NewsDavid WrenMortgage Papers Raise Fraud Claims

Anthony Wise has been selling real es-tate in the Myrtle Beach area for nearlythree decades, but he had never heard ofLinda Green until after his home went intoforeclosure.

Now, just like hundreds of thousands ofpeople nationwide, Wise is finding that thebiggest investment he will ever make – hishome – is closely tied to Green … or some-one pretending to be her.

Green was a shipping clerk for an auto-mobile parts company before taking a jobin the signature room at a mortgage docu-ment company called DocX in Alpharetta,Ga., according to news reports.

DocX helped banks create documents –such as mortgage assignments, whichtransfer ownership of a home loan fromone entity to another – in cases where thedocuments were missing from the original

Mortgage papersraise fraud claims

BY STEVE JESSMORE [email protected]

Myrtle Beach real estate agent Anthony Wise hopes to cancel his home loan based on what he considers afraudulent document and improper securitization of his mortgage. His home on Haskell Circle in Myrtle Beach is indanger of foreclosure.

SIGNATURES

loan file or never existed in the first place.Those documents then were used in fore-closure proceedings all across the country.

In Horry County, DocX documents have

BY TOM MURRAY [email protected]

New South Financial advisers TerryWalden (left) and JaneteChristensen (center) work withFrank Welsh, whose mortgagedocuments are being analyzed afteralleged improper loan assignmentswere discovered.

Signatures on documents used inforeclosure cases under review

BY DAVID WREN

[email protected]

See FRAUD | Page 16A

A sampling of the varied Linda Green

signatures found on DocX mortgage

assignments filed with the Horry County

Register of Deeds. Allegedly fraudulent and

forged DocX paperwork has been used in at

least 46 foreclosures here and thousands

more nationwide.

ENTERPRISE REPORTINGENTERPRISE REPORTINGDaily Over 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe Post and CourierYvonne Wenger and Adam ParkerBeing Gay in Charleston

Being gay in Charleston

WADE SPEES/STAFF

Tasha Gandy (left) and Amanda Hollinger, North Charleston residents, were married last weekend in New York City. “It wasn’t a logical decision because we know rights didn’t extend to South Carolina,” Hollinger said. But the pair love New York and wanted to be “part of history,” they said.

Socially, legally and religiously, attitudes are changing, but homosexuality is still very much a minority lifestyle

BY YVONNE WENGER and ADAM PARKER

[email protected], [email protected]

manda Hollinger and Tasha Gandy just

got married.

They eloped to New York City on

July 24 and appeared before one of

many volunteer judges recruited

for New York’s first day of sanctioning same-

sex marriage.

“There were throngs,” said Hollinger, who

works at the Trident Tech Foundation.

“It was very festive,” said Gandy, finance di-

rector for Spoleto Festival USA. “People were

handing out lollipops, sodas, water. They were

cheering. It was like a big street party.”

They saw only one mild-mannered protester

holding a sign saying, “Bad idea.”

“It wasn’t a logical decision because we know

rights didn’t extend to South Carolina,” Hollinger

said. But they wanted to be part of history.

A

GRACE BEAHM/STAFF

Doug Warner (left) ended a 14-year military commitment because of his relationship with partner Truman Smith.Please see GAY, Page 6A

PARTY ON THE WANDO, 1B



Wayne WashingtonUSC’s Biomass Plant Debacle


The Post and CourierRenee DudleyEuropean Vacation or Legitimate Business?

BEST OF THE BESTBEST OF THE BEST

The S.C. Commerce Depart-ment alone spent more than $127,000 on Gov. Nikki Haley’s June trip to Europe. Here are some of the cost breakdowns:

$430Haley’s average daily hotel bill

$1,530One airfare to and from Europe

$5,147Per diem expenses charged to the state

$25,412South Carolina networking reception

By the numbers

Garcia crucial for Gamecocks in season opener against ECU Sports, 1C

How crunching the numbers before you refinance pays offPersonal Finance, 1F

Youngsters illustrate

InsideHaley’s

approval rating dips in Public Policy

poll. 3B

EUROPEAN VACATION OR LEGITIMATE BUSINESS?

BY RENEE [email protected]

G ov. Nikki Haley’s weeklong trip to

Europe in June in search of “jobs,

jobs, jobs” cost South Carolinians

more than $127,000. But the governor and

her entourage of more than two dozen re-

turned without any finished deals to bring

new employers to the Palmetto State.Haley, who captured the governor’s office preach-ing fiscal restraint, spent the cash so she, her

husband and the rest of the state’s contingent could stay in five-star hotels; sip cocktails at the Paris Ritz; dine on what an invitation touted as “delicious French cuisine” at a swanky roof-top restaurant; and rub elbows with the U.S. Ambassador to France at his official residence near the French presidential palace.

The South Carolina group also threw a soiree at the Hotel de Talleyrand, a his-toric Parisian townhouse where they feted foreign employers in hopes they’d set up shop in South Carolina. The Department of

Haley’s fiscal priorities under fireas summer ‘jobs’ trip detailed

$2.00T H E S O U T H’S O L D E S T DA I LY N E W S PA P E R . F O U N D E D 1803

POSTANDCOURIER.COM Charleston . North Charleston, S.C. ✯✯ Sunday September 4 , 2011

p py g

Please see HALEY, Page 11A

BUSINESS REPORTINGBUSINESS REPORTINGDaily Under 20,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe ItemJoe PerryShirt Display in Mall Stirs Up Debate


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe Island PacketGrant MartinLost in the Shadows


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACETimes and DemocratGene ZaleskiSelling Downtown

LARRY HARDY/T&D

A.B. Hutto, left, and Jennifer Zeigler, center, spend time at the Wing King Cafe on Russell Street. Serving them is Wing King employee Lou Hutto.

By GENE ZALESKIT&D Staff Writer

As Orangeburg offi cials look for ways to revitalize downtown, some building owners are expecting a positive year and hope to see movement on some long-vacant properties.

The former Hotel Eutaw on Russell Street was renovated in 2008 with plans to open a restaurant and retail space there by the end of 2009. Clafl in University is using some of the build-ing to house students, but the restaurant and retail outlets have yet to be realized.

Thomas Cole, real estate manager for Red Curb Investments, says interest has been shown in the building, including from a number of local restaurants and retailers. The ground fl oor is ideal for a coff ee or sandwich shop and the adjacent 6,000-square-foot building could be used for banquet and catering space, he said.

“We would like to see the streetscape come down Russell Street,” Cole said. “That would be a huge help because the side-walk is so cracked up in front of the building.”

The Rev. Victoria Golding of Brooklyn, N.Y. had been planning to transform the former E-Mart building on Memorial Plaza into a worship, counseling and outreach center.

“There is no movement right now,” Golding said. “We are still working on getting things done.”

By GENE ZALESKIT&D Staff Writer

Dead leaves and a brown paper bag rest outside the en-trance to the former Soprano’s restaurant at 1128 Russell St.

A sign says it serves “A Meal You Can’t Refuse,” but a glance through the window shows the sign is mistaken.

Like its predecessors at the same location — El Rodeo’s and La Pasta Bistro Grill — Sopranos closed shortly after opening its doors. It’s the same further down Russell Street, where a “For Rent” sign hangs outside Sophisticated & Glam-orous Fashions.

“Financing has been the main challenge,” Century 21 The Moore Group real estate agent Cal Bruner said. “A lot of franchise-type businesses and

compa-nies put a lot of their ex-pansion plans on hold once

the fi nancial crisis started.“We are getting more calls

from them about different spaces and buildings. I am optimistic because the calls I have received since the fi rst of the year have been a lot more than I received last year.”

Bruner said the sluggish economy “absolutely” had a negative impact on downtown development.

“We had several projects in the works that really would have helped the downtown area,” he said. “But once word got out about the financial markets and that we were in a recession, those investors put all on hold and have not come back.”

Several restaurants and clothing businesses have ex-pressed an interest in the downtown area, Bruner said.

“If we can get one or two restaurants in the downtown area and try to create a desti-nation, then I think you will see other businesses follow,” Bruner said.

And Bruner says downtown is great for business. It is less costly per square foot and the character of the downtown

Downtown building owners hope for turnaround in ’11

Selling downtownEconomy hit revitalization eff orts, but work goes on

LARRY HARDY/T&D

While the recession took its toll on efforts to fi ll shops downtown, Orangeburg offi cials hope 2011 will be better.

See DOWNTOWN, A9 See TURNAROUND, A9

ONLINEView a photogallery online atTheTandD.com

BUSINESS REPORTINGBUSINESS REPORTINGDaily 20,000 - 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEIndependent MailCharmaine Smith-MilesLiberty Couple Works to Teach

BY CHARMAINE SMITH-MILESIndependent Mail

milesca@/260.1260

LIBERTY — On Tradd and Ol-ga Cotter’s dining roomtable are a half-dozen glass

Mason jars filled with all shapesand types of mushrooms. In theoven, there are homemade biscuitsbaking, topped with fresh choppedmushrooms and cheddar cheese.

Along the driveway,as you pullinto their small farm,is a sign withmushrooms on it and there aregourds in their yard painted to looklike colorful mushrooms.There aremushrooms everywhere.

Welcome to Mushroom Moun-tain.

This is the place that Tradd hasbeen longing to have for the last 17years. It is a mushroom farm,with its greenhouse for growingmore than two dozen types ofmushrooms, a short walking trailin the woods to show others howmushrooms grow and a full-scaleindoor research lab dedicated tothe study of mushrooms.

It is the result of one turn tak-en when he was younger and astudent in biology at the Collegeof Charleston.

He was interested in medicineand research. But he also had aninterest in the outdoors, havingspent much time fishing, hikingand enjoying nature as a child. Heknew what he loved. But it washis mother, who, thinking practi-

cally, thought about his intereststogether and had an idea.

She asked him one day whathe thought about going to workat a mushroom farm, this one lo-cated near Charleston. It wascalled the Low Country ExoticMushroom Farm.

“Mom said, ‘You know, someof the mushrooms they growthere are medicinal,’ ” Cottersaid. “This was a new thingback then. The first thing I didwas buy a book on mushrooms. Ihad zero previous knowledge ofcollecting mushrooms.”

So he read. And then he wentand introduced himself to themushroom farm’s owner.

Before he left that farm, Tradd

had a job. And it would do morethan teach him about how tomake a wage and study at thesame time.

“At least it was ajob that kept my sci-ence gears going,”Tradd said.

It sparked a life-long love of every-thing to do withmushrooms.

But it would take awhile before mush-room farming and re-search would be-come a practicalway of livingthat actuallypaid the bills.

Tradd, 37, spent two yearsthere, at that farm in Charleston,before he moved on and went towork landscaping for a while. Hestopped working toward a collegedegree about halfway through.

But he never stopped his stud-ies of mushrooms.

In those years, this part-farmer, part-scientist haslearned how to pick mush-rooms, how to identify them inthe wild, how to grow them oneverything from logs to denimjeans. Now he’s learning howdifferent kinds of mushroomscan be used to clean up oil, to actas insecticides, and break downthe paper that we throw away.

And his wife, Olga, 33, onlystrengthened his passion formushrooms.

A native of Eastern Europe, Ol-ga did not grow up with the pho-

bia many Americans havewith mushrooms — espe-cially those mushroomsin the wild.

“My grandfather, he’dsend me and my sister

out to go mushroomhunting,” Olga said. “Hesend us each with a basketand we’d bring them back

and he’d tell us whichones were good.”

Now, these twomake quite the

pair. She’s theherb garden-

er and the

cook. Plus she helps in the lab too.She knows how to forage formushrooms just like Tradd does.Together they work on findingspecies of mushrooms in the wildand learn how they can growthose mushrooms anywhere.

In 2007, Tradd finally saw hisdream come true.

After a year of searching,they found this 8-acre farm be-tween Liberty and Anderson.

Now a student at ClemsonUniversity, Tradd has received ascholarship from the U.S. Envi-ronmental Protection Agencythat will help him finish his de-gree in microbiology. Every-thing is paid for while he contin-ues his studies on mushrooms.

Together, Tradd and Olga growmushrooms — thousands of themeach year for local restaurants —and they help other mushroomfarmers by doing research on dif-ferent wild mushrooms.

They teach anyone who willlisten about the wonders ofmushrooms and how the fungican help all sorts of environmen-tal concerns. Such as howthey’ve found several species ofmushrooms that attack insects.The mushroom actually will trapcertain insects and kill them.

Ultimately, Tradd wants toteach people about mushrooms.

“Anyone can grow mushrooms,”he said. “But once you have them,what do you do with them? That’swhat we are here for.”

Know someone or someplace with a story? The Storyteller is always looking for stories about the interesting places and people who make up this community. If you have an idea, call or e-mail Char-maine Smith-Miles at (864) 260-1260 or [email protected].

nominationswelcome

■

■

A mushrooming businessLiberty couple works to teach others the benefits of the fungi

Cotter looks over composting hay with worms.


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe Sun NewsDawn BryantFreestyle May Get New Ticket to Ride

style or whether it would createa new theme.

“They hope it reopens andit’s a big success,” said FranklinDaniels, an attorney for FPIUS. “They don’t want to see itbe a vacant theme park. Theyare not willing to just let it go.”

FPI US LLC, which had fore-closed on former park opera-tors FPI MB EntertainmentLLC a year ago, bought theproperty at the Horry Countyforeclosure auction Mondaythrough a “credit bid” of $7 mil-lion. That means FPI US getsthe property but doesn’t paythat amount because it’s alrea-dy owed more than that by theformer park operators. The to-tal debt was $34 million, ac-cording to court records. Otherbusinesses that were still owedmoney by Freestyle are out ofluck.

FPI US won the auction overone other bidder, Alton Swann,a real estate professional inMyrtle Beach who said duringa brief telephone conversationWednesday that he had beenworking on a plan to bringsomebody in to take over thepark.

“I’d just like to see some-thing happen to it,” he said.“It’s a shame to see it go towaste.”

The 50-acre theme park hassat idle for about two years, afar cry from the hoopla thatmarked its first and secondopenings during a two-yearperiod.

The park, which was built for$400 million, was originally

branded as Hard Rock Parkand debuted in 2008. It filed forbankruptcy protection after aslow first season.

The park’s second run start-ed early the following yearwhen a group of investorsbought it out of bankruptcy for$25 million in February 2009and reopened it as FreestyleMusic Park a few months later.It also fell into financial trou-bles after just one summer – aseason where tourism state-wide took a hit because of thelagging economy that kept ma-ny people from traveling orprompted them to cut back ontheir spending if they did go onvacation.

The park has been closedsince, riding a wave of cases incourt. With the litigation be-hind it, the park can move for-ward, Daniels said.

FPI plans to look at what

went wrong the first two timesthe park operated, identifywhat needs to happen to makethe park a success and find abuyer or good partner to man-age the park, Daniels said.

That means the theme, mar-keting and ticket prices – whichsome critics said were too high,especially during the tougheconomy – will all be reviewed,he said. Tickets for admissionto Freestyle started at about$40 for adults and about $30 forchildren, though the parkdropped them later in the sum-mer of 2009 to less than $20 forspecial promotions.

“Many things in the pasthave to be done differently,”Daniels said. “They’ve learneda lot of hard lessons, lost a lot ofmoney. But they are committedto it.”

Some business owners in theFantasy Harbour area, off U.S.

501 at the Intracoastal Water-way, said a revived theme parkcould be the first step in gettingthe area back to where it shouldbe. A re-opened theme parkcould bring more people to thearea and make it look better,said Robbie Love, owner of TheX Sports Center off GeorgeBishop Parkway near the park.

“Definitely, that’s a boost,”he said. “That should be a goodshot in the arm for the area.”

Having the park reopenmight not translate into morebusiness at the Clarion Hoteland Conference Center on Fan-tasy Harbour Boulevard, but itwould help the look of the area,said Lori Posma, the hotel’ssales director.

“That would be great,” shesaid. “Just the perception of thearea – everybody says it looksso decrepit over here...Any ac-t i o n o v e r h e r e w o u l d b e

fabulous.”During the past two years,

theme park operators and oth-ers have stopped by the parkinterested in buying some ofthe rides, but the investorsdidn’t want to sell off the parkpiece by piece, still optimisticthat the theme park could even-tually work in Myrtle Beach,Daniels said. A small crew hascontinued to work at the park,including an engineer who reg-ularly runs the rides to keepthem in shape, Daniels said.

“You start selling off therides, you destroy the value ofthe theme park,” he said. “Theytruly are committed. Theywant to see it reopen. Theywant to see it work.”

They have learned lessonsfrom the park’s back-to-backfailures, Daniels said.

Loftus said a theme park canwork in the Myrtle Beach area

if it’s done right.“There were many issues

that kind of led to the demise ofthe first two. Obviously, therewere a heckuva lot more thatwent wrong than right,” Loftussaid. “Done correctly, and withthe right marketing, it shouldhave a chance.”

One culprit that hamperedthe park’s second run was theGreat Recession, which led toan 8 percent drop in tourism inSouth Carolina in 2009, accord-ing to figures released thisweek by the S.C. Parks, Recre-ation and Tourism department.Tourism throughout the stategenerated $14 billion in 2009,down about $1 billion from theprevious year.

Tourism officials have saidthe industry has picked upsince then.

FPI’s talks with potentialmanagers or buyers are in theearly stages, and it’s unclearwhen FPI would announce de-tails of a reopening. It wouldprobably take between six andnine months to adequately pre-pare the park and promote it,though Freestyle owners did itin three months after theyb o u g h t t h e p a r k o u t o fbankruptcy.

“There’s no timeframe,”Daniels said. “They are work-ing hard.”

Posma of the Clarion hotel,like Loftus, said a theme parkcould be successful here.

“If they take input they havelearned and apply it, commit toit, I think they can make itwork,” she said. “I’m hoping forthe best.”

➤ Contact DAWN BRYANT at626-0296.

PARKFrom Page 1A


The iconic Gibson guitar sits pasts a fence and weeds at the park formerly known as Freestyle Music Park onWednesday.

The Hermit can be seen through a locked gate in thepark formerly known as Freestyle Music Park. Animage of the Hermit was used on the Led Zeppelin IValbum. The Hermit is also used in Tarot cards.

The theme park formerlyknown as Freestyle MusicPark might be back in businessin time for summer 2012.

FPI US LLC, the mortgageholder of the park that has nowbeen closed for two years,bought the property out offoreclosure this week with thegoal of reopening the themepark in Fantasy Harbour intime for next summer, its at-torneys said Wednesday.

“There’s a little bit of light atthe end of the tunnel,” said Da-vid Slough, an attorney for FPIUS.

Elected leaders and busi-ness owners near the park her-alded the news Wednesday,saying it could help rejuvenatean area that desperately needs

it.“Any time you can take

something that is dead and youcan bring some life to it, it isgood,” said Horry CountyCouncilman Gary Loftus,whose district includes thetheme park area.

FPI US is looking for eithera partner to manage and oper-ate the park or a buyer whocan purchase the park and re-open it, Slough said.

Talks are in the early stages,so it’s not clear exactly whenthe park would open, whetherit would still be called Free-

EXCLUSIVE

Freestyle may getnew ticket to ride

PHOTOS BY JANET BLACKMON MORGAN [email protected]

The park formerly known as Freestyle Music Park on Wednesday. The mortgage holder, FPI US LLC, has boughtthe property out of foreclosure and has announced plans for opening the park in 2012.

Mortgage lender buys theme park out of foreclosureTAKE A POLL

If the former Freestyle Music Park

reopens, will you go? Take the poll

at TheSunNews.com .

BY DAWN BRYANT

[email protected]

See PARK | Page 8A


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe HeraldDon WorthingtonS.C., N.C. Diff er on Carowinds Records

see19 heaftago

FacEvchyea

hewh“Wof go lon

Hilhaof mocityloschi

hato if sha

youearanIesMcserdo

nofuncaron

ThseaFinFacthe

Frf1

By Don [email protected] South Carolina agency responsible

for ensuring the safety of rides atCarowinds does not keep records of prob-lems discovered during annual inspec-tions at the amusement park.

In North Carolina, inspectors docu-ment all concerns found during reviews atthe park, which straddles the state line.

An official with the N.C. Department ofLabor said detailed records allow theagency to track any recurring problemswith rides. The records also would bevaluable if the inspection became part of alawsuit.

The director of South Carolina’s De-partment of Labor, Licensing and Regula-tion, or LLR, said Friday her agency’s re-cords policy will change. LLR has been re-viewing its inspection practices since theMarch death of a 6-year-old boy on a min-iature train ride in Spartanburg County.

State Sen. Wes Hayes of Rock Hill saidkeeping more detailed records is “thecommonsense thing to do. … South Caro-lina needs to go to school on what NorthCarolina is doing.”

Catherine Templeton, the LLR director,and a Carowinds spokesman say theamusement park’s rides are safe.

Bryn Winborn, spokeswoman forCarowinds, said safety is the park’s No. 1priority and rides are inspected daily.

Templeton said no ride is allowed toopen if a significant problem is discoveredduring an inspection.

In fact, all minor issues are resolved be-fore a final inspection report is issued, shesaid.

“It’s not running if anything is wrong,”she said.

After the Spartanburg train accident,The Hera ld reques ted records o fCarowinds inspections from both states.

LLR’s records from Carowinds inspec-tions showed no problems at the 26 ridesin South Carolina. The inspections wereconducted in March.

The records show each ride was ratedon 25 factors, including structural integri-ty, electrical safety and operations. Eachride was given a satisfactory rating in ev-ery category.

No details were written in the notes sec-tion of the forms. No list was made of whatrepairs, if any, were required for certifica-tion.

The N.C. records show inspectors iden-

S.C., N.C. differ onCarowinds records

1997 OBSERVER FILE PHOTOThe Thunder Road roller coaster at Carowinds is the only ride that operates crosses the state border. Because theentrance to the ride is in south of the state line it is inspected by South Carolina.

N.C. ride inspectorsmust follow stricterdocumentationprocedures than S.C. inspectors.

See CAROWINDS ● 7A

BUSINESS REPORTINGBUSINESS REPORTINGDaily Over 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe Greenville NewsDavid DykesWorker Sparked Lockheed Review


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe Post and CourierWarren WiseLake Eff ect

BRAD NETTLES/STAFF

A boat passes Blacks Camp on Lake Moultrie. The commercial lot is one of 53 owned by Santee Cooper and leased out to businesses around lakes Marion and Moultrie. The state-owned utility has targeted six of the leased lots for upscale development as most of the leases come up for renewal starting next year, but Santee Cooper won’t say which six they are.

LAKE EFFECT

For decades, entrepreneurs set up fish camps and other water-based busi-

nesses around Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie to make a living off leased

sites through state-owned utility Santee Cooper.

But for some of the 53 commercial leaseholders around the lakes, that

soon could change.

The Moncks Corner-based utility has targeted six sites on the lakes’ edges

where it would like to see higher-end development. It calls them “inte-

grated development areas” in its Comprehensive Property Management

Strategy.

Santee Cooper won’t say which six they are, but its board of directors

recently gave staff members greater latitude to bring in what it called “a

Higher-end development sought for Santee Cooper lakes


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe StateJeff WilkinsonHow SC Beat NC to Win Plant

Oct. 6 was a great day inSouth Carolina, as Conti-nental Tire said it wouldbuild a $500 million plantin Sumter County creating1,600 jobs. That deal came,in part, because of a fewlousy days in NorthCarolina.

As the decision camedown to the wire in late

September, Gov. Nikki Ha-ley and Palmetto State re-cruiters held out a $31 mil-lion infrastructure grant,aimed at attracting the in-ternational tire maker.Meanwhile, Republicanlawmakers in the TarheelState were butting headswith Democratic Gov. Bev-erly Perdue over thatstate’s offer of $45 million

CONTINENTAL TIRE

How S.C.beat N.C.

to win plant$31 million in incentives sealed deal

By JEFF [email protected]

SEE S.C. WON PAGE A18

LIFEST YLE FEATURE WRITINGLIFEST YLE FEATURE WRITINGDaily Under 20,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe Times and DemocratWendy Jeff coat CriderLosing to Win: Mother and Son Shed 300-plus Pounds Together

TUESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2011 / A8

LOSING Mother and son shed 300-plus pounds together

By WENDY JEFFCOAT CRIDERT&D Features Editor

With the new year under way, many are vowing to shed unwanted pounds.

A Smoaks mother and son have proven it’s not as impossible as it may seem.

Lynette Lyons and her 21-year-old son, George, have lost more than 300 pounds combined in a little more than a year.

“I was just tired of being overweight,” said George, a student at Orangeburg-Cal-houn Technical College. “I came up with the plan to do low-calorie and work out, and that’s what I did.

“At the beginning, I worked out an hour a day, but now I work out two hours a day.”

George began his weight-loss journey in September 2009 with his cousin, Brandon Simmons, who has also lost weight on the plan. George and his mom said they have both struggled with their weight all of their lives, and have tried many diet and exercise plans to no avail. Lynette joined her son in his regimen in January 2010.

“I’ll be honest — I didn’t know if I would be able to be that strong, because it takes a lot of willpower, but then I just de-cided, the fi rst of the year, ‘You know what? I’m going to do it. He’s doing it — I’m going to do it with him,’” she said.

Lynette, 45, a creative graphic design artist at The Times and Democrat, said her weight began to balloon when she

quit smoking 5-1/2 years ago after a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly referred to as COPD.

“Between quitting smoking and being on all kinds of lung medications, steroids and all of that, yeah, I put it

on pretty quick,” she said. “You don’t even realize it, until you look back and you’re like, ‘Wow.’

“When I decided to go into it with (George), he told me from the start, he said, ‘Mama, it’s not just for three months, six months. When we do it, we’ve got to do it all the time.’ And he’s right — you’ve got to do it all the time. But now that we’ve been doing it all this time, it’s like second nature.”

The “it” Lynette is referring to is the strict counting of calo-ries, eating healthy foods (no sweets or junk food allowed), working out every day, no snacking, etc. It’s all in George’s lifestyle changes plan, which the pair have put in writing be-cause so many people have asked them how they lost all of that

weight.The pair said they eat a lot of chicken, vegetables, granola

bars and low-calorie soups, and their exercises include every-thing from cardio and Pilates to strength training and riding bi-

cycles. They said they use a lot of workout DVDs in their routines.The most important thing the two say they have, however, is

support.“It makes a big diff erence, to have somebody supportive,” George

said. “You need somebody to motivate you to stay on track.”“And somebody serious about it,” Lynette added. “I

pick and say that he’s my drill sergeant, but there are days when I probably would falter a little bit, but George is like,

‘No, we’re going to do it.’”George has lost so much weight that he now has a lot of

extra skin.“And it’s everywhere,” he said. “You have to cope with your

new body.”Coping with that new body is tough, Lynette said.“Everything looks diff erent,” she said. “At fi rst,

you hate seeing all of these ripples and dents and things hanging. But it does tighten.

“But George is right — the extra skin is not a good thing.”

Lynette said others who have looked at George’s plan and tried it say the hardest part is not snacking.

Instead of reaching for a bag of chips in the mid-dle of the day or a candy bar, they chew a piece of sugarless gum, have a Tic Tac or drink some water.

“Staying away from sweets is a lot easier than I thought it would be,” George said. “We only cheat once a month, and it usually makes me sick when I eat chocolate because I’m not used to having it.

“You think about food a lot diff erently, like what it’s doing to your body when you eat.”

But just because they have changed their eating hab-its doesn’t mean they judge others’ food choices, Lynette said.

“We don’t say, ‘Oh my God, did you see what they ate?’ It’s not like that,” she said. “But for yourself, you think, ‘I really don’t need that.’”

George said it helps to start losing weight for the right reasons.

“It’s got to be something that you want for your-self, but you really need somebody that’s dedicated with you. They can motivate you and, vice versa, you can help them,” he said.

Lynette added, “It helps to have somebody who loves you, too. ... You have that love and that deep concern for each other, and you really want to see each other succeed.”

Lynette said her older son, Wade Jr., and husband Wade are supportive of their eff orts and have even lost some weight as a result of the family not buying or cooking “the old way.”

They said don’t get discouraged if it’s hard to do a sit up or walk a mile at fi rst, or the weight doesn’t seem to be coming off fast enough.

“When you’re a heavy person, you might have lost 20 or 30 pounds and not one person will notice,” Lynette said. “Don’t let it upset you if nobody knows, because you know it.”

Also, George said don’t weigh yourself constantly because that can be discouraging. “Judge by your clothes ... and when doing something is a little bit easier,” he said.

When the going gets tough — and it does — they have their ways of coping.

“I work out harder,” George said.“I do a lot of praying,” Lynette said.“I can’t say this enough — I give God the glory for it all, because

you don’t realize how strong you can be until you fi rst rely on him, and then you set your mind that you’re going to do it,” she said. “He strengthens us to succeed and to encourage each other.”

It’s all paid off . While Lynette said George has always been healthy, he recently had a physical, and Lynette said his doctor was amazed at his weight loss.

Lynette said she, too, can tell a diff erence.“I breathe better, I breathe deeper, I rest better,” she said.

“You feel like you have more energy, like you can do more.”“And you want to do more,” George said. “I’m more confi -

dent. I feel better about myself.”

■ Contact the writer: wjeff [email protected] or 803-533-5546.

Pictured, at left, George Lyons before (top, special to T&D) and after (bottom, photo by Larry Hardy/T&D). Pictured, at right, Lynette Lyons before (top, special to The T&D) and after (bottom, photo by Larry Hardy/T&D).

to WIN

ONLINE

Visit this article online to see how the pair lost the weight.

TheTandD.com/features

@TheTandD.com


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEIndex-JournalJoseph SitarzJameson Knows Way Around the Kitchen

By JOSEPH [email protected]

Keith Jameson doesn’t have to sing for his supper, but if he did have to, he cer-tainly could.

He doesn’t have to worry about singing for his just “desserts,” either.

Jameson, a tenor who sings opera internation-ally and is the founder and director of Greenwood Music Festival, can cook.

Greenwood Music Fes-tival kicks off Thursday and runs through Monday with activities ranging from movies to cabaret and from chamber music to arias.

And during Thursday’s opening reception following performances by Emerald Brass and soprano Siân Davies, everyone will get a chance to sample some of Jameson’s Bacchus Bars. This year’s festival theme is “Roman Holiday” and the bars will be among the goodies served during the Bacchus celebration which will feature fruit, nuts, des-serts and wine.

This is on the heels of 2010’s French themed “Vive La France” and “Let Then Eat Cake” reception.

Jameson, born Keith Rich-ard to Kenneth and Carol Richard, lives in New York City, still remembers how he learned about Bacchus Bars.

“I knew about Bacchus from my Latin studies at Greenwood High School, that Bacchus was the god

of revelry,” Jameson said. “I thought that was a nice tie-in.”

GHS Latin teacher Linda Cox would have Bacchus Bars during Latin banquets the class would have. Cox and her husband, Vern, were supporters of the music fes-tival and attended. Cox died in November 2009.

“I think she would love it,” Jameson said. “I think she would be at every event.”

Jameson noted the rec-ipe for Seven Layer Magic Cookie Bars can be found on the Eagle Brand Con-densed Milk cans.

“The only difference they don’t put butterscotch in theirs,” he said. “I do.”

To make the bars authentic, Jameson said Cox researched what food would have been available in Roman times. Many of the ingredients would have been gotten through trade ships or people bringing the items to Italy.

“I remember them in high school as Bacchus Bars. They taste the same. It’s the same kind of thing. They’re easy to make.”

Jameson holds Cox, who taught him Latin for two years, in high regard.

“She was a great teacher,” Jameson said. “She was very hands on. It wasn’t just let’s learn a dead language. She brought in old movies. She made it interesting and fun.”

She would apply what she was teaching related to the students.

“For me, I sing a lot in Latin,” Jameson said, adding from Cox’s class he learned there were different scales, major and minor key instru-ments were tuned differ-ently and that people sang in modes. “That directly related to what I was study-ing in music.”

Jameson said Cox taught him to have an appreciation for history, how it relates to our lives today and not to forget our history.

He practices what he preaches, even in his cook-ing. Jameson cooks comfort foods, including his mother’s lasagna, chicken pie, and mac and cheese.

“I can follow a recipe,” Jameson said, noting he prepared lemon chicken for his parents since he’s been in Greenwood for the music festival.

Accent 7AMay 18, 201

WEDNESDAYUP NEXTYard sales, music and more

THURSDAY

Jameson knows wayaround the kitchen

BACCHUS BARS (Seven Layer Magic Cookie Bars)

(In honor and memory of Linda Cox, Keith Jameson’s Greenwood High School Latin teacher)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter1 1/2 cups of Graham Cracker Crumbs

1 (14 oz.) can of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT Evaporated Milk)

1 cup (6 oz.) Hershey’s Butterscotch Flavored Chips

1 cup (6 oz.) Hershey’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 1/3 cups Mound’s Sweetened Coconut Flakes (Jameson uses Baker’s Secret)

1 cup chopped nuts (Jameson uses pecans)

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for glass dish). In 13x9-inch

baking pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle crumbs over butter; pour

condensed milk evenly on top of crumbs. Top with remaining ingredients in order listed;

press down firmly with a fork.Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool.

Chill if desired. Cut into bars. Store lightly covered at room temperature. Makes 18-24 bars.

The fifth anni-versary season of Greenwood Music Festival is almost here. The festival’s theme this year is “Roman Holiday” and is Thursday through Monday. Here is a look at the schedule for the festival:

THURSDAY7:30 p.m. —

Arts Center at the Federal Building, 120 Main St. — Emerald Brass in the Gallery; soprano Siân Davies, from Chicago, sing-ing Italian arias and songs, and songs of 1911 (in celebration of the 100th anniver-sary of the Federal Building; a “Bacchus” reception and the commissioned art-work by local artist Skip Shelton will be unveiled. Tickets $25.

FRIDAY6 p.m. — Amici

Strings from the S.C. Governor’s for the Arts in Greenville present a free 30-minute concert at the Greenwood Museum, 106 Main St.

7 p.m. — “Spar-tucus” (1960): Classic film starring Kirk Douglas and Lawrence Olivier at Greenwood Com-munity Theatre, 110 Main St. Tickets $5 for adults and $3 for students with ID.

SATURDAY2 p.m.

— “Roman Holiday” (1953): Classic film starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck at Greenwood Community Theatre, 110 Main St. Tickets $5 for adults and $3 for students with ID.

7 p.m. — Ensem-ble Radieuse, trio of flute, oboe and piano from Converse College at First Presbyterian Church of Greenwood, 208 Cambridge Ave. Tick-ets $15.

SUNDAY4 p.m. —

Peachtree Symphon-ic Winds from Atlanta presents symphonic wind music including “Roman Carnival Overture” by Berlioz, “Pines of Rome” by Respighi and more at First Baptist Church of Greenwood, 722 Grace St. Tickets $15.

MONDAY7 p.m. — Nat

Chandler, Broadway star and Greenwood native presents a special cabaret eve-ning as the festival finale at Greenwood Community Theatre, 110 Main St. Tickets $25. Tickets for the Chandler show are available exclusively at GCT. Call 229-5704 information.

Tickets for all other events are available at the Arts Center at the Federal Building or the Green-wood Chamber of Commerce. Call the Arts Center at 388-7800 and the Cham-ber at 223-8431 for information. Visit www.greenwoodmu-sicfestival.org for information.

GREENWOODMUSIC

FESTIVALSCHEDULE

GREENWOOD MUSIC FESTIVAL l BACCHUS BARS

RECIPE

JOSEPH SITARZ | INDEX-JOURNAL

ABOVE: Keith Jameson sprinkles chocolate chips into a baking dish as he makes Bacchus Bars for Thursday’s reception following opening night performances for the Greenwood Music Festival. BELOW: The founder and director of the music festival scoops out the last drops of condensed milk for the Bacchus Bars.

See BACCHUS, page 9A


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe Island PacketJustin PaprockiGrandfather of the “Grind”

■

▲

LIFEST YLE FEATURE WRITINGLIFEST YLE FEATURE WRITINGDaily 20,000 - 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEHerald-JournalKim KimzeyMissing Mom

PHOTO PROVIDED

Hats star at the Royal Wedding Tea Benefit hosted by Pam Stone.

Ladies, let’s bring back the hats

As far as the eye could see, a sea of hats!

Having mentioned to the local press that I would love attending ladies to please wear hats during the Royal Wedding Tea Benefi t I had the

privilege of host-ing, I was simply delighted to take in the scene before me: tables adorned with crisp white linen and dotted with vin-tage bone china and

silver spoons with enormous, blowsy, English roses in cobalt blue vases standing sentry in each center. And around each table the most wonderful hats!

Yes, I do rather go on about it — I suppose because it is such a rarity for my gen-eration. Watching an ancient Doris Day fi lm the other night, there was a telling scene regarding the culture of the day.

Upon learning that her second husband, a very young Louis Jourdan, murdered her fi rst husband with plans now to do away with her (why it took her so long I’ll never know; Jourdan didn’t blink in a single scene and when he walked, his arms didn’t move, and everyone knows that’s the fi rst sign of a psychotic killer: their arms stay still when they walk), Day fl ings open her closet to pack her things, and on the shelf above her rack of clothes were a good dozen hat boxes. It immediately drove home the sheer necessity of such an accessory — for men as well. One simply did not go out without a hat.

Surveying the well-coiffed heads around the restaurant, I couldn’t possibly decide on a favorite. Was it the “fascina-tors” made popular by Kate Middleton: coquettish little adornments of tulle and feath-ers fastened securely to the hair, or the becoming, wide-brimmed affairs, dipping slyly over a perfectly arched brow and wreathed with lace and ribbon?

Certainly nowhere did I wit-ness a single fashion faux pas as many saw, shall I point out over my saucer of milk, when the image of Princess Beatrice was fl ashed over the wide screen with what appeared to be a beige Teletubby perched upon her red head. Why she didn’t follow my lead and just drive over to Fred’s and pick up a straw number for eight bucks and pin a few roses from the garden to the brim, I’ll never know. Royals are differ-ent.

“Excuse me,” came a soft and almost apologetic voice behind me. Turning, I saw a dear thing tidily attired in a suit from another time with a natty matching hat. “No one else in my family wanted to come to the tea, and I didn’t want to miss it for the world, so I’m all alone. Is there a place for me?”

“You’re not alone, you’re with me,” I smiled, clasping her white gloved hand. “And of course there’s a place for you. I’m going to seat you with some lovely ladies.”

Pam StoneI’m Just Sayin’

Missing mom

The McGill family includes Joseph “Rex” McGill and his children Heath, left, Caroline and Corey, right, holding a photo of her mother, Nicole Heath McGill, who died in June 2008. At top is a photo of Nicole McGill that Corey keeps in her cell phone.

“I have grown and matured into a stronger person

because of my mother’s death, and I know she would be proud

of me.”COREY,

17, a junior at Boiling Springs High School

“Heath, 14, has his mother’s kind heart.”MARSHIA HEATH,

Nicole’s mother and the children’s grandmother

“I’m one of a kind. I’m like

nobody.”CAROLINE,

8, a second-grader at Spartanburg Christian

Academy

Story by KIM KIMZEY / Photos by TIM KIMZEY

‘Nicole’s nuggets’ Young family learns to go on without mother

The prom was two weeks away, and Corey McGill held up the purple gown she would wear. She knew it was the one as soon as she put it on, even though it wasn’t the fi rst one she chose.

She had planned to attend her fi rst prom in a gown the same shade as her eyes — blue. The lash-es that frame them are darkened with the brand of mascara her mom, Nicole Heath McGill, once wore and taught her to apply.

But on prom night it was Aunt Dee Dee, not Nicole, who laced up the back of her gown.

Nicole died in June 2008 after a six-month battle with cancer. She was 36 years old and left behind many loved ones, among them her children Corey, then 14 years old, Heath, 11, and Caroline, 5, and her husband, Rex.

They had not shielded their children from the truth. Their momma had cancer.

She would fi ght and defeat it. They trusted in Jesus Christ to cure her, Rex said.

The family went to Walt Disney World. Even though Nicole was ill, she rode a 70-mph ride. She admired a kimono in a store on their trip. Rex bought it and surprised her with it. There’s a photo of Nicole wearing the kimono with a smile on her face. Corey has also saved a picture of Nicole wear-ing the kimono in her casket.

The children and their father were left to strug-gle with a gaping loss that seemed so unfair.

Why did their mother and wife get cancer? Why did she die? And just as they did in the past, Rex told them to trust, to believe God had a plan.

Nicole’s funeral service was held at Cudd Memo-rial Baptist Church in Spartanburg. The Rev. Danny Garrett has been the pastor there for 20 years. It was the largest visitation he’s seen at the church. People stood in line for hours to express their condolences.

The children spoke at the service. They sang at her graveside.

“I think it was (Nicole) and Rex’s faith that gave them the strength to do that,” Garrett said.

‘Nicole’s nuggets’Joseph “Rex” McGill had prayed for the right

woman. He found her after he slid into third base and scraped his hand at a softball game. Nicole Heath, 16 at the time, bandaged his hand in the dugout.

SEE MOM PAGE E9

HONORING MOTHER’S DAY

SEE PAM STONE PAGE E9


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe Sun NewsSteve PalisinThe Stand on Two Wheels

Some bicycle tour ideas➤ Bike the Neck, based in Pawleys Island |

237-4486 or www.biketheneck.com

➤ Grand Strand Bicycles | 652-3700 in Murrells

Inlet, 839-3702 in Myrtle Beach, or

www.grandstrandbicycles.com

➤ Bodacious Bob’s Beach Bicycle Tours in Little

River | 241-2731 or www.beachbicycletours.com

➤ City of Conway Parks & Recreation bike trails

map | www.conwayparksandrecreation.com/bike

trails.html or 248-1740

8 THE SUN NEWS kicks! | Friday, October 21, 2011

Bicycling can be an easy formof recreation to fall into atthis time of year.

The blazing heat of sum-mer has passed, and frostymornings of winter remainin the distance, leaving resi-dents to bask in the long au-

tumns the Grand Strand enjoys.Whether for a loop on a leisurely ride, do-

ing errands, or training for an athletic event,bicycling provides the wheels to get there orget something done.

Judy Panarello, manager of BodaciousBob’s Beach Bicycle Tours in Little River, re-membered finding the sport’s virtues duringher college days, when parking spaces forcars were always full, prompting her to com-mute via bicycle.

“I started getting 20 miles a day just goingto school,” she said. “It’s great exercise. If youhave a bad back, bad knees or a bad whatever,it’s the least-impact exercise out there.”

Panarello, whose employer organizes vari-ous guided tours and mapped solo routes onthe Strand’s north end, said just the way arider sits on a bike also can help improve hisor her posture.

She said the goals she stresses to riderscenter on pedaling safely on the road andhighlighting all the potential fun from, for ex-ample, 12 miles in this beach setting, or a fewmiles along Little River’s waterfront.

“It’s an enjoyable jaunt,” Panarello said.“It’s something you can do every day thathelps you live a longer, healthier life, and saveyou money. There’s no down side to it.”

She likes the north side of the Strand,which has less traffic and “wider, open spac-es” for bicycling, and multiple routes that goby golf courses. Others have a farm, beach orwinery on the trail.

“People, especially families, who comehere, want a more intimate vacation experi-ence,” Panarello said. “This gives them an op-portunity to do that.”

One ride she made her own getaway, espe-cially in summer’s dog days, spanned 20 milesround trip at midnight on Myrtle Beach’sOcean Boulevard between the Dunes areaand Springmaid Beach. She said the well-litavenue, along with South Ocean Boulevard’sdedicated bike lanes between Sixth and 27thavenues, only adds to the Boulevard’s bike-friendly amenities.

On the InletMary Woolford, who with husband Tim

Woolford owns Grand Strand Bicycles inMurrells Inlet and a newly acquired site indowntown Myrtle Beach, also sang the sea-son’s praise for pedaling.

“With the fall weather,” she said, “the hu-midity’s gearing down, and the morning air ismore crisp. It’s a lot more comfortable, in-stead of sweating.”

Organized rides depart weekly from eachstore, and Mary Woolford, like Panarello, saidturnout increases in the summer, but coregroups keep the tours hopping the rest of theyear.

At 7:30 a.m. Tuesdays, a tour leaves theMyrtle Beach store for a 28-mile loop north onOcean Boulevard to the Dunes area, thenheads west and south along the IntracoastalWaterway and back downtown via OakStreet.

Woolford said traffic, even in summer,stays light, especially with the group pace of18 to 20 mph, but slower riders meet up peri-odically. “We regroup at the next stop sign.We haven’t lost anybody yet,” said Woolford,a p p r e c i a t i n g a c k n o w l e d g m e n t f o rpassers-by.

“People are used to seeing us coming. Theyclap.”

Woolford said riding a Saturday morningroute from the Murrells Inlet shop started in2006 with three riders, but come prime vaca-tion season, a group of 100 riders becomes acommon occurrence. A group that size is bro-ken into three smaller groups, including oneat a “road bike pace” as slow as 16 mph.

“It’s literally for people who want to go outand get fresh air,” Woolford said. “We stay inand around Murrells Inlet, but stay off U.S. 17

Bypass.”Riders range in age from 13 to 69, she said,

and other weekly rides, such as “the Tour deMurrells Inlet,” which utilizes part of a “Bikethe Neck” path in northeast GeorgetownCounty, are available.

“Bike the Neck is the best casual bike patharound,” Woolford said. “Even on the hottestof summer days, it’s still 10 degrees coolerthere.”

Bike the Neck plansLinda Ketron, who leads the Bike the Neck

grass-roots group, which started in 1994 andhas since overseen development of 12.5 trailsfor cyclists, walkers and runners, said plansto add five more miles are inching closer tofruition. Funds have accrued from varioussources, including matching grants and pri-vate donations.

Once regulations are met, the route wouldconnect Litchfield Beach with Pawleys Islandvia a 10-foot-wide path along the east side ofKings River Road, parallel to U.S. 17 betweenWillbrook and Waverly roads.

“The engineering plan is 100 percent com-plete, and it has been filed,” Ketron said.“This means we could be only weeks ormonths away from the project being put outto bid. I would hope by this time next year wehave this new leg of the path done.”

Then attention would turn to a stretch be-tween Boyle Road and Trace Drive, where thepath follows some roads through a neighbor-

hood south of Huntington Beach State Park,Ketron said.

She also wishes she had more free time tobike her own favorite loop more often fromher home on the north side of LitchfieldBeach. It spans about 14 miles, using parts ofthe bike trail, heading as far south as Litch-field Beach & Golf Resort, west to the SandyIsland boat dock, and north to the start of U.S.17 Business heading into Murrells Inlet.

Bodacious Bob’s Panarello said bicycling is“a great sport, but first and foremost, it’stransportation,” a way to get places and smileabout how you got there.

“It’s probably man’s most brilliantly con-ceived, economically and eco-friendly trans-portation ever,” she said. “I was probably aTour de France winner in another life.”

➤ Contact STEVE PALISIN at 444-1764.

Cyclists who want to ride in a group have several offerings along the GrandStrand, like this Tuesday morning ride that leaves from Grand Strand Bicycles inMyrtle Beach.

PHOTOS BY CHARLES SLATE [email protected]

A cyclist rides across the bike bridge that has a beautiful view of the inlet on theBike The Neck path in Murrells Inlet.

The Strand on two wheelsCooler weather beckons for bicyclists

BY STEVE PALISIN

[email protected]

Other weekend optionsFall Tree Planting and HarvestCelebrationWho | North Myrtle Beach Tree City Board

When | 3-5 p.m. Friday

Where | North Myrtle Beach Farmers Market, 925

First Ave. S.

How much | Free

Includes | Tree-planting education at 3:15 p.m.,

ceremonial tree planting at 4 p.m.

Information | 280-5572 or www.nmb.us

Gaither FestWhen | Concerts at 7 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m.

Saturday

Where | Myrtle Beach Convention Center, at Oak

Street and 21st Avenue North

How much (covers both nights) | $100 ages 13

and older, otherwise $35

Information | 800-515-1330, 800-713-3773 or

www.gaither.com

Annual Arts & Crafts FairBenefiting | Charities for hospice, as well as Hope

Harbor and Brunswick Family Assistance

When | 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday

Where | Brunswick Plantation’s Brunswick House,

382 Brunswick Drive, Calabash, N.C.

How much | Free admission

Information | 910-287-4604

‘Big Bash’When | Noon-4 p.m. Saturday, with the band Salty

Dog

Where | Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10420, 4359

U.S. 17 Bypass, Murrells Inlet

How much | $7, includes meal served noon-2 p.m.

Information | 651-6900

Saturday’s Music & Wine at the VineyardWhen | Noon-5 p.m. Saturday with Nancy Olive

performing 12:30-4:30 p.m.

Where | La Belle Amie Vineyard, 1120 St. Joseph

Road, Little River

How much | Free

Information | 399-9463 or www.labelleamie.com

Longwood Fire & Rescue Haunted TrailWhen | At dark Fridays and Saturdays through Oct.

29, and Oct. 31

Where | Grissettown Longwood Fire & Rescue, 758

Longwood Road (N.C. 904), Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.

How much | $7

Information | 910-287-3030

Fall FestivalWhen | 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Saturday, with flounder

fish fry 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and dinner at 4 p.m., both

Friday

Where | Surfside United Methodist Church, at 13th

Avenue North and U.S. 17 Business in Surfside

Beach

How much | Free admission; fish-fry meals $8,

with delivery available between Pirateland

Campground and Garden City Beach


Myrtle Beach Wine FestWhen | 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday

Where | Myrtle Beach’s Valor Memorial Garden, at

The Market Common

How much | Free admission; $3 for wine-sampling

glass

Information | 839-3500 or

www.marketcommonevents.com

Third annual Fall FestivalWhen | 5-8 p.m. Saturday

Where | Grand Strand Baptist Church, 350

Hospitality Lane, off Waccamaw Boulevard


Information | 236-2233 or

www.thejubileechurch.org

Annual Fall FestivalWhen | 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday

Where | Murrells Inlet Presbyterian Church, 4499

U.S. 17 Bypass, Murrells Inlet

How much | Free


OktoberfestWhen | Noon-4 p.m. Saturday

Where | New Life Lutheran Church,7311 S.C. 544,

Socastee, near S.C. 31



Grissett’s Gruesome Haunted ManorHalloween SpooktacularBenefiting | DaQuan Byron Grissett in the 2011

Beautillion by the local alumni chapter of Alpha Phi

Alpha Fraternity Inc.

When | 7-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays through Oct. 29,

and Oct. 31

Where | 2000 Fifth Ave., Conway

How much | $10 ages 10 and older, otherwise $5


Annual Fall FestivalBenefiting | SC-CARES

When | Noon-5 p.m. Sunday

Where | SC-CARES, 236 Abbeville Drive, off U.S. 701

north of Georgetown


Includes | A tortoise race, and contests for acorn

collecting, young artist posters, and trick-or-treat

costumes

Information | 546-7893 or www.sc-cares.org

Docksider’s Beach Party Oyster RoastWho | With the Carolina Breakers in concert

When | 3-7 p.m. Sunday

Where | Docksider’s Bar and Grille, 2501 Bridge

View Court, North Myrtle Beach, at Barefoot

Marina; head west over bridge, then take second

left



THE SUN NEWS kicks! | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2011 9


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEIndependent MailNikie MayoA Love Not Lost

Letters fromcentury-oldcourtship return to Anderson home


mayon@/ 622.1708

Inside a shoebox on the top shelfof her closet,Michelle Scott has longkept remnants of a century-oldcourtship between an Andersonfarmer and a Georgia schoolteacher.

Scott is not related to the cou-ple, and she is too young to havemet them together. But Scott hasknown Fritz Watson Sr. and Beu-lah Moorhead her whole life.

For as long as she can remem-ber, Scott has kept safe a collec-tion of letters that Watson andMoorhead wrote to each otheras they fell in love.

The letters cover a periodfrom 1911 to 1914, and chronicleportions of the couple’s unfold-ing courtship, Watson’s proposalof marriage and Moorhead’splans for their wedding.

Scott, who lives in Belton, hasoften wondered if that weddingever happened.

From the time she was a littlegirl, Scott has been the keeper ofthe letters that her father foundyears before she was born. She is40 now, but Scott still talks aboutwhen she took the letters toschool for show-and-tell. She re-members getting an “A” when sheused the letters as part of a pres-entation she made in civics class.

But it was not until two weeksago that she began to put togeth-er the pieces of a puzzle that is100 years old. What Scott discov-ered would change, and bind,two Anderson County families.

A love affairFritz Watson and Beulah

Moorhead met at the party of amutual friend a century ago.

They had something to talkabout right away: His distantcousin was married to a cousinof hers. He was eight years hersenior, but the young farmer wasintrigued by the young teacher.

They began writing letters toeach other while she was inGeorgia and kept up the corre-spondence even as she spent timein Tampa, Fla., and he remainedon his farm in Anderson.

The letters were formal at first.The more they wrote, the more

they included details of their day-to-day activities — how she couldbuy oranges in Florida for 10cents a box or how he had nearlyworn himself out working on thefarm. It wasn’t long before theteacher and the farmer werewriting to each other every day

and each began to anticipate, andhope for, a letter from the other.

Eventually, Watson proposed tothe girl that he called his “Geor-gia gem” and his “little hobo.”

When she said yes, Watsonwrote back to Moorhead thathad he been near her, he wouldhave given her a big bear hug.

In her next letter, from the fall of1914, Moorhead didn’t miss a beat.

“And you would have mademe suffer from a big bear hug ifI’d been near, eh?” she wrote.“Having been a schoolteacher, Inaturally think of punishingboys for their misdoings.”

Later, she writes about her deci-sion to accept Watson’s proposal ofmarriage, and to have their wed-ding on Dec. 23, 1914, the 39th wed-ding anniversary of her parents:

“How did I make up my mind?I went to bed and went to sleep(got the letter on the way to thesewing club and didn’t get backuntil night). Then early the nextmorning, I thought it over and de-cided that after all it was the mostsensible thing, for people claim aholiday for yuletide anyway.

“There’s no good reason why Ishouldn’t do as I most want to.Why not do as my feelingsprompt me? Not the least like

taking medicine, I don’t believeit is any bad dose at all.”

As the couple’s wedding dayapproaches, Moorhead writesthat she hopes for good weatherfor their nuptials, but that otherthings are more important.

“For myself, I feel that I al-ready have so much that I can askfor no more — be the weatherwhat it may,” she writes. “I amhoping for the happiest day inour lives, yet I’m sure there willbe better to come. I, too, hope thatwe may help each other keep theGiver of all Good in mind.”

As Watson writes about hislove for the woman from Georgia,he also talks about making surethat their home in Anderson isready for her. He tells her that herletters are “enough to make any-one glad they are living.”

He tells Moorhead not to wor-ry about the strength of thebond they have.

“Just always feel that we weremade for each other,” he says. “Aglorious thought to me, and I as-sume (to) you.”

Then, on Dec. 17, 1914, Watsonwrites what he calls his “last let-ter as a single man,” and says hecan’t wait to be married.

Watson’s and Moorhead’s

most intimate thoughts to eachother remain legible on yel-lowed pages, tucked away in thesame envelopes that held theirwritings 100 years ago.

Gaps in a family genealogyJane Watson Morris has spent

years tracing her AndersonCounty roots.

She has large, thick bindersfull of the letters that passedback and forth between hergrandparents, Beulah Moorheadand Fritz Watson Sr.

She found the letters in thehouse that her family called “TipTop,” which used to stand nearwhere Walmart is now on LibertyHighway. Eventually, all of the Wat-sons that had lived in Tip Topmoved to different homes and leftit empty. By the 1960s, what was leftof the home burned to the ground.

Over the years, Morris has readand re-read all the letters she hadthat her grandparents wrote toeach other while they were court-ing before they were married. Shehas made copies of the letters forall of the couple’s grandchildren.

Morris knew there were somegaps in the correspondence thatshe had, but figured the missingletters that her grandparentswrote were long gone.

Solving a mysteryMichelle Scott was reading the

Independent Mail two weeks agowhen came across an obituarywith a name she immediately rec-ognized. The obituary was that ofFritz N. Watson of Anderson.

“As I read it, I realized that it wasfor Fritz N. Watson Jr.,” Scott said.“When I got to the part that said hewas the son of Fritz Watson Sr. andBeulah Moorhead, my mouthdropped open. I had an answer thatI had looked for my whole life.”

Scott called the funeral homementioned in the obituary. Soon,plans were made to get the letters

back to the family that traces itsroots to an Anderson farmer anda Georgia schoolteacher.

The giftThe Watsons and the Scotts met

recently in Anderson to exchangethe letters, and to talk about them.

Michelle Scott’s father, Mick-ey, apologized to the Watsons fortaking the letters from the emp-ty house the family called TipTop. No one lived there in the1960s when Mickey Scott, just ayoung man, went inside withone of his relatives. He asked forthe Watsons’ forgiveness.

“We thought it was a hauntedhouse,” Scott said. “I saw the let-ters scattered all over the floorin an upstairs room, and I decid-ed to take them because theyhad penny and two-cent stampson them. The house was aban-doned. I never, never for one sec-ond, meant any harm.”

Neil Watson and Jane Morris,both grandchildren of the cou-ple who wrote the letters, imme-diately told Scott that no apolo-gy was necessary.

“We are just so grateful tohave them,” Watson said. “Ifyou hadn’t taken them that day,they would have been lost in thefire. We never would have hadthe pieces we were missing.”

Morris nodded.“We don’t need to give you for-

giveness; there is nothing to for-give,” Morris said. “What we needto give you is our thanks. Youhave given us an incredible gift.”

As the families began to talkabout going their separate ways,the Watsons made plans to copy thefound letters and pass them aroundto the rest of their relatives.

“Can I get copies of the let-ters, too?” Michelle Scott asked.

“I’ve had these people withme my whole life,” she said. “I’mnot sure I’d know what to dowithout them.”

a4/local Monday/10.3.11/www.independentmail.com

A lovenot lost

NATHAN GRAY Independent Mail

Neil Watson looks at letters written by his grandparents Beulah Moorhead and Fritz Watson after they were returned to the Watson family by Michelle Scott, who had them in her possession for several years.

Beulah Moorhead Fritz Watson

LIFEST YLE FEATURE WRITINGLIFEST YLE FEATURE WRITINGDaily Over 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEThe State

Dawn HinshawA garden for all seasons


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe Greenville NewsMike FoleyBasketball tourney for the deaf is a game apart


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe StateDawn HinshawSerious Downsizing

Christine Johnson has been dolingout the artwork she owns, askingfriends to hang favorite pieces in theirhomes so she can visit them.

Paintings are the one thing she has atough time doing without.

This summer, Johnson, 42, is down-sizing from a loft apartment in down-town Columbia to a 350-square-footpontoon boat she has restored on Lake

Murray. She can’t bring herself to sell her

artwork. Everything else is expendable.

MY BOAT | LIFE ON A PONTOON

Christine Johnson is renovating a pontoon boat that she plans to live on at a dock in Lake Murray. For majorrepairs like a new roof, Johnson hired a contractor, but she is doing most of the other work herself.

TRACY GLANTZ/[email protected]

SERIOUS DOWNSIZING By DAWN HINSHAW [email protected]

SEE BOAT PAGE A6

NEWS FEATURE WRITINGNEWS FEATURE WRITINGDaily Under 20,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEBluff ton Today, Richard BrooksFarmers Helping Farmers


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe ItemJoe PerryMan Robs Barber After Getting Hair Cut


FIRST PLACEFIRST PLACEThe Beaufort GazettePatrick DonohueMaybe I Could Have Helped

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NEWS FEATURE WRITINGNEWS FEATURE WRITINGDaily 20,000 - 50,000 Division

THIRD PLACETHIRD PLACEIndependent MailNikie MayoUnsolved, but not Forgotten

local/11aSunday/5.1.11/www.independentmail.com

for 15 years before he died.It is not clear what

caused Kirby’s break fromthe rest of the world,though those who knewhim said he battled alco-holism and a diagnosedmental illness, possiblybipolar affective disorder.

Kirby’s family declinedto be interviewed for thisstory and gave investiga-tors few details about hisearly life.

The deputy coroner saidKirby’s brother told him hehad tried to help him sev-eral times, even offeringhim jobs. He would workfor a while, but always end-ed up retreating from therest of the world.

In Anderson, Kirby spentsome time at the AprilHouse on East FranklinStreet, a halfway house forthose trying to recoverfrom drug and alcohol ad-dictions. The address of thehouse is on his driver’s li-cense.

Kirby’s former room-mates at the April Housetold the Independent Maillast year that they thoughtthat drinking might killhim, but never expectedthat another person would.

McCown said that whenhe contracted Kirby’sbrother, the man said thathe had expected a call abouthis death, and that part ofhim believed that Kirbywas already dead long be-fore the call came.

Then Kirby’s brothersimply asked what the au-thorities needed him to do.

Kirby’s family paid forhim to be cremated.

The crime sceneElements of the crime

and the crime scene makeMcCown believe Kirby’sdeath was the result ofsome kind of personal ragerather than robbery orsome random act.

Kirby’s wallet, thoughempty, was still in his jeans.He had about a dozen bot-tles of pills and some doc-tor’s notes in a canvas bagthat he kept with him. Theywere apparently un-touched.

His watch, a fairly plainone with a black band, wasstill on his wrist.

“It’s not unusual that ahomeless man wouldn’thave any money, so an emp-ty wallet doesn’t make mesay, ‘Oh, he was robbed,’”McCown said. “I think arobber would have takenthose pills.”

McCown said he foundno signs of struggle at Kir-by’s campsite.

“I don’t know if thatmeans he wasn’t able tofight back much, or if itmeans he was beaten at an-other place and managed to

make it back to where helived,” McCown said.“Maybe somebody saw himstaggering into the woods.That’s such a heavily trav-eled highway that I believesomebody is bound to haveseen something.”

Kirby had what McCowncalled “defensive wounds”on his fingers. But his abil-ity to defend himself mayhave been limited, thedeputy coroner said, be-cause Kirby was drunkwhen he died.

Empty whiskey bottlesand beer cans littered hiscampsite.

For all the unknownsthat surround Kirby’sdeath, one thing is clear: Hewas severely beaten.

Both of his eyes wereblackened, his teeth andnose were broken, and a

trail of bruises marked hisback. What killed him,though, the deputy coronersaid, was a gaping headwound. Flies laid their eggsin that wound, in the hoursafter what McCown called“a slow, slow death.”

A problem to solveCases like Kirby’s are

challenging for even thebest and most experiencedinvestigators. DetectiveGebing’s colleagues de-scribe him as both.

Gebing spent severalyears in the Army, a mem-ber of the Military Police,before coming to South Car-olina. His close haircut isa hint at his military roots,as is what his colleagueChad McBride describes asa “thorough attention to de-tail.”

Gebing has worked at theAnderson County Sheriff ’sOffice for a decade, the lastfour years as a homicide de-tective.

When it comes to puttingtogether a complete pictureof a man’s last days, it ismuch more difficult whenthat person has essential-ly taken himself out of so-ciety’s mainstream, Gebingsaid.

“He had limited con-tacts,” Gebing said. “Andthose contacts, in many cas-es, are likely to be peoplewho have struggled withsome of the same things hehas struggled with. Theykeep to themselves, too.They aren’t rushing out tooffer information, even ifthey know something, be-cause they are of the mind-set to protect themselves,

too. Even the man whofound Mr. Kirby went backto his own campsite for afew minutes to think beforehe reported what he hadseen. He was scared forhimself.”

Gebing keeps in a folderthe sketches of two menwho authorities said a yearago were wanted for ques-tioning in Kirby’s case.

Authorities believe thatthey have identified and spo-ken to one of them,a man inhis 50s whom they describeas “very cooperative.” Theyare still looking for the oth-er man. They describe himas a man in his 30s who isabout 5 feet 8 inches tall witha slender build and sandyblond hair.He may go by thename Bruce.

Authorities believe thatthe man they are lookingfor, along with a few othermen, may have sat aroundKirby’s campfire drinkingwith him a few days beforehe died.

The last known publicrecord that Kirby was alivecomes from April 26, 2010,when a deputy asked him toleave Walmart. Authoritiessay there is also some indi-cation that Kirby and an-other man got into a dis-agreement at the storewhen they both wanted to

panhandle in the samespot, but they don’t believethat confrontation got vio-lent.

Piecing together the puzzle

Detective Gebing saidthe authorities continue tosearch for a suspect.

In the weeks before hedied, Kirby lived with aroommate in a trailer insouthern Anderson Coun-ty. But the men were bothevicted in early April 2010after they didn’t pay therent.

Records indicate that theroommates’ relationshipwas turbulent.

In August 2009, less thana year before he died, Kir-by filled in the details of anassault-and-battery com-plaint against the man.

A deputy’s report says hewent to AnMed HealthMedical Center and pho-tographed bruises on Kir-by.

Kirby told the deputythat he and his roommatehad been drinking at theirhome and that his room-mate “got upset for (an) un-known reason and startedstriking Mark with a closedfist…”

The deputy gave Kirby avictim’s form but then Kir-by withdrew his complaint.

Investigator Gebingquestioned the man afterKirby’s death. The man hasan alibi for the time of Kir-by’s death that Gebing saidhe has no reason not to be-lieve.

Still, Gebing is confidentthat someday he will beable to piece together thepuzzle that surrounds Kir-by’s death.

Someone will slip up.Someone will talk a littletoo much, brag a little toomuch, drink a little toomuch and hand out a clue.And Gebing will be waitingto seize it.

Or maybe, he says, some-one who knows what hap-pened will have thecourage to tell him.

“In the meantime, whatbothers me the most,” hesaid, “is that someone outthere is getting away withmurder.”

Kirby’s death haunts thedeputy coroner, who stillpores over Kirby’s file hop-ing he will think of somenew question to ask, somenew lead to follow. Everytime he sees homeless peo-ple that he doesn’t alreadyknow, McCown asks themif they ever knew MarkKirby.

“The bottom line is that,whatever faults he had, hewas still a human being,”McCown said. “What sepa-rates us from the animalsis that we seek justice forpeople who deserve it. AndMr. Kirby deserves justice.”

Surrounded by mysteryNot much known about Mark Kirby, or who might have killed himFROM PAGE 10A

Sketches of two men who could possibly help provide more information aboutthe beating death of Mark Kirby.

Detective Rob Gebing of the Anderson County Sheriff ’s Office looks through a file of information about thedeath of Mark Kirby. Kirby, a homeless man, was severely beaten before he was found dead in a wooded areanear the intersection of S.C. 28 Bypass and New Pond Road in Anderson.

MOREONLINEMMOORREEOONNLLIINNEE

More photos and video of Detective Rob Gebingtalking about the case at www.independentmail.com.


mayon@/ 622.1708

Mark Napier Kirby’s lifewas a mystery. And for thepast year, authorities havebeen trying to unravel themystery of who beat him todeath.

A homeless man whosought refuge in the woodsnear a Walmart in Ander-son, Kirby was separatedfrom the rest of the worldby his choices, his ailmentsand his addictions. He livedwith whiskey close at hand,and he died with trackmarks on his arm.

His campsite was lessthan a quarter-mile fromthe intersection of S.C. 28Bypass and New PondRoad. It’s a steep hike to theplace where his clothesline,made of a black nylon cord,is still stretched betweentwo trees.

It was at this campsitethat another homeless manfound Kirby on April 30,2010, beaten by someonewho held him down, pum-meled his eyes black, brokehis teeth and nose and lefthim with the gaping headwound that killed him.

His killer has not beencaught.

Kirby’s death is a casethat has gone ice cold.There were few leads to be-gin with, and now, authori-ties say, there are none. Butinvestigators are deter-mined to find out who killedhim, and why.

Here is what is knownabout Mark Kirby:

He was raised in an up-per middle-class familynear Columbia, but losttouch with all of his rela-tives more than a decadeago. He spent at least thelast two years of his life inAnderson County, where hewas evicted from a trailera little more than a year agofor falling behind on therent. He and his roommatehad a tumultuous relation-ship; deputies came to thehospital at least once aftera dispute at their home leftKirby with bruises.

Kirby lived for a while ina halfway house in Ander-son, but left because hewanted a stiff drink morethan he wanted a roof overhis head.

He eventually set upcamp in the woods nearWalmart. And he was beat-en to death before his bodywas found on April 30, 2010.He was 45.

Countless shoppers mayhave seen Kirby panhan-dling at Walmart, investi-gators said, or walkingalong S.C. 28 Bypass or NewPond Road. In the monthsbefore he was killed, Kirbywas cited for begging, va-grancy and public drunk-enness, but he always made

it back to his camp. An An-derson County deputy oncebought him a tent.

What investigators don’tknow is what caused Kirby,

an educated man who onceheld a steady job, to leavehis family behind and ulti-mately seek shelter in anacre of Anderson woods.

Authorities are offeringa reward for informationthat leads to the arrest ofthe person responsible forKirby’s death.

Recently, just before thefirst anniversary of hisdeath, sheriff ’s investiga-tors and the county’sdeputy coroner reviewedthe evidence in yet anoth-er attempt to find a clue asto who killed him.

‘Someone who knewhe was there’

Kirby set up camp less

than a quarter-mile off thehighway at the intersectionof S.C. 28 Bypass and NewPond Road. It’s not a placethat anyone would stumbleupon. Back in the woodsand under a canopy oftrees, Kirby slept sur-rounded by poison oak,caterpillars and inch-worms. This hidden part ofAnderson County ismarked by foot-worn pathsthat lead to the highway.

Remnants of yellowcrime-scene tape are stilltied to a couple of trees.Pieces of an egg-crate mat-tress several yards awayfrom Kirby’s camp are evi-dence that other people usethese woods. But Kirby’scampsite wasn’t really nearanyone else’s. He soughtrefuge within refuge.

“You don’t just land here,”said investigator RobGebing,a homicide detectivefor the Anderson CountySheriff ’s Office.“We believeit is likely that whoever didthis to Mr. Kirby is someonewho knew he was there.”

Deputy Coroner Don Mc-Cown’s notes indicate thatKirby had likely been deadonly a day or two when hisbody was found last April.

The homeless man whofound Kirby’s body washeading to or from his owncampsite.

“It is cruel and ironic,”McCown said. “It seems likeMr. Kirby saw the woods ashis safety net away from therest of the world. And yet, itwas the very place he wasnot safe.”

Who was Mark Kirby? Kirby came from an up-

per middle-class familynear Columbia. He attend-ed college and for a whileheld a steady job as a socialworker.

Before his death lastApril, anyone who passedhim on the street on one ofhis good days might havethought he was a construc-tion worker, that he was aman able to swing a hammerfor a living. His dark brownhair was neatly trimmedand his hazel eyes werepiercing. When he died, hewas wearing a gray T-shirt,jeans and a belt, and NewBalance sneakers.At 5 feet 9inches and 180 pounds, hewasn’t the gaunt figure oftenassociated with homeless-ness and addiction. DeputyCoroner Don McCown,whohelped handle the crimescene,remarked in his notesthat Kirby was “wellgroomed.”

Aside from those basicdetails, much of his life re-mains a mystery.

The people who could fillin some of the gaps — Kir-by’s family members — hadbeen estranged from him

a10/local Sunday/5.1.11/www.independentmail.com

Unsolved, but not forgottenInvestigators still seeking answers in beating death of homeless man

KEN RUINARD Independent Mail photos

Detective Rob Gebing of the Anderson County Sheriff ’s Office continues to investigate the death of Mark Kirby, 45, which happened one year ago.

Chad McBride of the Anderson County Sheriff ’s Office said some details could notbe revealed to keep the investigation of Kirby’s death from being compromised.

“It seems like Mr.Kirby saw thewoods as his safetynet away from therest of the world.And yet, it was thevery place he wasnot safe.”

Deputy Coroner Don McCown

Continued


SECOND PLACESECOND PLACEThe Sun NewsBrad DickersonMailman Changes with the Times with people made him feel like a

part of the family.If he delivered for one partic-

ular family long enough, he sawthe kids grow up. As the manwho brought them their mail,he also knew which collegeswere interested, or when some-one’s birthday was coming up.

However, the nation’s capitalhad what the Grand Strandd o e s n ’ t – b o n e - c h i l l i n gtemperatures.

“If you’re going to carry mailfor a living, do it somewherewhere the weather’s nice,”Grammen said. “It’s tough todeliver in the snow.”

He packed it up for warmertemperatures, and traded hiswalking shoes for a set of keys.

Like many postal carriers, avan is Grammen’s primary de-livery method, with the excep-tion being a walk through theRainbow Harbor complex near50th Avenue North and KingsHighway.

Grammen remembers a timewhen most mail carriers didwalk their routes. He said themost stops a person could makein a shift was 350 to 400. Withthe trucks, he said, officials dis-covered they could more thandouble that, jumping from 800to 900 stops.

Assuming the Myrtle BeachPost Office near Kings Highwayand Fifth Avenue North hit that900 stops, then its 18 city andtwo rural routes would make18,000 individual deliveries ev-ery day. Grammen himself esti-mates he handles 2,000 piecesof mail daily.

But did moving from foot tovan kill that personal attention?If watching Grammen in action

is any indication, not a chance.On one of the side streets off

Ocean Boulevard, he spends afew moments talking to a gen-tleman who was out pruning atree. At a wedding boutique inRainbow Harbor, the ladies in-side show him the sonogramphotos of a colleague’s unbornchild.

And after dropping off theday’s mail at a hotel near 27th

Avenue North, one of the em-ployees – knowing Grammen isa fan of classic rock – gave himtwo burned CDs of music fromBob Seger and the Steve MillerBand.

As he says, everyone lovesthe mailman.

And Grammen genuinelyseems to love his job. If hecomes across someone on thestreets, he says hello and tellsthem it’s a beautiful day for awalk.

The temperature inside thepostal van can top 120 degreesin the summer, but Grammen isfortunate that he gets to see theocean every day on his route --as well as the throngs of tour-ists who frequent the area eachyear.

Most important, he loves thatthe job helped him raise threechildren and give him a home.

“It’s a good job, and you stillhave time for your family,”Grammen said.

Concerns of manyPostal workers across the

country are worried aboutwhether they’ll still have a jobdown the road.

On Tuesday, members of theUSPS’ four employee unionsgathered in congressional dis-tricts across the country as partof a Save America’s Postal Serv-ice rally.

According to the rally web-

site, the majority of the PostalService’s problems stem from a2006 congressional measurerequiring it to pre-pay employ-ee health benefits at the begin-ning of each year to the tune of$5.5 billion. This would help tofulfill a 75-year requirement injust 10 years.

“We’re $5.5 billion in the holebefore we even sell a letter,”Grammen said.

Harry Spratlin, communica-tions coordinator for the Great-er South Carolina Postal Dis-trict, said this measure is alarge reason the USPS has ex-perienced an $8 billion-plus peryear financial shortfall over thepast five years.

Over the past four years, thePostal Service has reduced itswork force by 110,000 throughattrition only, and not layoffs,according to Spratlin.

He added that a study start-ed in July is looking at 3,700post offices for possible closure.Twenty-eight of those are inSouth Carolina, but none inHorry or Georgetown counties,Spratlin said.

This study should be com-plete in early 2012, and includescustomer surveys and a publicmeeting, Spratlin said. Thebulk of these are small, one-per-son operations that bring inaround $10,000 a year, whileoverhead costs are at least fivetimes that amount.

“What must happen, be-cause of the Internet primarily,is the whole system has toshrink,” Spratlin said.

He added that 5 percent ofAmericans paid their bills on-line in 2000, while 60 percent dotoday. In the past five years,mail volume has decreased by43 billion pieces.

Special deliveryGrammen himself has no-

ticed that first-class mail hasdropped off in the last fewyears, but package delivery haspicked up because of a priorityflat rate.

Winter residents often havelarge packages delivered thathave 20 pounds worth of mate-rial inside, he said. Much of thatweight comes from personalmedications.

“This truck is just one bigpharmaceutical company in thewinter,” Grammen said.

And while the Postal Servicecontinues to fix its problems,Grammen is going to continueensuring his customers gettheir mail on time, while alwaystaking a moment to check outthe ocean.

“I got a pretty good route,” hesaid.

The Washington Bureaucontributed to this report.

➤ Contact BRAD DICKERSON at626-0301.

MAILFrom Page 1A

BY STEVE JESSMORE [email protected]

Myrtle Beach postal worker Tom Grammen loads boxesinto his vehicle at the Fifth Avenue North post officeWednesday as he prepares to deliver mail on his routein Myrtle Beach.

Tom Grammen calls his postal route the“million dollar mile,” a stretch that incor-porates his own personal three B’s: boule-vard, beach and bikinis.

The Myrtle Beach postal carrier hasworked the north end of Ocean Boulevardfor the past four years. It’s such a sought-after beat that new guys put bids on hisroute when Grammen’s on vacation.

He’s been a postal carrier for 26 years –15 of those in Myrtle Beach – and seniorityhas its perks when it comes to getting thegolden delivery routes.

“You bid on a route and whoever has se-niority gets it,” Grammen said. “I guessthat’s one good thing that comes with age.”

The news is not so good for the U.S. Post-al Service as a whole, which is on the eve ofhaving used up its cash reserves, reachingits government-mandated borrowing limitof $15 billion and being unable to make arequired $5.5 billion payment to its retireehealth program. President Obama has pro-posed bailing out the mail service, urging

that it be allowed to cut mail delivery to fivedays a week and raise the price of postage.

That could mean 120,000 postal workerscould lose their jobs and thousands of postoffices close their doors, including some inSouth Carolina.

Grammen, however, isn’t singing gloomand doom for his employer. As someonewho’s been in the industry long enough tosee changes firsthand, he definitely thinksthe USPS will undergo a face-lift. Still, themail will continue being delivered.

“It’s a piece of Americana, one of the lastfew pieces,” Grammen said.

From foot to vanWhen Grammen started as a postal car-

rier at 21, he was on foot in Washington,D.C. Having those personal connections

MAIL ‘A PIECE OF AMERICANA’

PHOTOS BY STEVE JESSMORE [email protected]

Myrtle Beach postal worker Tom Grammen loads his vehicle Wednesday as he prepares to deliver mail on his routein Myrtle Beach near 21st Avenue North. .

Mailman changeswith the times

Postman Tom Grammen stops histruck and exits to deliver mail to amailbox. Very little of his route iswalking, Grammen says as hedelivers mail on his route in MyrtleBeach.

Employee says USPS will persevereMORE ONLINE

Would you be upset if you didn’t get your mail

on Saturday? Take a poll online and view more

photos at TheSunNews.com .

See MAIL | Page 8A

BY BRAD DICKERSON

[email protected]


The Sun NewsIsaac Bailey and Tonya RootHelms Opens Up About Past, Future

BEST OF THE BESTBEST OF THE BEST

The school year had just be-gun last September when a5-foot, 90-pound ninth-graderarrived for class at SocasteeHigh School, with a handgunand a backpack carrying twohomemade bombs.

What happened next willforever link two families whosefates were changed by theflight path of a single bullet.

Christian Helms, then 14,entered the office of School Re-source Officer Erik Karneyand aimed the handgun at him,a Brazilian-made, INA Tiger

public as a police officer inCharlotte, N.C.

The gun went off as Karneyjumped across his desk to dis-arm the student, who he’d lat-er learn had compiled a hit listand mapped out a plan to killmultiple people at the schoolthat day beginning with Kar-ney in an attack designed toemulate the carnage sufferedin 1999 at Columbine HighSchool in Colorado.

In an exclusive interview

JANET BLACKMON MORGAN [email protected]

Socastee High School resource officer Erik Karney (left) and Jamie Helms talk andexchange a handshake after Christian Helms was sentenced at the Horry CountyCourthouse on Wednesday.

Helms opens upabout past, future

Teen sentenced in shooting says ‘real’Christian is different, caring person

Christian Helms stands tospeak for himself in his

BY ISSAC J. BAILEY AND

TONYA ROOT

[email protected]@thesunnews.com

MORE ONLINEFor more photos and videos of this

week’s sentencing hearing and to

read pages from Helms’ journal,

go to at TheSunNews.com .

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