Coping with loss

Ninety Six Elementary students, teachers remember Robin Strom

January 11, 2005

By WALLACE McBRIDE
Index-Journal senior staff writers

NINETY SIX — Fort Bradley was built in a day, the invention of two children shaken by the loss of a friend.
Their four hands were once six and used to move with less care and deliberation. It wasn’t the first fort the boys had built, but this structure was designed to protect from a different kind of enemy — Friday night a plane fell from the sky, taking with it their friend and his family.
Lisa McCutcheon said the fort was how her son Hayden and his friend Nat Henderson coped with the loss of Bradley Strom and his family. It was a close-knit group, and all were the sons of teachers.
When the fort was finished Saturday, it only lacked a name, McCutcheon said.
“They got it all fixed up and said ‘Every good fort’s got to have a name,’” she said. “So they named it Fort Bradley.”
The plane crash claimed the life of Ninety Six Elementary School teacher Robin Strom, 44, as well as husband James, 45, and children Brittney, 15, and Bradley, 11.
A preliminary report filed Monday on the Federal Aviation Administration Web site states that the aircraft “crashed under unknown circumstances.” When classes resumed, students and teachers were looking for answers of their own.
“For a lot of our students, the first time they faced it was this morning,” Donna Gunderson, a math coach at Ninety Six Elementary, said Monday afternoon. “This is the first time they’ve seen their friends since it happened.”
“I had several little girls who were just very upset,” fourth-grade teacher Carol Henderson said. “Mine were comforting each other — it seemed to help that they could talk to one another.”
Teachers and students gathered together in the cafeteria before classes began. Counselors and ministers were available at the district’s schools to help students sort through their worries.
“There was a parent standing there watching her daughter, and she had been crying,” Gunderson said. “The little girl had told her she wanted to go to school today — mom said let’s try it and if not, I’ll take you home. I reached over and told her mother she’s better off here. This is where she needs to be, because of the support she’s getting from her friends.”
“It’s hard to explain to teenagers when they lose one of their own,” said Mike Doolittle, athletic director of Ninety Six High, where Brittney was a junior, a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a cross country and soccer athlete, and a cheerleader. She also was a gymnast and a member of her church softball team.
“It makes it kind of tough when these kids have gone to school with each other forever,” Doolittle said. “I think they spend more time consoling with each other, which is probably best.”
“We started off the day together,” Gunderson said. “They were sitting with their classmates, sitting with their friends and they could see other people being upset …”
“… and see that it was OK to cry, it was OK to be upset and be confused, but that we were all going to be together,” Sampson said. “That really set the mood for the whole day.”
Students left tokens of their affection in Robin Strom’s classroom. By the day’s end, her marker board had been filled with notes from her students, and rolls of paper had been left on tabletops to create space for more hand-written comments.
“They weren’t prepared to say goodbye,” said The Rev. Steven Crittendon of Siloam Baptist Church, who counseled students Monday at the elementary school. “But I think things are going well. The Ninety Six community is a special place — all day today I watched it up close. It’s been incredible to see the outpouring of love and support. The children are being very open and honest about their hurt, and we’re being very open about our hurt, too.”
“I was fortunate to spend time with Robin and her son Bradley last week,” said U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett. “They traveled to D.C. with Ninety Six Elementary School’s honors chorus to participate in a prayer breakfast I held in honor of Sen. (Jim) DeMint and Rep. (Bob) Inglis. Watching Robin interact with her students last week reminded me how dedicated and passionate she was about teaching. She was an inspiration to all her knew her.”
Crittendon talked to students during the morning gathering, and explained their teacher’s loss in terms of her other many trips.
“He said ‘Mrs. Strom was a leader, and she was always going on trips and journeys, and she has gone on to a new journey,’” Gunderson said. “For me, if really gave me some peace — she’s on another journey with her family.”
“We had a special, unique friendship,” said Mattie Dillard, a third-grade teacher who is retiring this year after 36 years of teaching. “The kids at Ninety Six are better for having her as a teacher. She was always pulling for the best out of all of her students.”
The mood was equally distraught in the family’s home of McCormick, said Norma Curtis, a McCormick County resident and longtime family friend. James Strom worked at the McCormick post office and was a businessman; Robin Strom was chairwoman of the county’s Republican Party and formerly a member of McCormick County Council.
“People cannot believe this has happened,” she said. “You just don’t think of something like this happening to a whole family at the same time – it’s unbelievable. The community is never going to get over this loss. We have to move on and continue, but it will be difficult because they touched so many lives in different ways.”
Curtis said she learned of the crash Friday evening after returning from a meeting in Columbia. On her way home she drove by the crash site on U.S. 221.
“When we got to (the town of) Bradley, we began to see lights and emergency vehicles, but we didn’t stop. We didn’t know what had happened,” she said, adding that she had just spoken with James over the telephone on Thursday. “One of the last things I said to him was to be careful, and he said he would take it easy. He was always careful in checking out the plane before flying.” The family’s funeral takes place today at 2 p.m. at McCormick First Baptist Church, with burial following in Overbrook Cemetery.
Friday’s event was the second plane crash in Greenwood County in less than 10 months to result in multiple fatalities. A crash in April near the Wellington Green subdivision claimed the lives of four men, and remains under investigation.

Staff writer Megan Varner contributed to this story.

Local family enjoys experience with Falcons

January 11, 2005

By MICHAEL STONE
Index-Journal sports editor

Most football fans never get close to their favorite players, or any players for that matter. Sitting in the cheap seats, perched at home on the couch or in a watering hole on a stool are where most of us enjoy the game.
But one Greenwood family not only got to be on the field with some of its favorite players, but also got to travel with them.
Last month, the Saul family — husband Robert, wife Jan and son Ben — traveled on the team charter with the Atlanta Falcons to a game in Tampa Bay.
The Sauls stayed at the same hotel as the Falcons’ players and staff, ate at the same restaurant with the staff, rode the same buses as the players to Raymond James Stadium, were on the field before the game and came back home with the team.
Ben even had his picture taken with wide receiver Brian Finneran — who was injured and couldn’t play against the Buccaneers — and was able to meet defensive back Cory Hall on the flight back to Atlanta.
“It was unbelievable,” Ben said. “Pregame, being on the field was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
The Sauls have been Falcons season-ticket holders for three years — in what Ben calls “sky heaven” — and have made several visits to the team’s training camp at Furman University.
When Robert began searching for a combination birthday-Christmas present for Ben, he came upon the Falcons’ Fly-a-Way program.
For two road games during the season, a limited number of season-ticker holders are allowed to travel with the team and get an inside look at the Falcons. But the first game was in September against San Francisco and the family was unable to go, so Robert signed up for the game against Tampa Bay on Dec. 5.
The Saturday before the game the Sauls, four other Fly-A-Way guests and the Falcons staff met at the Atlanta airport, and boarded the team charter for Tampa.
The Sauls sat in the middle of the plane – the coaching staff gets the first-class seats – and got to watch the players board.
After the hour flight, the Sauls rode with the Atlanta staff, one of four buses for the Falcons, to the team’s hotel in Tampa.
The Sauls ate dinner with the Falcons staff Saturday evening while the players stayed at the hotel to go over final preparations for Sunday’s game.
The family had its picture taken with owner Arthur Blank on Saturday and had breakfast with general manager Rich McKay on Sunday before heading to the stadium for the game.
The Sauls went over with the staff about an hour before the game, and for 30 minutes were allowed on the field to watch the Falcons and Buccaneers warm up.
“I think being on the field during pregame was the highlight for Ben,” Robert said. “We were only 10-to-15 yards away from the players.
“We’ve been to training camp several times, and even there you are far away.”
While on the field, Ben was able to get his picture taken with Finneran before the family was shown to its seats.
The trip was better than the game, especially for Falcons fans. Tampa scored in every quarter, Atlanta turned the ball over five times and lost, 27-0.
There is a pirate ship at one end of Raymond James Stadium, with cannons that fire every time the Bucs get into the Red Zone and after every Bucs touchdown.
“We heard those cannons a lot,” Ben said.
After the game, the Sauls, the players and Falcons’ staff were bused back to the airport for their charter flight home.
The Sauls will get to see at least one more game in the Georgia Dome this season, up in “sky heaven,” when the Falcons take on the Rams in the second round of the NFC playoffs.
But no matter what happens Saturday, or for how long the Sauls keep their season tickets, the one game the family will always remember wasn’t in Atlanta.

Michael Stone is the sports editor of The Index-Journal. He can be reached at: mstone@indexjournal.com

Obituaries

Dorothy Jones

Dorothy Bone Jones, 71, of 3198 Grange Road, widow of William Hughey Jones, died Monday, Jan. 10, 2005 at Self Regional Medical Center.
Born in Greenwood County, she was a daughter of the late Jack and Irene Waters Bone. She was a homemaker and was of the Baptist Faith.
Survivors include two sons, Sam Olin Jones and Hughey Daniel Jones, both of Greenwood and four grandchildren.
Graveside services are 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Greenwood Memorial Gardens, conducted by the Rev. Frank Thomas.
Visitation is 10-11 Wednesday at Blyth Funeral Home.
The family is at the home.
Memorials may be made to the American Red Cross, 1346 Bypass 72 NE, Greenwood, SC 29649.
Blyth Funeral Home is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at blythfuneralhome.com

Wayne McKinney

Wayne Ellis McKinney Sr., 62, of 114 Fincannon Road, husband of Samantha Kerr McKinney, died Sunday, Jan. 9, 2005 at his home.
Born in Greenwood County, he was a son of J.B. and Louise Fox McKinney. He was employed by Greenwood County Maintenance Shop as shop foreman and ambulance technician and was a member of First Freewill Baptist Church. He was twice married, first to the late Pearl Richardson McKinney.
Survivors include his wife of the home; his mother of Greenwood; his father and stepmother, Marjorie M. McKinney of Greenwood; four sons, James L. McKinney of Little Rock, Ark., Wayne McKinney Jr. and Shean McKinney, both of Greenwood and Robbie Coker of Donalds; four daughters, Annette Holmes of Hodges, Melissa McFarland and Terri Lynn Banks, both of Greenwood and Roxanne Crooms of Waterloo; 17 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Services are 3 p.m. today at Blyth Funeral Home, conducted by the Rev. Larry McCall. Burial is in Oakbrook Memorial Park.
Pallbearers are Gary Hepler, Mark Shipley, Roy Hazlett, Richard Ates, Robbie Coker and Jeff Griffin.
Honorary escorts are Jimmy Brown, Mike Weeks, Raymond White and Steve Canfield.
Visitation is 2-3 today at the funeral home.
The family is at the home and at the home of Shean McKinney, 222 Heritage West Court.
Memorials may be made to Hospice Care of the Piedmont, 408 W. Alexander Ave., Greenwood, SC 29646.
Blyth Funeral Home is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at blythfuneralhome.com

J. ‘Ray’ Porterfield

FOUNTAIN INN — James Raymond Porterfield, 75, of 2125 McKelvey Road, husband of Iris Annette Jennings Porterfield, died Saturday, Jan. 8, 2005 at his home.
Born in Ware Shoals, he was a son of the late Charles Harrison Porterfield and Ruth Gennell Gregory Harris. He retired as a millwright in the textile industry and was a member of Judson Masonic Lodge No. 319 and the Hejaz Shrine Club. He was of the Baptist faith.
Survivors include his wife of the home; four sons, James D. Porterfield of Gray Court, Scott Wagoner of Pelzer, Sherrill Wagoner of Kannapolis, N.C., and Robby Wagoner of Alexandria, Va.; two daughters, Terri Sloan of Greer and Carla Trammell of Simpsonville; 10 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Memorial services are 2 p.m. today at Fletcher Funeral Service. Visitation is after the services.
Burial with military honors is 10 a.m. today in Beulah Baptist Church Cemetery, Green Pond.
Fletcher Funeral Service, 1218 N. Main St., is in charge.

Ida Rollinson Tucker

MOUNT CARMEL — Services for Ida M. Rollinson Tucker, of Fort Charlotte Road, are 1 p.m. Wednesday at Spring Grove Baptist Church, Mount Carmel, conducted by the Rev. Roy Andrews. Burial is in the church cemetery.
Viewing is 2-8 today at Abbeville & White Mortuary. Visitation is 7-8 tonight at the mortuary.
The family is at the home.
Abbeville & White Mortuary is in charge.

Opinion

Governor again challenges business-as-usual attitudes

January 11, 2005

There’s no way to know what will be the ultimate fate of Gov. Mark Sanford’s executive budget. More than likely, though, parts of it will be acceptable in the eyes of the legislative beholders and parts won’t.
Still, there is a historical tendency that leans to spending instead of cutting. That means, of course, that taxing is the first thing that comes to mind when something is needed. If the thought ever occurs to analyze existing programs, etc., to determine if they are really necessary it appears to be a rarity.
CHANCES ARE, WITH YEARS and years of tax-and-spend “add ons” instead of “take offs” as the standard operating procedure, it would seem wise to weigh one against the other, to keep what’s needed and eliminate what’s not.
That is exactly what Sanford has done since taking office. Give him credit. It takes courageous advocacy to change the “that’s the way it has always been done” attitudes that are common in bureaucracies all over the world, South Carolina included.
Fortunately, Sanford has shown he is not your stereotypical politician and has repeatedly challenged that business as usual practice. He has been the target of a lot of slings and arrows for his actions. He should, however, be praised for doing what many others have not had the political courage to even attempt.

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