Talmadge M. LeGrand

(29 September 1926 – 17 September 2016)

LEXINGTON – Talmadge Moore LeGrand, known to family and friends alike as Tal, died Saturday afternoon, September 17, 2016. He was 89. Born in Columbia to the late Eula Peavy and Edward John LeGrand, Tal was the third of ten children. As its numbers increased, the family lived in a succession of places, settling during the 1930s in Ashwood, an experimental farming community in Lee County. Tal was fond of saying that with all those children his parents were raising their own farm hands.

He left rural South Carolina after high school to work for JA Jones as an arc welder laying the keels of Liberty ships in Brunswick, Georgia. Active duty during World War II at the Naval Base at Subic Bay in the Philippines was followed by entrance to the University of South Carolina, a place that inspired him from then on. It was at USC that Tal met Charlotte Hammond Buchanan, and found love very nearly at first sight. They were married 39 and one half years, raising two children, Bruce Talmadge (Deborah) of Prosperity and Susan Buchanan of Cleveland, OH, both of whom survive him. Charlotte’s death in 1987 was a painful loss.

Tal’s law enforcement career in the SC Highway Patrol spanned 30 years. He worked as a patrolman driver’s license examiner, eventually becoming assistant chief examiner for the state and reaching the rank of Captain. Hanging up badge and gun in 1979, he transferred to the Department of Highway Safety in the SC Department of Highways and Public Transportation where he spent the final eight years of his career. During his tenure as director of highway safety he championed seatbelt, air bag, and child safety seat legislation, frequenting the state house, the governor’s office and a spot in front of a television news camera. His one career regret was losing the fight for the motorcycle helmet law. At his retirement from the state in 1987, Tal was awarded the Order of the Palmetto by Governor Carrol A. Campbell. Tal was also active in the Army Reserve for 23 years, serving as an instructor in the Command and General Staff College and earning his Masters classification as a member of the 3rd Army Reserve Rifle Team. He retired from the Reserve with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Tal was not all law enforcement and highways. His father taught him to control a small boat, silently, with a single paddle, a skill which served him well during his 80+ years as a fisherman. Tal was clear. He would put down the golf clubs to pick up a fishing rod, but never the other way around. He also thrived on yard work and was known for his beautiful hybrid tea roses almost everywhere he lived. Because of the influence of Charlotte’s father on his life, Tal was long an admirer of the USC School of Journalism, where George Andrew Buchanan was known as Dean Buck. During the last 25 years of his life, Tal dedicated himself to ensuring that an academic scholarship in the name of the father and daughter reached a sustainable level. With Charlotte, Clan Buchanan and all things Scot, including Scottish country dancing, brought him great pleasure. He loved Trinity Episcopal Cathedral – the physical space, the people, what it stands for – where he had been a member since 1952 and where he took on an array of roles, from youth leader early on to vestry member and chair of the Day School board at the end of his career.

Tal was retired by the time he met his second wife, Janet Ellen Tarbox. She was on her way to Virginia Theological Seminary and priesthood in the Episcopal Church. Tal followed, his life defined from then on by a succession of moves and new communities – from Columbia to the seminary in Alexandria, VA, then to parishes in Camden, SC, Wilmington, NC, Philadelphia, PA, South Carolina’s beautiful peach-growing Ridge, and after Janet stepped away from parish work, to Lexington, SC. Their 26-year marriage included the pleasure and challenge of travel, much of it in rugged, out of the way places. Tal delighted in having attempted and succeeded in paddling 80 miles on the Allagash River in northern Maine at the age of 84, a canoeing adventure actually requiring a permission slip from his doctor!

Robbed of his physical vigor in 2013 with late onset ALS, Tal accepted his new way of life with a gentle grace, living his last three years in the company of family and of friends, old and new. As his disease progressed he welcomed palliative care from Agape Hospice and continued ministrations of Dr. Tad Venn of Palmetto Senior Primary Care. He died at home attended by his family.

With his two children, Susan and Bruce, and wife, Tal is survived by three sisters; Sara Grace Partain of Las Vegas, NV, Hester Dorothy Smith and Pamela Jean Rembert, both of Sumter, SC, and a grandson, William Buchanan (Jie Li) of Los Angeles, CA. In addition to his parents and first wife, Tal was predeceased by his four brothers, John Edward, Jr., Clarence Clifton (Betty), Marion Lynwood (Nettie Jean), and Thomas Alan, and two of his sisters; Mary Sue Watts and an infant who died before receiving a name.

The funeral is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Thursday, September 22, 2016 at the Elmwood Cemetery at 501 Elmwood Avenue in Columbia, the Reverend Ira C. Houck III of Trinity Cathedral officiating. The family will receive friends following the service during a reception in the Sterling Room at Trinity Cathedral, 1100 Sumter Street.

Gifts in memory of Tal can be made to the aforementioned George A. Buchanan & Charlotte Buchanan LeGrand Endowed Scholarship and can be sent to Ms. Elizabeth Quackenbush, Senior Director of Development, College of Information and Communications, University of South Carolina, 800 Sumter Street, Columbia, SC 29208.