A10 TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 THE TIMES AND DEMOCRAT OBITUARIES OBITUARIES Dorothy Zimmerman ORANGEBURG Funeral services for Mrs. Doro- thy Zimmerman, 88, of Orangeburg, SC, will be held Thursday, April 11, 2024, at Mt. Carmel Bap- tist Church, Cameron. Interment will be held Friday, April 19, 2024, at Ft. Jackson National Ceme- tery, Columbia.
Mrs. Zimmerman will be placed in the church one hour prior to the service. Mrs. Jackson passed away Thursday, April 4, 2024, at MUSC Health-Orangeburg. Visitation will be held Wednesday, April 10, 2024, from Family and friends may visit 28 Hawthorne Trail, Orangeburg or call Simmons Funeral Home and Cre- matory of Orangeburg.
Online condolences may be expressed at www.sim- monsfuneralhome.com. Cassandra Lewis ORANGEBURG The funeral service for Ms. Cas- sandra Lewis, 68, of Orangeburg, will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 10, 2024, at New Light United Meth- odist Church in Orangeburg. Interment will follow in New Light UM Church Site.
Ms. Lewis will be placed in the church prior to the service for viewing. Ms. Lewis passed away on Monday, April 1, 2024. Public viewing will be from 1 to 6 p.m.
Tuesday, April 9, at W. B. Crumel Funeral Home of North. The family is receiving visitors at the residence of her sister, Willa Jean Lewis, 142 Valiant Drive, Orangeburg. Friends may also contact the funeral home.
SPECIAL TO THE COLUMBIA More than 1,500 students representing 19 counties across the state will gather at the South Carolina State House on Thursday, April 11, to cel- ebrate reading at the 2024 South Carolina Read-In. This annual event, spon- sored by the South Carolina State Library, lets students show why kids who read succeed. The Marching 101 Band of South Carolina State University drumline will lead the parade. Attendees will hear from special guests including: Sheriff Leon Lott, Richland County Sheriff Ellen Weaver, SC Su- perintendent of Education Dinah Johnson, South Carolina Author of Jada Samuel, Miss South Carolina 2023, Au- thor of on a Journey: Finding a SCASL Regional Li- brarians of the Year Emily Midlands Regional Librar- ian of the Year Jennifer PeeDee Regional Librarian of the Year Katherine Lowcountry Regional Li- brarian of the Year Registered groups gather in the State park- ing lot at 1500 Senate St. between 9:15 and 9:45 a.m.
The parade to the State House begins promptly at 10 a.m. and the route fol- lows Senate Street to the State House. The Read-In program ends at 11:30 a.m. and groups are invited to stay at the State House until 12:30 p.m. SC State Marching 101 drumline to lead 2024 SC Read-In parade SPECIAL TO THE A seemingly simple mo- ment can be worked into a story.
Jones sees them everywhere. story can be some- thing just as simple as a person walking down the street fell, and the grocer- ies fell out the Jones told South Carolina State University communica- tions students during her session at her alma mater on March 27. will exag- gerate that thing a million times until I fi nd the funny in it all my life. I love creative storytelling. can add all of those details, but I will tell you how he fell, what the or- ange looked like when it exploded, what his face looked she said.
love dropping pearls and fi nding ways to leave something in a space for which you expect- The television screen- writer graduated from SC State in 1995 and moved to Los Angeles to realize her dream of writing for the entertainment industry. She worked in production for multiple shows at War- ner MGM, and Par- amount while honing her writing skills. After the birth of her son, Cornell, she left the entertainment business and pursued a career in pharmaceutical sales. Jones spent 10 years in corporate America be- fore returning to her fi rst love, television comedy writing. She looked back.
Since rebooting her career, Jones has found her niche for her words on such proj- ects as the CBS sitcom and the movies she has written for Lifetime, including the highly successful gle Black and its sequel, Black Fe- male 2: With a third in the series on the way and yet another project in the works, Jones shows no signs of slowing down. But it been easy. Jones told SC State stu- dents and faculty and staff members that when she started her career, less than of screenwriters were Black. When she got her break in Hollywood, it was less than On she was the sole Black female in the room. HBCU is a hot spot.
It is hot to be from an she said. am what Hollywood deems as a FUBU writer, and I am OK with that FUBU meaning us, by When you hire you are hiring her for a Black voice. What this did was give me a voice diff erent than every- body She told the SC State students there is room in the business for more di- versity. believe the table for whatever fi eld in is big enough for all of us to sit and eat she said. She cautioned the stu- dents not to get caught up in the noise.
guys have it hard because of social media, but Jones said. look at social media and use it as your measuring point. It will destroy you in that way. Run your own race. Be OK with a She advised the students that if the stay on point with good intentions and good hearts, they will fi nd success regardless of where the journey takes them.
pushing through. You will get she said. you get to where you thought you were sup- posed to go, I swear to you it will be better than what you thought way SC State senior commu- nications major Amauri Allen soaked in the advice from Jones. asked her a lot of ques- tions about her journey as a Allen said. an alum from SC State, so I wanted to know exactly what her journey was from SC State to where she is now.
She was told no a lot of times in Hollywood, but that did not set her back or discourage her. a broadcast commu- nications major, it means a lot. We love when alums come and pour knowledge into us, because the Com- munications Department is not huge. So, we love when the attention is on us to give us that knowl- edge to make us Allen said. During her visit to SC State, the City of Orange- burg honored Jones with a mayoral proclamation de- claring March 27, 2024, as Jones in the city.
The SC State chap- ter of her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, also honored her with a special gift. Jones remained on campus for a screening of Black Female and a reside with the audience afterward. The events were coordi- nated by the SC State Di- vision of Academic Aff airs, the College of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Depart- ment of English and Com- munication. TV writer offers advice from her journey SPECIAL TO THE TV screenwriter Jones addresses SC State students and faculty about paths to success. SPECIAL TO THE Potentially 21,000 eligible children in SC are not par- ticipating in the Child Early Reading and Development Education Program (CER- DEP) funded through the state of South Carolina, based on a recent study published by the South Car- olina Education Oversight Committee (EOC).
CERDEP is the umbrella term for state-funded, full day 4K in South Carolina. It includes First Steps 4K held in private, non-public school centers, and CERDEP 4K held in public schools. role is to eval- uate the impact of full-day 4K, given the signifi cant in- vestment the state is mak- said EOC Executive Director Dana Yow. evaluation contin- ues to affi rm the positive eff ects that full-day 4K are having for children, partic- ularly those in poverty. It provides a solid foundation for kindergarten and future CERDEP is now accepting applications for the 2024- 2025 school year for eligible students who must meet the following criteria: be four years old on or before Sept.
1, 2024, a South Carolina resident, eligible for Med- icaid, lunch or a recipi- ent; homeless or transient, or in foster care. Children who show delays in devel- opmental readiness are also eligible. 4K is ben- efi cial for kindergarten read- iness for pupils in poverty, which is the target popula- tion of students identifi ed as at-risk pursuant to Section 59-156-110 of the SC Code of the annual CERDEP evaluation and re- port states. Pupils in poverty who participate in CERDEP are more likely to demonstrate readiness on the Kindergar- ten Readiness Assessment (KRA) than those pupils in poverty who did not par- ticipate, according to the report. South invest- ment in state-funded, full- day 4K continues to grow.
$106,698,962 was spent on 4K for the 2022-23 Fiscal Year, which was the largest investment to date. EOC commends the General Assembly in priori- tizing 4K education through increasing funding to help prepare our children for EOC chairperson April Allen said. To expand state-funded, full-day 4K the EOC re- cently recommended that $14.1 million of funding be used to accommodate more students as well as providing the program training in the science of reading for early childhood teachers and as- sistants. Families interested in fi nding out more informa- tion about CERDEP eligi- bility can visit mettoprek.org/ Eligible four-year-olds can be registered for 4K program SPECIAL TO THE COLUMBIA The Mid- lands Spring Plant Flower Festival returns to the South Carolina State Farmers Market April 11-14, 2024. Visitors can shop for plants, garden essentials, Certifi ed South Carolina produce, springtime and much more from a va- riety of vendors.
The Mas- ter Gardeners will be set up to answer spring planting questions. Hungry? Buy a meal or snack from one of the food vendors on hand, or visit the on-site Market Restaurant. The four-day event runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
The South Carolina State Farmers Market is located at 3483 Charleston Highway in West Columbia. Admission and parking are free. Wagons will be available for rent, but visi- tors are encouraged to bring their own due to a limited quantity. For more information about the Spring Plant and Flower Festival, contact So- nia Brazell sc.gov, 803-737-4614). You can also visit agriculture.
sc.gov/state-farmers-mar- kets or fi nd the market on Facebook at Market. Midlands Plant and Flower Festival set at State Farmers Market FILES Gardeners will be able to choose from healthy, locally grown plants when they attend the Midlands Plant and Flower Festival April 11-14 at the State Farmers Market. JOSEPH BUSTOS The News Service U.S. Sen. Lindsey Gra- ham, and a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, is break- ing with the White House abortion position that the decision should be left up to the states.
Graham has called for a national 15-week ban on abortion with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. rights only rationale today runs con- trary to an American con- sensus that would limit late-term abortions and will age about as well as the Dred Scott Graham said in a state- ment. science is clear a child at fi fteen weeks is well-developed and is ca- pable of feeling Trump, who is running for a second term as pres- ident in this election and is the presumptive Re- publican nominee, posted Monday a video on his so- cial media network Truth Social, said the issue should be left up to the states. view is now that we have abortion where every- body wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or leg- islation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the Trump said in the video.
During his one term, Trump appointed three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in its Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a right to an abortion. Since the Dobbs deci- sion, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mon- tana, Ohio and Vermont have held public referen- dums where voters sided with abortion supporters to protect access to the procedure. South Carolina bans abortion after a fetal heart- beat can be detected, usu- ally around the sixth week of a pregnancy.
Graham has argued for a 15-week ban because a fetus can feel pain at that point in a pregnancy. until we achieve this goal, the least we can do is to provide anesthesia to an unborn child facing an abortion at fi fteen weeks because they can feel Graham said. I will be intro- ducing new legislation re- quiring abortion providers to administer anesthesia to an unborn child at fi fteen weeks because they are capable of feeling pain. It is common medical practice to administer anesthesia to operate on an unborn child at fi fteen weeks to save their Graham, Trump differ on abortion ban SPECIAL TO THE COLUMBIA Secretary of Commerce Harry M. Lightsey III announced on April 1 the promotion of An- nie Caggiano to serve as the South Carolina Department of Global Busi- ness Development (GBD) di- rector.
With nearly 20 years of economic development ex- perience, Caggiano brings a knowledge base informed by utility, university, state and county perspectives. She has worked with companies from many industries, with an emphasis on automotive manufacturing and corpo- rate headquarters, helping to recruit more than $2.1 billion and 10,000 jobs to the state. Carolina has a proven track record of help- ing businesses achieve suc- cess from launch to legacy, and Annie ex- pertise and passion for cre- ating opportunities for all South Carolinians through economic development will help ensure that S.C. Com- industry recruit- ment track record remains said Lightsey. In January 2023, Caggiano marked the start of her sec- ond tenure at S.C.
Com- merce when she rejoined the agency as a business re- cruitment manager. Prior to returning to the GBD team, Caggiano spent the previous three years in the Upstate of South Carolina serving as the president of the Oconee Economic Alliance, lead- ing its industrial real estate product, and business re- cruitment and retention eff orts, and as director of business recruitment for the Upstate SC Alliance. Her other experience in- cludes time at the Central SC Alliance, where she served as director of research; as senior project manager for Santee Cooper; as assis- tant director for Richland County; and as an S.C. Commerce project manager. The S.C.
Commerce GBD team consists of eight proj- ect managers who work to attract new industry to the state and help existing in- dustry with expanding their operations. For the last two years, S.C. Commerce has led the state to secure re- industry cord-breaking recruitment ($10.27 billion in 2022 and $9.22 billion in 2023). S.C. Commerce names director for global development.
