COLUMBIA — Friends and admirers passed through the Statehouse on Friday to pay their respects to former Gov. Carroll Campbell, who died of a heart attack at age 65.

One-by-one, mourners filed past Campbell's casket on the second floor of the capitol between the chambers where he served for eight years at the beginning of his political career. The coffin was draped in a spray of red roses, with a portrait of Campbell nearby and members of the South Carolina National Guard Joint Military Honors Team standing at attention.

At the end of visitation, after the Statehouse had largely cleared, Campbell's widow Iris and sons Mike Campbell and Carroll Campbell III and their wives walked over and, with arms around each other, placed their hands on the casket. They turned from it, embraced family members and cried.

More than 600 people from all backgrounds, wearing everything from suits and fur coats to jeans and sweat shirts, paid their respects.

One of Campbell's teachers at Greenville High School made the trip from the Upstate to say goodbye.

Bill Phillips said when he taught Campbell nobody expected the well-kept boy who sometimes didn't apply himself to eventually become a two-term governor, and only the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve in the state's highest office.

"Carroll always said that I helped keep him straight," said a smiling 77-year-old Phillips, a former football coach at the school. "He was a great leader. ... Nobody expected him to be governor when he was in high school."

The Campbell family received visitors from 5 to 7 p.m.

Visitors hugged, shook hands, and shared stories with family members, who stood on each side of the casket inside a cordoned off area. Gov. Mark Sanford, his wife Jenny and their four sons were among those who offered their condolences. Visitors and family members stood still and faced the casket during the changing of the guard each half hour. A string quartet from the Governor's School for the Arts played throughout visitation.

Campbell's dog Speckles was at the far end of the receiving line, held on a leash by a state Department of Natural Resources officer. The friendly and well-behaved Brittany spaniel did not bark once, though his leash did wrap around an honor guard's legs toward the end of visitation as Iris Campbell reached down to pet him.

Twice during the night, Campbell's oldest grandchild, 5-year-old Blakeney Herlong Campbell -- Carroll Campbell III's daughter -- walked over to Campbell's casket and touched the roses. She pointed to it as she talked with a boy her age in the line of visitors.

Chief Gilbert Blue of the Catawba Indian Nation said Campbell's support during the tribe's land settlement claim was crucial.

"He was always open to me," said Blue, remembering his meetings with Campbell throughout the settlement negotiations. "It probably would have taken longer or maybe not settled without his input. ... I felt it was only proper I should come pay my respects."

Lt. Col. Sandy Gibson of the South Carolina Air National Guard remembered how Campbell helped lead the state during trying times after Hurricane Hugo devastated the coast. Many predicted it would take the Palmetto State years to rebuild, but Campbell and others helped restore the coast line sooner than expected.

Campbell was praised for an evacuation order and his help after the Category 4 storm with 135 mph winds slammed into the coast. "Hugo was an example of his ability to organize and lead," Gibson said.

He is also a hero to the modern Republican Party in South Carolina.

"It's certainly appropriate to have him lie in state here," said GOP state chairman Katon Dawson. "He laid the blueprint for us to obtain the majority."

Some others knew of Campbell's personal, more affectionate side.

Former Democratic Comptroller General Jim Lander, who was a state senator when Campbell was governor, said he remembered the Greenville native consoling him after Lander's daughter was killed in 1994. Campbell's brother was killed in Vietnam in 1968.

"Even though I was a senator, I thought it was great that he would confide in me," Lander said after signing a guestbook filled with names across the state. "He had the ability to work with people. I think that's his legacy."

The Statehouse was quiet and somber Friday, but there weren't the long lines and waits that occurred when former Sen. Strom Thurmond was memorialized for a couple of days after his death. Thousands came out in June 2003 to pay their respects to Thurmond, who had twice as many years of constituent service.

You must be logged in to comment.