Lottie Yarborough Plowman

Funeral Service for Lottie Yarborough Plowman, 99, will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, January 25, 2015 at Dunbar Funeral Home, Dutch Fork Chapel, Irmo with burial to follow in Little River Baptist Church Cemetery. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Pallbearers will be great nephews.

Mrs. Plowman passed away Wednesday, January 21, 2015. Born in Jenkinsville, she was a daughter of the late Joel Foster Yarborough and Louise Swygert Yarborough. Her grandparents were the late Wylie Thompson Yarborough and Charlotte Thomasine Foster Yarborough and John Sanders Swygert and Mamie Elizabeth Wicker Swygert, all of Jenkinsville, SC.

Lottie spent many hours after school as a young child helping in her father’s General Mercantile Store with packing groceries, working the cash register, and pumping gas. She also collected monthly payments for the electric company that her father started for the Jenkinsville Community. With any remaining time, she played with her best friend and cousin, Perry Yarborough as they rolled and somersaulted on the lawn of the Yarborough’s family home.

Lottie graduated from the Jenkinsville School as the class Valedictorian in 1933. She graduated with a BA Degree from Winthrop College in 1936 taking honors as the top math student for her graduating class. Attending Winthrop during the depression era, Lottie had a three year work scholarship working under the supervision of Miss McBride, her cousin, for whom the Winthrop Dining Hall was named. Following graduation, Lottie was recruited by the Defense Department in Washington, DC to be a mathematician for what would become the US Space Program. She declined the offer wanting to remain close to her family in South Carolina. She taught High School Algebra in Cades, Greer and Mullins, teaching for a total of nine years.

Lottie met her husband, Bernard Peter Plowman, on a blind date arranged by the sister of one of her best teacher friends. Her future husband was in the US Army stationed at Camp Jackson. They were married at Chapel #1 at Camp Jackson in April of 1944. In 1945, their daughter, Bernice Foster Plowman was born in Columbia, SC. During Mr. Plowman’s years in the army, the family was stationed in in New Jersey, and Missouri. During a brief period between Army enlistments, the family lived in Chicago, Il, where Mr. Plowman worked for the Veterans Administration. Reenlisting in the Army, they were stationed in Yokohama, Japan as part of the Occupation Forces after WWII. His final station was Ft. Gordon in Augusta, Ga, where Captain Plowman was a Company Commander.

Retiring from the military in 1952, the family moved to the Eau Claire section of Columbia. There, Lottie had a garden of plants and flowers and carried that interest with her to Irmo in 1973, where she planted a yard full of camellias, roses, sasanquas, and azaleas. Mrs. Plowman served as Vice President of the Irmo Voting Precincts for 12 years and was a delegate to both county and state political conventions. She worked for 12 years as a poll manager for Irmo for all state and national elections.

Lottie is survived by her daughter, Bernice Plowman Shealy of Irmo; sister, Katie Y. Coleman of Hopkins; sister-in-law, Bonnelle G. Yarborough of Pomaria; nieces and nephews: Grady A. (Diane Suber) Yarborough of Jenkinsville, Lawrence (Doris) Yarborough of Columbia, Joel O. (Carol Pendle) Wood of Greenwood, Louise W. (Zan) Fisher of Spartanburg, Foster D. (June Byars) Coleman, Kay C. (Gary) Thompson of Tampa, FL. Nealie C. (Rick) Werts of Columbia, Joel F. III (Lisa) Yarborough of Pomaria and Sue Y. East of Atlanta, GA.

She was predeceased by her husband in 1973; her parents and her siblings, Howard S. (Janie McKinnon) Yarborough, Mary Louise Yarborough, James Henry (Truett Goldsmith) Yarborough, Bessie Y. (George O.) Wood and Joel Foster Yarborough, Jr. and a nephew George Henry Wood.

Memorials may be made to Little River Baptist Church Cemetery Fund, 343 Little River Church Road, Jenkinsville, SC 29065.

Please sign the online guestbook at dunbarfuneralhomedutchfork.com