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From
Jim Hunter
of Darlington
Sometimes, she was so quiet, you wouldn’t know she was in the
room.
Her quiet demeanor was probably misleading. She hid a “rascal-ness”
pretty well.
She liked a challenge, such as becoming one of the first two women ever
asked to be members of the all-male Green Flag Committee at Darlington
Raceway.
Her friend Cathy Elliott joined at the same time and the two fit in
with the guys like a pair of mechanic’s gloves. They even took
up golf and AnnBoyd was a whirlwind on the golf course. She was so concerned
with holding the guys up, she literally ran back to the golf cart. She
also raised blisters on her hands and never complained. She wanted to
fit in.
She did. The group grew to love her. She had a mysterious way about
her and was quiet but she was smart. Full of life. Curious. Cute. Unpredictable.
Maybe shy, although she never was around me.
AnnBoyd just didn’t want anyone fussing over her .... She didn’t
want people worrying about her well-being ... Those closest to her say
she left this worldly place with great dignity.
That word pretty well sums her up. She was happy in her own skin and
allowed those around her to be happy in theirs.
Perhaps the happiest I ever saw her, she was dressed up like someone
else for a Halloween party.
Her disguise was so good, it took me a few minutes to recognize her.
She had a scruffy-looking mustache, was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses,
had on a pair of jeans with a big old cowboy belt buckle, a pair of
boots and a cowboy hat ... She looked the part she was playing, as stock
car racing’s “Intimidator,” the great Dale Earnhardt.
Earnhardt always drove to be the best ... sometimes quiet and unassuming,
sometimes with a take-no-prisoners passion for what he was trying to
do.
There was a little bit of everyone in Earnhardt.
AnnBoyd was that way, too. There was a little bit of everyone in her.
Earnhardt had a mischievous side to him, yet he had a mysterious side
also.
That’s the thing I remember most about AnnBoyd ... Her walking
up as Earnhardt’s look-a-like ... Even smiling like he used to
smile ... A somewhat crooked grin ... And saying, “Bet you can’t
guess who I am?”
And I couldn’t.
AnnBoyd slipped away before I could figure it out. Cathy finally told
me later who it was.
There were so many people there that night, I didn’t get to speak
to AnnBoyd again before she left the party.
We laughed a lot about that night later on. AnnBoyd and Dale Earnhardt
.... Two tough customers.
Neither one would want us crying in our beers.
From
Bill Rogers, SCPA
“Ann was such a talented person in graphics and design,”
said Bill Rogers, executive director of the S.C. Press Association in
Columbia. “She really modernized the paper her father had published
successfully for nearly 50 years. There are a declining number of family-owned
community newspapers in South Carolina, so it was certainly appropriate
she stayed in her home town and that another generation of the Thomas
family took the helm of the ‘News and Press’.
“She was a diverse and talented person,” he added.
“Under her direction, the ‘News and Press’ planned
and redesigned the Press Association’s advertising web site.”
He noted that she and the ‘News and Press’ won many awards
during her years at the paper. The last one Ann won – from
2007 — is a first place in Page Design which was awarded
at the association’s annual meeting March 7 in Spartanburg.
Rogers said the thing that he enjoyed most about Ann was her sense of
humor. “She was one of a kind.”
From
Robbie Ervin of Darlington
Ann Boyd was so much fun to be around. She had so many engaging personality
traits ranging from a clever wit to intelligence to self-confidence
to humility to beauty, both within and without.
If you did something with her, time would fly.
After being around her you would always keep thinking back to the funny
things or thought-provoking things that she said or did.
People just wanted to know her.
From
Liz Edens Barringer
When Ann Boyd and I were 10 years old, being the tomboys we were, we
decided to steal my sister Rosanna’s silver chopper mini-bike
and take it for a leisurely stroll through the neighborhood.
I can’t remember for the life of me where or how we found the
head protection that we wore. They were big plastic football helmets
(face mask and all).
After a five-minute stroll we noticed a police car slowly approaching
us. Being the daredevils that we were, we decided to try to outrun the
law! We immediately rode to Ann Boyd’s house and hid in the carport
for what seemed like days!
Seconds later we heard a car horn blowing from the street in front of
her house. We peeked out of the door and much to our surprise there
stood one of Darlington’s finest…Sgt. Johnny McKay. He could
tell by the look on our faces that we were petrified, and motioned for
us to approach his car. We reluctantly complied.
Sgt. McKay, with a smile on his face, asked us if we had seen two girls
riding on a silver chopper mini-bike in the neighborhood. Ann Boyd and
I looked at each other and in unison replied “No, Sir!”
He then, with a wink, asked us to please keep a look out for them and
if we saw them to please tell them that it was against the law and unsafe
to ride a mini-bike on the street...especially without the proper head
protection. We of course said, “Yes, Sir, we will,”, and
with another wink and gentle smile, Sgt. McKay drove off knowing that
he had done his job effectively and for that we were thankful.
However, 30 minutes later we decided to go for another little stroll
and in order to be less conspicuous we left our football helmets at
home! |
From
Lola Early of Darlington
Wasn’t it just yesterday I was so looking forward to the baby
the Thomases were expecting! Morrey and I were still forced to drink
our goat’s milk (we were both allergic to cow’s milk)
out of baby bottles because the smell was so bad Margaret Ann and
Mama didn’t want to be around us when we were made to drink
it!
I was a little over five and Morrey was six. Finally AnnBoyd was born,
and I remember telling Morrey, no more baby bottles for me!! (That’s
why you had your baby, drinking from bottles was what they did.)
I also remember finding out not too long after AnnBoyd arrived, my
mama was pregnant again!! Horrors: I’d always wanted to be an
only child, now we were having baby number four, and I was just barely
six!!! Like we needed another child for me to take care of; my thoughts,
exactly!
AnnBoyd was a precious little bald-headed girl for at least
a year and a half, and then she had these auburn ringlets, really
fine and thin, but cute, just like we thought she was.
We all grew up together with a grandmother next door on Cashua and
beach houses right nearby at Ocean Drive, then later at Ocean Isle
... Those were such fun years, and I have so many memories of times
spent with our families always doing things together.
One thing AnnBoyd and I laughed about while she was in the hospital
was the fact she thought I was a horrible babysitter! (She said I
let her and Jean Brooks, my baby sister, do anything, and I never
supervised them!) I thought that’s what all good babysitters
did, but she thought I was much too careless with them. She was scared
to death of Lurline’s asthma attacks, and Al’s attacks
of all kinds!
We were laughing so hard at one visit we had tears running down our
cheeks. She was telling me about Jean Brooks and her walking from
our beach house to the car track Al and Morrey were “running”
for daddy and Odell. When the boys weren’t giving free rides
away to all their friends, they’d leave and go to the beach
... and who cared if anyone came along to “pay” for a
ride?
Anyway, AnnBoyd and Jean got there and since they couldn’t find
Al or Morrey they got in one of the model T’s and drove into
the sand dunes ... and got stuck, and Jean made AnnBoyd push them
back to the tracks and then carry her home because she’d gotten
sandspurs in her feet (like AnnBoyd hadn’t gotten them too)!
I made three deathbed promises to AB. I will probably live
to regret the second and third ones, but the first was that I would
take care of her mom for her! That will be easy, if she will answer
her doorbell when I come to visit!
The second was that I start writing a column for the ‘News and
Press’ and call it Ramblin’ Roun’ Darlingtown.
The third was just about as daunting, and that was to start riding
horses again at her barn, especially Blitz and Tulip, since they are
gentle and will be missing her so much. I must’ve really been
out of my head when I agreed to these, but a promise is a promise!
She was especially emphatic about someone who’s lived here all
their lives writing the article and not “airbrushing”
the true stories of our quaint, odd, and sometimes crazy little town!
(She did worry I would be too honest and get sued!)
So, as we all adjust to life after AnnBoyd, I will be here for
her mother and her brother. Our whole family will, and I’ll
try hard to get up enough courage to put pen to paper and try and
capture the humorous, all-too-true stories which I grew up hearing
my granddad and daddy telling as we gathered around the dinner/supper
tables of my youth.
And, I’ll dedicate this new “old” column to AnnBoyd
and our times together at the hospital as we got to renew our lifetime
friendship, in what turned out to be the last months of her too young
life.
Then I’ll try and convince myself I have enough padding
on my backside that when I get thrown off one of her horses it won’t
hurt as much as it did when I was younger, and skinnier!
And, I’ll remember the cute little tomboy who bossed Jean around,
and thought I was a fun older sister, and laughed at me when I went
to the horse shows and got all dressed up in the gear, and then walked
around acting cool, while she was on her horse performing!
She died much too soon, and I will miss her as a little girl, and
as the wonderful, giving, loving daughter, sister, aunt and friend
she ended up being!
To
download the full 1A front tribute to Ann Thomas that was published
Feb. 28, 2008, click here.
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