Monthly Archives: January 2013
Ex-mayor Ted Shehan receives ‘Flame’ award
PICKENS — “I’ve lived here all my life and have a true love affair for Pickens and the area,” said Ted Shehan, the 11th winner of the “I Fan The Flame” award. “Pickens has the most special people anywhere—– it’s like family, where everyone knows everyone. I’ve been to all the states and, with the mountains, there is no prettier place to live.”
Shehan has not only lived in Pickens all his life but he has also lived in the same home — one built by his grandfather in 1909. It was on 20 acres at the time and was home to the largest chicken hatchery in the Upstate. He still has farming in his blood running 80 head of Angus cattle on his 200 acre farm just outside of town.
With the Pickens school just down the street, Ted was able to walk to his first 12 years of school. He then attended Greenville Technical College earning an Associate Science degree. Upon graduation, he had job offers in Atlanta and Connecticut but chose to stay in Pickens. After a short time with the Pickens RR Company, Ted went to work for Mayfair Mills in the Pickens Plant where he stayed for 32 years – much of it as the local Personnel Manager. During those years he served on City Council under three different mayors. As a councilman, he is most proud of helping pass the city’s accommodations tax which helped build the Pickens Recreation Center which is still one of the very best of any city in the area. In 1999, he retired when elected as mayor himself – choosing to devote full time to the position.
Easley addresses property cleanups
By Ben Robinson
Special to The Courier
EASLEY — Mayor Larry Bagwell proceeded with Monday night’s Easley City Council meeting cautiously.
The chambers were filled with residents of the community surrounding the Simpson Academy, and Bagwell wanted to make sure the citizens had an opportunity to voice their concerns.
However the group’s planned speaker was not at the meeting, as council prepared for its weekly session reserved for input from the public.
Bagwell moved on, as Jason Wilson, pastor at New Image Outreach in Easley led a prayer. The assembled residents then pledged their allegiance to the U.S. Flag.
Bagwell then moved forward with each member of council being offered the opportunity to give an update concerning the district each represented.
City of Pickens riding 2012 momentum into new year
By Nicole Daughhetee
Courier Staff
PICKENS — The city of Pickens not only flourished throughout 2012, but also organized and constructed a strong foundation for continued growth and revitalization in 2013.
Compared with other Upstate municipalities like Greenville or Anderson, for example, the City of Pickens maintains a smaller population and the quaintness associated with and adored about the preservation of small towns.
While the City of Pickens might be smaller size, it has more than 1.1 million reasons to take pride in 2012: the city earned and received $1.1 million in grant funding last year alone.
City administrator Katherine Brackett credits multiple departments throughout the city for truly working as a team to make the grant funding and ultimate growth a reality.
Technology a metaphor for mankind
LIFE AS I KNOW IT
By Nicole Daughhetee
I have to initiate conversations with my children that my mother never had to navigate when I was growing up and her parents never even dreamed of when she was a little girl. Trite or cliché as it might sound — life really used to be so much simpler than it is today.
For all of the conveniences it offers, technology has opened a veritable Pandora’s Box of potential dangers and portals for nefarious-minded individuals to reach into the lives of those of us trying to live the best way we know how.
Brian gifted the girls with tablets for Christmas. They have been cautioned, ad nauseaum (the only Latin phrase in my repertoire), about taking care of this hand-held, high-tech gadget because of its value, which means not leaving it outside or on the floor; keeping it in a protective case; being mindful of water or other liquids which would drown its inner wizardry and so on. You get the picture.
Here today, here tomorrow
ON THE WAY
by Olivia Fowler
As this is being written, there is a ladybug crawling up the cord connected to the computer. It is just one among many which typically cluster in groups on the chandelier and on the walls and ceiling of our dining room.
We find it somewhat disconcerting to be seated at the table and watch ladybugs drop from the chandelier arms into the spaghetti, especially since they are hard to see in the sauce.
Although it’s no comfort to know these particular ladybugs are not native to our country, it should be noted that native ladybugs do not share some of this import’s bad habits.
The Japanese ladybug, sometimes called the harlequin if you’re in Great Britain, was introduced to our shores 25 years ago to help control aphids on crops.
They’re larger than native ladybugs and come in a variety of colors and a different number of spots.
Unemployment blues
ALL ABOUT BEN
by Ben Robinson
I hate to say it, but this unemployment stuff is really getting old.
Basically, I just do nothing all week, then collect a check. It’s almost like I’ve been promoted to management. Of course, the guys who are managers collect a larger paycheck than I ever did. But in their defense, they do less than I ever did, so I guess somehow that is fair.
The thing that kills me is that somehow there are a few jobs I’ve applied for that I did not get because they say I am over-qualified. How in the world could I be over-qualified for anything? For the past 24 years I have made my living covering local news and sports and writing a humor column each week.
Covering local sports is easy. Your readers want to support the hometown team, so you don’t want to blast anybody with something like “Hometown team stinks up the field Friday night.”
But you want to have the truth in the paper, so you could put, “Hometown team could have smelled better.”
COURIER OBITS 1-16-13
LEEANNE FAIR
LIBERTY — Jimmie Leanne “Ehney” Fair, 45, of 132 Yates Road, died Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013 at her home.
Born in Chapin she was a daughter of Jimmie Lee Ehney and the late Nancy Brown Ehney. She was a member of Marathon Church, and had previously helped with Mid Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League.
Surviving in addition to her father of Columbia, are her husband, William James “Jim” Fair of the home; a daughter, Shamika Monique “Nikki” Vick of Liberty; a son, James Lee Thomas Fair of the home; five sisters, Jenny Lee, Charlene, Hope, Jamie, and Megan; a brother, T.J.; two grandchildren, Ethan and Logan; her father and mother in law, Floyd and Sharlene Fair.
Memorial services were 4 p.m. Sunday at Marathon Church, Powdersville Campus.
In lieu of flowers memorials are requested to Marathon Church Pickens, 315 Roe Road, Greenville SC 29611.
Memorial messages may be sent to the family by visiting www.libertymortuary.com. Liberty Mortuary and Cremation Services is handling arrangements.
A biography of Dr. King
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929 to teacher Alberta King and Baptist Minister Michael Luther King. He graduated high school in 1944 at age 15 and enrolled at Morehouse College, where he earned a B.A. in Sociology in 1948. Following this, King went on to earn a B.D. from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951, and a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955.
In 1953, King married Coretta Scott, a New England Conservatory music student, and they eventually had four children. The son of the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King was ordained in 1947, and in 1954, he became the minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.
King’s legacy as a Civil Rights advocate began in 1955 when he led a boycott of Montgomery’s segregated city bus lines. The following year earned King a major victory and prestige as a civil rights leader when Montgomery buses began to operate on a desegregated basis. As a result of his outspoken criticism of segregation, King’s home was bombed.
Death of an icon
At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a sniper’s bullet. King had been standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., when, without warning, he was shot. The .30-caliber rifle bullet entered King’s right cheek, traveled through his neck, and finally stopped at his shoulder blade. King was immediately taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.
Violence and controversy followed. In outrage of the murder, many blacks took to the streets across the United States in a massive wave of riots. The FBI investigated the crime, but many believed them partially or fully responsible for the assassination. An escaped convict by the name of James Earl Ray was arrested, but many people, including some of Martin Luther King Jr.’s own family, believe he was innocent.
Importance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the timeless values he taught us through his example — the values of courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership. On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love, forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit.
We commemorate Dr. King’s inspiring words, because his voice and his vision filled a great void in our nation, and answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived by its noblest principles. Yet, Dr. King knew that it wasn’t enough just to talk the talk, that he had to walk the walk for his words to be credible. And so we commemorate on this holiday the man of action, who put his life on the line for freedom and justice every day, the man who braved threats and jail and beatings and who ultimately paid the highest price to make democracy a reality for all Americans.
