Don Lollis at Faith Temple in 2020

                                                       Mr. Don Lollis is pictured.

  Mr. Don Lollis serves as a Sunday school teacher and as secretary-treasurer at Faith Temple Church in Taylors, SC. He leads the Golden Age Club and oversees cemetery administration. 

Don, the only boy and third child of his parents, Mr. Babb Lollis and Mrs. Nora Estelle Holder Lollis, grew up in Ware Shoals, SC. Of Don’s three sisters, one died at age five; the only living sister, Ms. Varnell Whitten, resides with her husband in Belton, SC. 

Don’s dad and mother worked at the former Riegal Textile Corporation in Ware Shoals.

Someone said that without Riegal, “the only thing running in Ware Shoals would be the Saluda River.”

 “Riegal had its own manufacturing plant,” Don says. “Cotton came in, and they made yarn, wove it into cloth, and bleached, dyed, and printed it.” 

Sen. Nathaniel Barksdale Dial of Laurens County envisioned damming the Saluda River to power a cotton mill but ran out of funds before completing the power plant. Benjamin D. Riegel bought the project from Dial and founded both the Ware Shoals Manufacturing Company and the town of Ware Shoals in 1902. The power plant construction was completed in 1904 and a textile mill in 1906.  

“Riegal first built a power plant in Ware Shoals in order to operate a textile mill,” Don says, adding that employees depended almost totally on Riegal. “The company later also maintained mill houses, a company store, drug store, soda fountain, shoe store, grocery store, clothes store, furniture store, funeral home, garage, cafe, barber shop, YMCA, theater, teenage canteen, showers, swimming pool, Texaco filling station, Ware Shoals Inn, Riegal baseball stadium, and a basketball court. Basically, we were slaves.” 

Don’s grandmother, Lattie Mae Knight Lollis, was left with four children during the Depression when her husband forsook their marriage. Don’s father was a twin. His twin sneaked off by himself to the river and drowned at age nine. 

“One day, my grandmother prayed so hard for her oldest child, John Wesley Lollis, that she began speaking in tongues,” Don says. “She didn’t know what that was, and she wanted to apologize to the Lord for doing that. But in reading the Bible, she began to realize what happened.” 

She and six ladies visited Mr. Benjamin D. Riegal (who died in 1941), a New Yorker and  owner of Riegal Textiles.  

“He was down here for the summer,” Don says. “They asked for land for a church that is now Ware Shoals Pentecostal-Holiness Church.” 

Ms. Lollis once fainted on her job while working at Riegal because she ate sparingly so that her children could eat better. Her supervisor learned why she fainted and secured a pay advance for her. She died at age 93 in 1963.  

At age 28, Don’s dad married Nora Holder, seven years younger. They attended Main Street Church of God, but something discouraged him and he left church after a year or two of marriage. He backslid and started drinking. Growing up, Don was not taken to church by his parents. He and his sisters sometimes attended their grandma’s church.  

“My dad was pretty bad to drink at home till I was 19,” Don says. “He’d go to the liquor store and get hard liquor.”   

One Sunday morning, Don’s father came into Don’s room.  

“What you doing in my room?” Don asked. 

“I’m looking for a tie,” his dad said. 

Some co-workers at Riegal had been asking Don’s dad to attend church and he decided to go. He was saved at Ware Shoals First Baptist Church. Don’s mother accepted Christ about two years later. Don’s father became a deacon and Sunday school teacher at that church. 

Don quit school during ninth grade and worked as a brick mason’s helper. (He earned a GED at around age 40.) 

He joined and served in the Army National Guard (a Signal Unit, 1960-1964).  

“I went to the mill at 19 or so,” he says. “I worked at Riegal in the finishing department on a tentering machine.”  

A tentering machine stretches cloth that’s been processed on a ‘napper’ machine. A napper lifts or raises fibers to give fabric a soft or suede appearance. Nappers create the fuzzy “nap” on the surface of flannel and other cloth.

“I did that for five and half years,” Don says.

He then worked for Monsanto Company Textiles Division for 10.5 years, processing cones of yarn to be made into rugs or carpet.

At age 25, while at Monsanto, he married Sara Pruitt, of Honea Path, who also worked at Monsanto. She brought with her a daughter, Gail, then 16 years old, from a previous marriage. 

Don left Monsanto because they began “swing shift” (alternating day and night shifts) and hired at Michelin, a tire manufacturer.

“I worked 25 years and 20 days for Michelin,” Don says. 

“We attended Sara’s parents’ country church, Jones Chapel Church of God of Prophecy,” Don continues.  

Sara accepted Christ, and about two years later, after Don watched Christian TV one night, he got on his knees and accepted Christ at around 32 hears old, he says.  

“The church we attended was pretty strong against divorce, so we began attending Main St. Church of God,” Don says. He became a Sunday school teacher and secretary-treasurer of that church for 12 years.  

Don had worked 7-8 years at Michelin when his wife and her friend, Ms. Bessie Worrell, were killed in 1996 in an automobile accident.  

“Sara’s daughter, Gail, was 25-28 years old then,” Don says. “I kept on going to church and serving the Lord.  

At Michelin, Don worked on “curing presses” (1.5 years), then “made tires,” then applied for a job in a department that analyzed Michelin tires by taking them apart. (On Dec. 31, 2020, he will celebrate 17 years of being retired.) 

“Brother Carroll Peterson came to work there about four years after I did,” Don says. “We would talk about the Lord. He and his sisters connected me with Ms. Mary Lou Langley.” 

Don sent his phone number and a photo of himself to the late Mary Lou, who supervised the Winn-Dixie cafeteria. (Bobby and Tim are her sons. Her father had been a Baptist minister.)  

Don and Mary Lou met first in-person at Olive Garden, began dating in March-June 1997, and married on Nov. 29, 1997, four years after her first husband died. Pastor Burrows performed the ceremony.  

Don did not regularly attend Faith Temple until he married Mary Lou. He attended Ms. Connie Bishop’s class for a month or so. She became ill around Feb. 6, 1998, and Don taught the class. He became a deacon 1.5 years after marriage and sang in the choir. Ms. Mary Lou Lollis died on June 8, 2017. 

“I enjoy teaching,” Don says. It’s harder for me to remember things like I used to, but I’ll keep on doing what I’m doing until the Lord comes or I go to the grave. And I’m very devoted to supporting the church in finances and missionaries.

Brother Carroll Peterson, a Faith Temple deacon, says, “Don is a very likable and enjoyable person to know. He gets along well with others and is devoted to doing the Lord’s work. We worked together at Michelin Research for years. He’s like a brother to me. He has helped me in my walk with the Lord and has been someone I can trust in. I’ve been with him through the deaths of his first wife, his sister, his father, and Mary. He doesn’t like recognition, but he’s dedicated to his work at the church and is an inspiration to the church.”  

The Raymond D. Burrows, Faith Temple Church’s pastor, says, “When the wedding of Mr. Lollis and Ms. Mary Lou was taking place, Mr. Lollis’ pastor from the Ware Shoals area said, ‘He is a good man.’ In the 23 years since that memorable day, I came to know the pastor’s remark was an understatement because Mr. Lollis is a great man, on many levels, through the enabling power of Christ.   

“Regarding his virtues, he first loves God and is committed to the work of God and thereby lends his talents and abilities to reaching the world for Christ.    

“Second, he loves his family and shows them full devotion. That love was particularly demonstrated in the care he provided Mrs. Mary Lou as she battled a horrific disease. He tirelessly served that dear lady and provided everything humanly possible for her needs.    

“Mr. Lollis has and does serve with great distinction and is truly a great man of God.”