COLUMBIA Mr. Wilton Baylis Fowler, Jr, passed away Thursday, January 18, 2018, at the age of 88. Born June 5, 1929, in Spartanburg, S.C., he was the son of Wilton B. Fowler and Maude A. Pearson. The family moved to Bennettsville during his senior year of high school. Wilton attended Furman University, earning a degree in voice. He loved his years at Furman, making many life-long friends and developing a life-long love of music.
His love of singing began with a decision his mother required of him as a young boy. She had him choose between piano lessons or voice lessons. Neither excited him, but he chose singing. Of the many things he enjoyed in life ¬¬– tennis, bridge, Scrabble – singing was always on top. Wilton also got much joy out of singing with the Palmetto Mastersingers for many years.
He joined the U.S. Navy after graduation from Furman, serving aboard the USS Bairoko and the USS Rendova. He mustered out in Long Beach, CA where he met Carol Jean Medvec while singing in the church choir. After Wilton got a job with the USO in Boston, they married. Later they moved to New York and then back to Spartanburg, S.C. Wilton and Carol had three children. Carol died of a brain aneurysm in 1965.
After her death, Wilton moved to Columbia and earned a Masters in Counseling at the University of South Carolina. He then went to work at the South Carolina Employment Security Commission as head employment counselor. Wilton met and married Barbara Groom in 1968. They had one child.
Wilton is survived by his wife of 50 years, Barbara; brother, William P. Fowler; children Michael Fowler, Karen Shevenell (Joe), and Julie Webster (Larry); grandchildren Michael (January) and Max Fowler, Alex, Spencer, and Nic Webster, and Isaac and Miriam Shevenell; great-granddaughter, Juniper Grace Fowler; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. He was predeceased by his first wife, Carol Medvec and his son, Steven Andrew Fowler.
Memorials can be made to Seven Oaks Presbyterian Church, 530 St. Andrews Road, Columbia, SC 29210 or the Presbyterian Community of South Carolina 2817 Ashland Road, Columbia, SC 29210.
A funeral service will be held at 1:00 p.m. Monday, January 22, 2018 at Seven Oaks Presbyterian Church, with burial in First Presbyterian churchyard. The family will receive friends at the church one hour prior to the service. Dunbar Funeral Home, Dutch Fork Chapel, Irmo, is assisting the family.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18