Andanh.com

The verdict by Justice Arthur Cooperman elicited gasps as well as tears of joy and sorrow. Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the shots, wept at the defense table, while the mother of victim Sean Bell cried in the packed courtroom. Shouts of "Murderers! Murderers!" and "KKK!" rang out on the courthouse steps.

Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed outside a seedy strip club in Queens in 2006 as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends. The officers - undercover detectives who were investigating reports of prostitution at the club - said they thought one of the men had a gun.

The slaying heightened tensions in the city and stoked long-standing allegations of racism and excessive use of force on the part of New York City's police, even though two of the officers charged are black.

In announcing his verdict in the non-jury trial, the judge said that the inconsistent testimony, courtroom demeanor and rap sheets of the prosecution witnesses - mainly Bell's friends - "had the effect of eviscerating" their credibility.

Hours before he was to be sentenced Thursday for failing to file income taxes he insisted he never had to pay, the action star cut the federal government three checks for $5 million, delivered in court.

So taken aback were prosecutors that they first declined the cash. But by the end of the day, the government took the money and more - a maximum three-year sentence for its highest-profile criminal tax target in decades.

"The sentencing court sends the right message to the American taxpayer - you've got to pay your taxes," U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill told reporters outside the usually quiet central Florida courthouse. "Rich, poor, it doesn't matter. We all pay our taxes."

Though Snipes was convicted of three counts of willfully failing to file returns, his trial was held by some as proof of victory for the tax protest movement. Snipes was acquitted of five other charges, including felony tax fraud and conspiracy, that would've exposed him to 13 more years in prison.

Judge Jack Early said Friday the DNA test on James Brown II should be completed within the next 30 days. Trustees handling the singer's estate questioned the claims of Tomi Rae Hynie that her son is Brown's son, attorneys representing Hynie and the child said.

"Clearly, James Brown has held up this child to be his son," said Peter Shahid, a court-appointed attorney for James Brown II, adding that the child has received Social Security and insurance benefits since the soul singer's death. "We have writings that he has signed indicating that this is his son. He talks lovingly of his child. So all indications are this is the son of James Brown."

Hynie's attorney Robert Rosen said his client has never objected to a paternity test.

"She's said that she was in favor and would do the test, provided that the other children also took the test," Rosen said. "She didn't feel like her son should be singled out."

Allen Wayne McCormick, 19, of White Knoll Road, West Columbia, was arrested today on charges of stealing a church van and using it earlier this month to ram a credit union's automated teller machine in an attempt to steal cash, the Lexington County Sheriff's Department said. U.S. deputy marshals and county deputies arrested McCormick Thursday evening at a home on YMCA Road near Lexington, where investigators found him hiding in a bedroom.

Deputies also arrested Brandon Gerald Cooke, 22, of Browning Extension, Lexington, today.

Charges against McCormick are:

“This is a transformational project for North Columbia,” said Mayor Bob Coble.

The first phase of the project will begin at Elmwood Avenue and extend north for 10 blocks to Anthony Street.

Work will begin in May and last for two years.

Also next month, the city will begin streetscaping on two blocks of Main Street. That $4.7 million project will take six months to complete.

Boland said in a letter to County Council that he wants to spend more time with his family and friends.

“He’s had a long run and a good run in Kershaw County,” Councilman John Wells said. “He’s been hounded by his adversaries for a period of a year to the point of distraction, and he has earned his retirement.”

Boland has been with the county since September 2001.

He makes roughly $142,744 a year in base salary and about $26,000 in health insurance, retirement and other benefits.

The school said Friday that Sorensen will speak May 9 to graduates in business, journalism, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Famed golf course architect Pete Dye will receive an honorary degree.

The chair of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, Barbara McConnell Barrett, will receive an honorary degree and address the rest of the graduates at two ceremonies May 10. The morning session will cover the Honors College and Arts and Science students. The afternoon session is for education, engineering, hospitality, music and social work graduates.

Separate ceremonies are planned for the Law School, the School of Medicine and other doctoral candidates.

Richard Wendell Walker, 51, is accused of fighting with John L. Delaney at a home on Glenn Avenue, the Columbia Police Department said. An argument over loud music became physical when Walker armed himself with a knife and Delaney grabbed a crescent wrench, the police said.

Delaney was injured and taken to Palmetto Health Richland, where he died early Monday.

Walker is being held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

-- Kelly Davis

Samuel Eugene Bartley, 44, of Fallaw Road, was arrested around 11:11 p.m. Thursday in woods off Hass Lucas Road after a canine unit tracked him there from a home someone broke into earlier that day.

The burglary victim, who lives on the same block of Fallaw Road, called deputies from a neighbor's home after coming home and seeing a man walking out her front door carrying an object wrapped in a white sheet. The man ran into the woods after seeing her, she said. Deputies discovered a broken window near the front door.

A canine officer tracked the suspect into the woods, where they found Bartley. Bartley is charged with first-degree burglary.

-- Kelly Davis

Margaret D. Stephens, 41, of Heathwood Drive in Aiken, is charged with solicitation to commit a felony - murder, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. She was arrested Thursday afternoon after meeting with the undercover officer in a parking lot in Aiken, the Aiken County Sheriff's Office said.

"Mrs. Stephens told our investigator she wanted the death to look like an accident and agreed to a price," Sheriff Michael Hunt said. "We gave her a chance to change her mind, but she chose not to do it."

The victim is not identified.

The sheriff's officer learned of the suspected plot from a tipster about a week ago, the office said.

Thirty-three-year-old Elizabeth Darby Copeland of Aiken is charged with four counts of breach of trust. The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison on each charge.

Police say Copeland took about $296,000 from Dogwood Stable president Cot Campbell over a four-year period.

The Aiken Standard reported Friday that Campbell contacted the Internal Revenue Service after failing to get an expected refund and was told he hadn't filed with the government in several years. Campbell said he questioned Copeland and fired her after determining she wrote checks to herself.

Copeland was released Thursday on $50,000 bail. She said her attorney told her not to talk about the case.

Circuit Judge Larry Patterson stopped Glen Everett Gibson's trial Wednesday, ruling there was not enough evidence for prosecutors to continue their case.

On Thursday, Gibson told WYFF-TV in Greenville that he plans to sue two assistant prosecutors and the Easley Police Department, claiming misconduct and unlawful imprisonment.

Gibson says he and the judge thought the evidence in the death of his wife, Keri Gillespie, clearly pointed to suicide. Prosecutors argued Gibson had killed his wife and staged it to look like a suicide.

Gillespie was found dead in January 2007 from a gunshot to her head.

Prosecutors say Ralph Marcell Hough of Surfside Beach "simulated sexual conduct between himself and the victim" - a special needs student who was then 15 years old.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports that Hough worked one-on-one with the boy at Socastee High School.

Assistant prosecutor Scott Graustein says Hough originally was charged in July with felony sexual assault. Hough admitted only to simulated sex acts in his plea Wednesday. Officials say the incidents happened from January to June 2007.

Hough's sentence also requires him to register as a sex offender. He also is barred from any job that involves children.

In the morning, she’ll watch her 15-year-old daughter, Randi, perform at the Colleton County Rice Festival with the Colleton County High School marching band.

Then Hiott and her boyfriend, Mickey Zahler, will “Fast Forward” to Columbia for Kenny Chesney’s concert.

“My boyfriend and I both love Kenny Chesney, and I thought this is something we’d like to do together,” said Hiott, who will make it a mini-vacation by spending the night in town.

It’s the love from fans like Hiott that makes playing Columbia special for Chesney.

Yet for years, one problem nagged at him: obesity.

But eight months ago, Hefner decided he had to lose weight and get fit. His mood, and health, depended on it.

Now 94 pounds lighter — and counting — he’s challenging the entire district to do the same.

As of Thursday, nearly 800 of Richland 2’s 3,300 employees have signed on for the Commit 2 Be Fit campaign.

Proposals submitted by USC and Clemson to serve as hosts for the four title games that make up the Weekend of Champions differed in one important area — game expenses.

Clemson’s bid included paying $50,000 toward the costs of staging the game — such as janitorial services and security — while USC’s did not. A coalition of Upstate chambers of commerce has agreed to cover the $50,000.

“The local chambers will have sponsors to raise another $50,000 to go back to the league,” said Van Hilderbrand, the Clemson assistant athletics director who put the proposal together. “The league will pay Clemson for the use of the facilities but will get it back in sponsorships.”

The SCHSL has been under pressure from state lawmakers to play the games at sites other than Columbia since 2006, when a nonbinding legislative resolution was passed asking the league to consider other venues. Williams-Brice Stadium has hosted the event since 1997.

Beginning July 1, the county will charge the city $25 per day per inmate the city sends to the jail, County Council chairman Joe McEachern said.

The fee applies only to municipal court offenses, such as simple assault, criminal domestic violence (first offense) and public drunkenness.

But city officials say the fee amounts to double taxes for Columbia residents, who also pay county taxes that, in part, support the jail. And, they say, it forces city police to cut back on the number of arrests in order for the city to make its budget, possibly compromising public safety.

“That puts us in a position to really have to pick and choose who gets arrested,” Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine said. “If we leave them (on) the street, we’re not doing what we need to be doing in enforcing the law.”

This week, they launched an Internet petition drive to get 1 million signatures to persuade the Legislature to allow voters to amend the constitution to say South Carolina must provide a “high quality” public education.

The constitution now requires the state to provide an education, but doesn’t say what kind. A 1999 S.C. Supreme Court decision interpreted that to mean “minimally adequate.”

“The words ‘minimally adequate’ are a terrible mission statement,” said Sen. John Matthews, D-Orangeburg, a former principal. He has tried, but thus far failed, to persuade fellow senators to put a “high quality” constitutional amendment on the ballot.

“The mission statement defines what we want to accomplish,” Matthews said.His resolution appears to be going nowhere in a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency informed city officials on April 8 that a 30-day comment period had begun.

City Council on Wednesday set a May 6 deadline for written opinions that will be submitted to FEMA.

The comments are due by 5 p.m. on that date and should be addressed to city manager Johnny Sharpe at 1800 12th St. Ext., Cayce, S.C. 29171.

Only people who live in the city limits or who own property there are eligible to express their views, according to city officials.

Eighteen-year-old Ryan A. Schallenberger should “be examined to determine whether he is suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent that he is unable to understand the nature of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense,” says a motion filed Thursday in a federal court in Florence.

Schallenberger, who faces federal charges that include attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, is under suicide watch at Chesterfield County jail, 4th Circuit Solicitor Jay Hodge said Thursday night.

He likely will appear today in federal court in Florence before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas E. Rogers III, who will decide whether the examination should be ordered, acting U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said Thursday night.

Should Rogers order the examination, it likely would be conducted at a federal Bureau of Prisons facility, McDonald said.

The S.C. Club for Growth claims the flier, sent out by state Sen. Jake Knotts’ campaign, makes false allegations about the group and its intentions.

Knotts’ flier never mentions the S.C. Club for Growth by name, instead warning Lexington residents about “a special interest group falsely attacking our senator, Jake Knotts. (This particular group is a ‘front’ for the insurance industry and the out-of-state billionaires who control them; they recruited their own ‘puppet’ candidate against Knotts.)”

The Knotts flier adds that the criticisms of him are false. It followed an S.C. Club for Growth mailer that called Knotts, R-Lexington, a “Republican In Name Only” and criticized his record in the Senate.

“As honest folks working to improve our state, it saddens us to see such reckless disregard for the truth from someone helping to make our laws,” the S.C. Club for Growth letter says.

The lawsuit is relatively small when compared with the multimillion-dollar personal injury and property damage suits the company has battled since nine people died from chlorine exposure three years ago.

But the suit takes Norfolk Southern to task for a sometimes overlooked result of the train crash: damage to the environment.

At least 1,000 fish and some game died after the wreck, state reports of the accident show. State investigators also found chemically burned vegetation in the area and about 1,800 yards of contaminated creek.

Graniteville Fire Chief Phil Napier said Thursday the wreck caused enough chemical damage to trees that some have died and been cut down.

The broader chain of Wal-Mart stores has no plans to limit food purchases, however.

The move comes as U.S. rice futures hit a record high amid global food inflation, although one rice expert said the warehouse chains may be reacting less to any shortages than to stockpiling by restaurants and small stores.

Sam's Club followed Seattle-based Costco Wholesale Corp., which put limits in at least some stores on bulk rice purchases.

Sam's Club declined to say if this is first time it has restricted sales of bulk foods. The limits affect 20-pound bags, not retail-sized portions. Costco President and CEO Jim Sinegal declined to discuss the issue Wednesday with an AP reporter.

“I resigned myself earlier this year that I wasn’t going to get into any fights ... But they’ve attacked this body. If they want to fight, what a (heck) of a way to go out.”

— Rep. Doug Smith, R-Spartanburg, and the House speaker pro tem who is not seeking re-election. Smith was criticizing senators for failing to deliver a bill on illegal immigration to the House for a vote this week.

S.C. PRIMARY

Days left until the June 10 primary: 46

Patricia Butler England, 35, was asked by the man to serve as his representative payee and received more than $6,500 in disability benefits meant for him between May and August 2006, the release said.

She used the money to buy illegal drugs for herself and faces up to 10 years in prison when sentenced, the release said.

Woodford Road, 500 block: Police were called to a home at 2 a.m. Wednesday after the resident discovered four of his prize-winning show roosters had been stolen. The 80-year-old man told deputies that two weeks ago a man had stopped at his farm and offered to buy some of the roosters in the yard. The farmer told the man that he wasn’t interested in selling any of the birds; the man left. The next morning, two roosters were gone. Then on Wednesday night he heard one of his roosters making a flapping and cackling noise, but when he investigated, he didn’t see anything amiss. Thursday morning, two more were missing, one of them worth $2,000, the farmer said. Total losses for the birds are estimated at almost $4,000, a report said.

RICHLAND COUNTY SHERIFF

River Drive, 300 block: Police were called to a convenience store at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday after a clerk reported almost $300 worth of lottery tickets were stolen. The clerk told deputies he had placed the tickets on the counter to set them up for sale and when he returned, they were gone.

Parklane Road, 7900 block: Police were called to a fast-food restaurant at 10 a.m. Saturday after the manager said the power went out. The manager said he walked outside and saw a man in a truck that had driven under power lines and yanked them down. The driver told the manager that he thought his truck would clear the lines but it didn’t. The incident was deemed an accident, but repair costs were estimated at $10,000.

Volunteers will take measurements in their yards for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. The information from volunteer sites will be used by scientists, planners and the general public.

For information on the program or to volunteer, visit www.weather.gov/cae and click on the “Become a CoCoRaHS observer” link.

The Columbia chapter of Military Order of the World Wars will hold its 15th annual Massing of the Colors at 3 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Temple, 7230 Garners Ferry Road. The ceremony will include music, a memorial service and a speech by Col. Kevin Shwedo, Fort Jackson’s deputy commander.

The public event is free.

Deputies used surveillance to foil the plot hours before it was to be carried out, Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt said.

Matthew Jason Litchfield, 27, was arrested as he prepared to attend a church service, The Post and Courier of Charleston reports.

Two men who lived with Litchfield also were charged. Jesse James O’Conner and Martin Wayne Poston were being held on conspiracy charges, deputies said.

Contributing: Staff writers Adam Beam, James T. Hammond, Noelle Phillips, Ishmael Tate and Joey Holleman; The Associated Press

Federal prosecutor Walt Wilkins said Thursday that Esther Elizabeth Reed waived her right to have a new indictment on additional charges against her read in court.

Reed was indicted last year on charges that she used a missing South Carolina woman’s identity to get an Ohio ID and acceptance into Columbia University. Earlier this month, prosecutors amended that indictment to include additional charges for stealing other identities.

Wilkins said Reed remains in federal custody and likely will have a pretrial conference next month.

Mayor Bob Coble called for the amendment after Councilman E.W. Cromartie said he would be willing to reconsider his vote on the issue. Council members voted 4-3 in November 2006 to exempt bars from the ban.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will deliver the keynote address.

Saturday’s commencement will be preceded by tonight’s baccalaureate service, at 7 p.m. in the gymnatorium.

Allen University will award honorary degrees to Graham, as well as to state Sen. Kay Patterson, D-Richland, who is retiring from the Senate, and Bertha J. Bailey, the school’s oldest living alumna, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday.

The seminar is $45 in advance, $50 at the door. The fee for nonprofits is $40. Group rates are available. Cash, checks, Visa and MasterCard are accepted.

Sounds like a joke, but it’s quite serious for biologists at the California Academy of Sciences, who had a wet suit created for an African penguin to help him get back in the swim of things.

Pierre, a venerable 25, was going bald, which left him with an embarrassingly exposed, pale pink behind.

Unlike marine mammals, which have a layer of blubber to keep them warm, penguins rely on their waterproof feathers. Without them, Pierre was unwilling to plunge into the academy’s penguin tank and ended up shivering on the sidelines while his 19 peers played in the water.

“He was cold; he would shake,” said Pam Schaller, a senior aquatic biologist at the academy.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, in a study released Thursday, also found that teens who keep blogs or use social-networking sites like Facebook or News Corp.’s MySpace have a greater tendency to slip nonstandard elements into assignments.

The results may give parents, teachers and others a big :( — a frown to the rest of us — though the study’s authors see hope.

“It’s a teachable moment,” said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew. “If you find that in a child’s or student’s writing, that’s an opportunity to address the differences between formal and informal writing. They learn to make the distinction ... just as they learn not to use slang terms in formal writing.”

Half of the teens surveyed say they sometimes fail to use proper capitalization and punctuation in assignments, while 38 percent have carried over the shortcuts typical in instant messaging or e-mail messages, such as “LOL” for “laughing out loud.” A quarter of teens have used :) and other emoticons.

Seven months after Israel bombed the reactor, the White House broke its silence and said North Korea assisted Syria’s secret nuclear program — and that the destroyed facility was not intended for “peaceful purposes.”

Top U.S. intelligence officials said they had high confidence in the judgment that North Korea had aided Syria with its nuclear program. But they claimed only low confidence for the conclusion that it was meant for weapons development, in part because there was no reprocessing facility at the site — something that would be needed to enrich nuclear material for use in a bomb.

The Bush administration’s disclosure could undermine six-party negotiations to try to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea, though the administration says it remains committed to the negotiations. The White House issued a two-page statement after lawmakers were given details about the reactor in a series of briefings on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the revelations make it clear that any deal to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear programs must also stop its proliferation activities and include vigorous verification. But he said the information in the briefings was not a cause to end the talks.

After learning her job would be cut this summer, Kelly Daly started reaching more frequently for the soothing effects of sugar.

“It’s a stress reliever. Especially now that a bunch of us are going to be laid off,” said the 49-year-old Daly, whose job reviewing medical insurance records in Manhattan’s financial district is being cut after 11 years.

As the credit and housing crises rattle Wall Street, pressures over bigger workloads, job security and shrinking nest eggs are upending diets and fueling unhealthy habits across the country.

Stressed workers often reach for calorie-rich foods, skip the gym after a taxing day or forego meals because of heavy workloads. Or they indulge in other bad-for-you behavior like smoking, drinking or staying out late.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, Ono accuses the producers of “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” of suggesting to viewers that those who guard John Lennon’s legacy somehow authorized or sponsored the film.

The producers of the film, which features Ben Stein challenging Darwinian theories that prevail in academic circles and suggesting that life could have emerged through intelligent design, said they used only “a very small portion of the song.”

“Based on the fair use doctrine, news commentators and film documentarians regularly use material in the same way we do,” Premise Media said in a statement. “Unbiased viewers of the film will see that the ‘Imagine’ clip was used as part of a social commentary in the exercise of free speech and freedom of inquiry.”

A possible breakaway path — described by Shiite lawmakers and politicians — would represent the ultimate backlash against the Iraqi government’s pressure on al-Sadr to renounce and disband his Shiite militia.

By snubbing the give-and-take of politics, al-Sadr would have a freer hand to carve out a kind of parallel state with its own militia and social services along the lines of Hezbollah in Lebanon, a Shiite group founded with Iran’s help in the 1980s.

It also would carry potentially disastrous security implications as the Pentagon trims its troops strength and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki finally shows progress on national reconciliation.

Last week, the main Sunni political bloc announced provisional plans to rejoin the Shiite-led coalition nine months after quitting the government. The Sunnis are pleased with the squeeze on al-Sadr’s movement, as well as an amnesty law that could free many detainees.

The high court set the date today, a week before final briefs must be filed with the five-jurist panel.

Thirty-six school systems, a majority in eastern South Carolina, sued the Legislature in 1993 claiming lawmakers do not provide enough state aid to districts that serve poor, rural communities. The districts’ lawyers contended it costs more to educate those students, many of whom struggle academically.

The case made it to the state Supreme Court in the late 1990s, when a four-member majority concluded the state’s constitution guarantees each child an opportunity to receive a “minimally adequate education.” The school districts opted to push the courts to decide whether the state meets that standard, a decision that led to a second trial in circuit court.

Judge Thomas W. Cooper Jr., now retired, concluded in December 2005 that the state does enough to support local public schools, but he also suggested it would be wise to spend money to help pre-school-age children be better prepared for kindergarten.

Miller would succeed Thomas E. Barton, who became the college’s president in 1962 and has served continuously for 46 years. Barton who has chaired the state council of technical college presidents and is a legend in job-training and promoting access to a college education in South Carolina, is the longest serving technical college president in the nation, Greenville Tech states on its website.

During his tenure, Barton guided Greenville Tech from its origins to today’s job-training giant, with four campuses across Greenville County, more than 14,000 degree-seeking or transfer college students, and almost 55,000 students in continuing education or retraining for new jobs or careers.

Barton recently signed a bridge agreement with University of South Carolina President Andrew Sorensen to ease the transfer of Greenville Tech students to USC.

Sam Clayton, who chairs the Greenville Tech commission, said the offer to Miller to become Barton’s successor was unanimous on Wednesday. “Both the Area Commission and Dr. Miller feel really good that things will work out,” Clayton said in a statement issued by the college.

«Obituary posted: April 25, 2008»

«Obituary posted: April 25, 2008»

Surviving are three sons: Calvin Boland and wife Alice, Bradenton, Fla., Euel Boland and wife Ellen, Ware Shoals, Karon Boland and wife Belinda, Batesburg; two sisters, Margaret Adair, Greenwood and Grace Davis, Gray Court, also three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be conducted Saturday at 2 p.m. at Poplar Springs Baptist Church with Rev. Bruce Ostrom officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.

Active pallbearers will be Rocky Boland, Aaron Boland, Leif Hoagrand, Maurice Coker, Chris Coker and Jonathan Coker. Honorary escort will be members of the Naomi/Bible Study Book Sunday School Class.

Memorials may be made to Poplar Springs Baptist Church, 6466 Poplar Springs Road, Ware Shoals, SC 29692. The family is at the home of a son, Euel Boland, 8885 Hwy. 252, and will receive friends 1-2 p.m. Saturday at the church.

Surviving are his wife, Edna Gooden Thompson; daughter, Millicent Roberts; sons, Christopher Thompson, Herbert Sr. and Robert Gooden; sisters, Ethel Gadson and Dorothy Dix; and a brother, James Thompson; grandchildren.

www.leevy.com

«Obituary posted: April 25, 2008»

Mr. Smyly was born on April 13, 1930, in Colleton County. He was the son of the late Phoebie Williams and Charlie Stephen Smyly. He was a veteran of the Korean War, a member of the Barnwell First Baptist Church and Harmony #17 Masonic Lodge of Barnwell. He retired from the Savannah River Plant with 33 years of service.

Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. Friday, April 25, 2008, at the Barnwell First Baptist Church. Burial will follow in the Barnwell County Memory Gardens (Reynolds Road) with Masonic rites accorded. Mole Funeral Home is assisting the family with these arrangements.

Survivors include sons, David Richard Smyly and Marshall Wayne (Rhonda) Smyly of Barnwell; daughter, Peggy Smyly (Bobby) Abbott of Blackville; sisters, Lenora Keegan of Walterboro and Shirley Lawhon of Isle of Palms; grandchildren, Stephanie T. (Jason) Davis, Christina T. (Bobby) Collins, Rebecca E. Templeton, Jason Kyle Smyly, Kirkley G. Smyly and Chandler B. Smyly; great-grandson, Austin Davis.

He was predeceased by his beloved wife of 47 years, Jeanette Gibson Smyly, 8 brothers and 5 sisters.

«Obituary posted: April 25, 2008»

He was born Feb. 13, 1977, in Marianna, Fla., the son of Wayne and Cathy (King) Pike. In addition to his parents, he is survived by his grandmothers, Reba King and Laverne Pike and several aunts, uncles and cousins.

Services will be held at Randall-Roberts Funeral Home in Noblesville, Ind. Burial will be in Crownland Cemetery in Noblesville.

Memorials may be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Indiana Chapter, 1261 W. 86th St., Suite E-2, Indianapolis, IN 46260.

«Obituary posted: April 25, 2008»

Mrs. Noble died Saturday, April 19, 2008. Born in St. Matthews, she was the daughter of the late Rev. Priestly and Lillie Stephenson. She was a longtime faithful member of Zion Baptist Church, where she was a devoted Sunday School Teacher, Choir member and recipient of the “Woman of the Year” award in 1987.

She was the widow of the late Deacon James Noble.

Surviving are two daughters, Pamela Kay (Virgil) Brown and Kim Renee (Steve) Johnson; son, James Joshua (Darlene) Noble Jr.; sister, Ethel Huggins; brother, Rev. Leon Stephenson (Ella Mae); five grandchildren and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

«Obituary posted: April 25, 2008»