Kay Jones McClanahan and J. Robert “Bob” Hickman
Kay Jones McClanahan and J. Robert “Bob” Hickman will be married August 22, 2015, at 4 p.m. at First Baptist Church in Columbia, with a reception to follow in the church fellowship hall.
While in the first graduating class at A.C. Flora High School, Kay wrote the words and the music to the A.C. Flora Alma Mater, which is still sung today. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia. Now retired, she was employed as a research biochemist at the Medical College of Georgia and Medical University of SC.
In 1969, she was hired as a forensic chemist and agent with the SC Law Enforcement Division (SLED), thus becoming the first female agent SLED ever hired. She has been honored as “S.C. Law Enforcement Officer of the Year” and later, as “S.C. Hero of the Year.”
In her spare time, she bred and trained thoroughbred horses at Homestead Farms in Eastover, S.C., where she produced the high-earning S.C.-bred mare in 2000. She is still a committed property rights, right-to-life, and senior rights advocate. She is the daughter of the late Catherine Hallman Jones and W. Felton “Phil” Jones of Columbia.
Bob’s college career was interrupted by the Korean War, where he served as an Air Force security linguist, after having graduated from a yearlong intensive training school in Russian at Syracuse University. As valedictorian of his class, he delivered his entire valedictory speech in Russian.
After Korea, he graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism as “Outstanding Male Graduate.” In 1960, he came to Columbia as news director and news anchor for WIS-TV, and then became news secretary for Gov. Robert McNair. In 1967, he was named the first Director of the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, and, under his leadership, tourism was propelled to the number one industry in the state of S.C.
Later, as general manager of a private real estate development firm in Santee, S.C., he helped craft and promote the resort and recreational explosion that occurred there.
Bob is the son of Dixie Dunham Hickman and former Missouri State Representative Dewey Hickman of Rolla, Missouri, both now deceased.
This wedding will be a renewal of life for the couple, both of whom lost their beloved spouses over eight years ago, and a great deal of sentiment has been involved in its planning. Bob’s and Kay’s wedding rings will be handcrafted from the melted gold of their wedding bands from their previous marriages.
Kay’s son will give her away and Bob’s brother will be his best man. Bob’s granddaughter, an experienced freelance photographer from North Carolina, will take the wedding photographs, and his chief photographer from WIS-TV will video the proceedings. Other family members, Kay’s high school friends, the couples’ church and Bible study friends, and hometown friends from Spartanburg, where Kay was born, will round out the wedding party.
Palmetto Jazz, Bob’s band (where he plays saxophone and sings) will provide the entertainment for the wedding reception.
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