Sophia Elizabeth Sullivan

Dateline – Laurens, SC

Sophia Elizabeth Sullivan of Clinton, South Carolina, died June 15, 2012.
Born in Laurens, South Carolina in 1916, she was the daughter of the late Warren Pinckney and Ruth Fuller Sullivan. She was a summa cum laude graduate of Presbyterian College and held graduate degrees in library science from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University and from the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of Illinois. She was Librarian Emeritus of Clemson University, where she worked in the University Library as librarian in charge of cataloging during the last fourteen years before retirement and where she served three years as a member of the Clemson University Faculty Senate. In her earlier years, Miss Sullivan had been a teacher at Fountain Inn High School and librarian at Bennettsville, Laurens, and Columbia high schools. Later she was head librarian at the Alabama State Teachers College, Florence (now the University of North Alabama), chief of technical processing at the library of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and head of cataloging at the University of Georgia Law Library. She also taught library science in the graduate library school at Florida State University and was a visiting lecturer at the library school of the University of Illinois. She was an honorary life member of the South Carolina Library Association, in which she had held several offices. She had also held offices in the Alabama Library Association.
Miss Sullivan was a member of the First United Methodist Church, Laurens, and was affiliated with the Broad Street United Methodist Church, Clinton. She was a member of the Broad Street United Methodist Women and the Broad Street Methodist VIMs. She was an active member of the Henry Laurens Chapter, NSDAR, in which she held leadership roles as chaplain, secretary, treasurer, and librarian.
She was the last surviving member of her immediate family. She was preceded in death by four brothers: Warren Pinckney Sullivan, Jr., Franklin Fuller Sullivan, Lofton Dunklin Sullivan, Marion Wilmouth Sullivan; and five sisters, Emmie S. Maxwell, Rosalie S. Redding, Ruth S. Hawkins, Sara S. Brunk, and Maudalene S. Young. Surviving are a sister-in-law, Bertha Foster Sullivan, nieces Ruth Maxwell Norman, Rosalie Redding Mainous, Sara Brunk Beardsley, Penny Sullivan Morgan, Pam Sullivan Wilson, Maudalene Young Reed, Leanna Young Parker, Sophia Young Case, Dell Young Prater, Mary Sullivan Burts, and Emalie Sullivan Uribe; and nephews Harper D. Hawkins, Jr., James Leland Young, Jr., Warren Sullivan, and L. Sandy Brunk, Jr. She is also survived by numerous great-nieces , great-nephews, great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews. Both her niece Sophia Young Case and great-grandniece, Sophia Claire Harvey, are named for Miss Sullivan, and her newest great-grandnephew, Sullivan William Harvey, carries her surname.
The family would like to express their appreciation to the nurses and staff of Martha Franks for their excellent, compassionate care. In particular, the family would like to recognize and thank Theresa Smith, Miss Sullivan’s sitter, for her extraordinary care, companionship, and compassion. Her almost constant vigil during the last weeks of Sophia’s life was a major source of comfort to her.
A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 19 in The Rasor Chapel at Martha Franks Baptist Retirement Center in Laurens, SC.
In lieu of flowers, memorials made to the Beaverdam Baptist Church cemetery fund, 1555 Beaverdam Church Rd., Mountville, SC 29370, or
bus fund, Broad Street United Methodist Church, 310 N. Broad St, Clinton, SC 29325.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.grayfuneralhome.com
Gray Funeral Home of Clinton.