A legend of South Carolina's courtrooms passed away Monday at the age of 93.
The Honorable Clyde A. Eltzroth died Monday at Hampton Regional Medical Center in Varnville after a brief illness.
Eltzroth was a founding member of the Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, & Detrick law firm, where he served as a lawyer from 1952 until 1975, and was Resident Judge of the five-county Fourteenth Judicial Circuit from 1975 until his retirement.
Randolph Murdaugh, III practiced law with Eltzroth and later went before him as a judge.
"Our families were extremely close, and Judge Eltzroth was like a second father to me," said Murdaugh. "He was one of the best prepared lawyers and the hardest working person I ever saw, and as a judge he demanded that of all the lawyers who came before him. He was wise beyond his years, and he will be dearly missed."
The Judge became a legendary figure in courtrooms all across South Carolina, and was particularly known for traveling with two black labs, Smoke and Spook, which sometimes sat with him in the courtroom.
Danny Henderson, now an attorney at PMPE&D, was a close family friend and served as his law clerk from 1979-80. Henderson "rode the circuit" with the judge.
"Part of my job was to take care of the judge's needs and take care of Spook," said Henderson. "Judge Eltzroth was one of the most compassionate and caring people I've ever known. When we were traveling, he was always visiting with friends. He had friends everywhere he went. He loved people, and he knew a lot of folks."
Henderson added that working for the judge was both a pleasure and an education.
"He was tremendously respectful and mindful of his juries, and fair to his lawyers, but he had a complete dominance of his courtroom," he added. "He was a hard taskmaster but a wonderful teacher who would take the time to explain things to you. Working for him was one of the best things I've ever done."
Eltzroth was one of the last lawyers in South Carolina to practice law and become a judge without ever finishing college or attending law school. While working at various jobs, Eltzroth studied law in Randolph (Buster) Murdaugh's office. He would often get up early and study before going to work at the tax collector's office, or the feed store, and then back to the law books at night, until he stood the bar and passed it in 1952.
"He didn't come up easy," said Murdaugh.
Being a self-made man who never went to law school was what made Eltzroth great, said John E. Parker of PMPE&D.
"That showed the kind of discipline and determination he had," said Parker. "He was an excellent lawyer, an excellent trial judge, and he was well respected around the state because of that."
Helen Youmans, who was Hampton County's Clerk of Court from 1973 to '93, worked closely with the judge for years.
"I enjoyed working with him," said Youmans. "You couldn't work for a better judge. He did his job well, and I thought the world of him."
Judge Eltzroth's personal history was recorded last year during an interview with Maxie Lee Harper as part of the Salkehatchie Stew oral history gathering project. He was born July 10, 1916, in McElroy, La., and his family moved to Varnville the following March with the Big Salkehatchie Lumber Company. He graduated from Varnville High School in 1932 and married Sara Platts in 1937. Other than for brief periods while he was in college, working as an engineer with the South Carolina Highway Department, and in the U.S. Navy (1944-1946), Varnville was his home.
After World War II, he was appointed Tax Collector for Hampton County. From 1946 until 1953, he collected current taxes as well as back taxes that Hampton County citizens couldn't pay during the 1925-45 Depression.
He represented Hampton County in the South Carolina Legislature, 1961-64; was organizing chairman of the Salkehatchie Community Actions Agency, (1965-67); served on the Board of Visitors at Clemson University; was member and Chairman of the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Commission (1967-1973); and in 1975, was elected 14th Judicial Circuit Judge by the General Assembly. He also served as a Special Circuit Judge from 1980 until 1991.
Eltzroth was named as conservationist of the Year for 1968 by the South Carolina Wildlife Federation and Hampton County's Outstanding Citizen, 1975, by the Hampton County Rotary Club. In 1972 the Clyde A. Eltzroth Administration Building at Fort Johnson Marine Research Center was dedicated. Destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1990, the building was re-built and re-dedicated in 1992.
He was instrumental in establishing Lake Warren in Hampton County, the Marine Resources Center in Charleston, and the graduate degree in Wildlife Management at Clemson University. A portrait of Judge Eltzroth hangs in the courtroom of the Hampton County Courthouse. He loved nature, being outdoors, and fishing and hunting with family and friends. In 2007 he was awarded a certificate for 61 years of continuous membership by the American Legion Post 108 of Hampton.
Eltzroth, widower of Sara Platts Eltzroth, was the son of the late Clyde (Jack) Eltzroth of Whitman County, Washington, and Angele Crosby Eltzroth Pinckney of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, Varnville and Hardeeville and is the stepson of the late Eustace Bellinger Pinckney. Clyde was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hampton.
He is survived by two daughters and sons-in-law, Rose-Marie and Hampton (Bill) Williams of Abbeville and Mt. Pleasant, Judith and John Perryman of Troy, Michigan and his son and daughter-in-law, Clyde A. (Jack) and Emily Eltzroth of Varnville and one sister-in-law, Irene P. Smith of Batesburg-Leesville. There are 7 grandchildren, Shellie Williams, Angele Robertson, Sara Perryman, John M. Perryman, III, Clyde A. (Clay) Eltzroth, III, Nyle Jackson Eltzroth, Mim Eltzroth and six great grandsons. He is also survived by his niece, Patricia Gill and her husband Harold of Atlanta as well as his nieces and nephews by marriage to whom he was devoted.
He was predeceased by his wife of 72 years, his parents, stepfather, and his sister and brother-in-law, Judith and James B. Seckinger; his brothers-in-laws, Carl Francis Platts and Trowbridge Platts and his sister-in-law, Louise P. Barnes.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday in St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hampton, conducted by Father Carl Bauer. Burial will follow in the Varnville Cemetery in Varnville.
Friends may call Thursday from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. and from 12:30 p.m. until 1:30 p.m. Friday prior to the service at Peeples-Rhoden Funeral Home, 300 Mulberry St. West, Hampton.