Fantastic name and he seemed a pretty decent bloke as well.
The Post & Courier reports…
Tom Turnipseed, the Columbia attorney, former state senator and longtime activist, died on Friday. He was 83.
Turnipseed’s wife, Judy Turnipseed, shared news of her husband’s passing on social media.
“Tom fought for racial, social and economic justice,” she wrote on Saturday. “He set an example for us, his wife and kids, that was hard to live up to. In his honor, I will try to carry on his legacy.”
Tom Turnipseed was a South Carolina senator from 1976 to 1980, and ran for a number of other offices through the years, including the U.S. House, governor and lieutenant governor. He ran as a Democrat for SC attorney general in 1998, garnering 46 percent of the vote statewide in a race against Republican Charlie Condon.
On Saturday morning, third-term Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin lamented Turnipseed’s passing.
“There is and will only ever be one Tom Turnipseed,” Benjamin says. “Tom led one of the most colorful lives in South Carolina political history and left this world with an indelible mark as a fighter for social justice, as an advocate for the homeless, a proponent of peace, and as a true believe in environmental justice.”
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