Faith Temple, Taylors, SC

  Mr. George Hembree, 72, of Travelers Rest, SC, passed on Dec. 19, 2023. He was a U.S. Army veteran of Vietnam and retired construction worker. He attended Faith Temple for several years. Howze Mortuary, Travelers Rest, SC, held his funeral on Friday, Dec. 22, at 1:00 p.m.   George's body was transported to Faith Temple Cemetery and placed under the funeral tent by Howze Mortuary staff. A U.S. Army soldier played Taps. Then, she and a fellow soldier folded the American flag that had draped the coffin and presented it to Ms. Sadie Simmons, George's sister. Pastor R.D. Burrows of Faith Temple led in a final prayer as Pastor Steve Tolbert of Trinity Church of God stood to Burrows' right. (See the flag-folding ceremony in photos below.)                                                  

  Tony McCall   “Every man wants to get to the end of his life and feel he has accomplished something,” said Tony McCall, owner of McCall’s Painting & Home Design, speaking at the Sat., Dec. 2, 2023, Brotherhood breakfast at Faith Temple (FT), Taylors, SC.  Men gathered in Fleming Hall for an 8:30 a.m. meal cooked by Tony’s wife, Cindy. Tony, who serves as a FT deacon and Sunday school teacher, spoke about his and Cindy’s foster care work during the years 1999-2006. “Foster care” allows a minor to be placed into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a ‘foster parent,’ or with a family member approved by the state, Wikipedia says. “We all have a purpose. I’m sort of a nervous person,” said Tony, an energetic worker who accepted the Lord after he was a married adult. “I try to remember who I was without Christ.”  The McCalls have 2 natural daughters, Crystal and April. Their son, Michael, lived 2 weeks and died on Dec. 7...

Beatrice Sammons Whitman     During the Nov.-Dec. 2023 season, Ms. Beatrice Whitman, who made professions of Christian faith at ages 5 and 14, visited graves near her Greer, SC, home. “I was by myself on a Saturday and drove to Hillcrest Memorial Gardens (HMG),” she says. Beatrice’s husband, Willis L. Whitman, a Hoechst Celanese retiree, died at age 76 on Feb. 26, 2019. His body rests at HMG. Married almost 55 years, they met in Oct. 1964 at Greer Mill, where they worked. (Beatrice attended Bob Jones Univ. for 1.5 years while working at Greer Mill.) They dated 3 months and wed on April 3, 1965. “He was the better half of us,” Beatrice says. Their 3 children are Lamar Whitman, Cindy Burrell, and Katina Henson. In 2021, Mark Burrell, one of Beatrice’s 5 grandchildren, died after a dirt bike accident. Mark hit her dad’s shop as he raced around Beatrice and her father’s adjoining properties. Her father witnessed the tragedy. A Licensed Practical Nurse who completed training at age...

By Sandra Martin (pictured above), as told to Jerry Martin   Anyone who knows us knows that we don’t buy many new cars; in fact, we’ve only had 2 new cars in our almost 50 years of marriage. So, for us, it was a big deal when we ordered a special-order car just for us in Spring of 2022.   We loved our new Honda Civic from the day we picked it up in May of 2023. During our very first long-distance trip (to Wisconsin), we encountered bad road construction and crazy traffic in Indianapolis. The car directly in front of us swerved suddenly to dodge a hazard in the road; we ran over it. It was a large piece of construction rebar steel! This steel stuck under our car at freeway speed, and we had to pull over and dis-lodge the steel from under the car.  We couldn’t see any visible damage, so we (thankfully) drove on. From that time on, we never saw a leak from under the car, so we assumed all was well. Last week we had our car serviced. During the service the technician cal...