Ray McIver Clanton

Ray McIver Clanton DARLINGTON - Ray McIver Clanton, of Darlington, died on March 15, 2017. Funeral service will be held on Saturday, March 18th at 2:00 p.m. at the Darlington Presbyterian Church. Burial will follow in Grove Hill Cemetery, directed by Belk Funeral Home. The family will receive friends from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the funeral home on Friday. Mr. Clanton was born in Darlington, South Carolina, on September 7, 1927. He was a son of the late James Corbett Clanton, Sr. and Isla Blackmon Clanton. He was a 1945 graduate of St. John's High School where he was active in all sports. He played fullback on the 1944 South Carolina Shrine Bowl Team and had numerous college scholarship offers to play football. In the fall of 1945, Mr. Clanton was 16 when he entered Clemson with a four year scholarship to play under legendary college football coach Frank Howard. Mr. Clanton played left guard on Clemson's single wing football team and played both offense and defense as all players did at the time. The 1948 team was the second Clemson team to attend and win a bowl game, the Gator Bowl, and the second Tiger team to go undefeated and untied, second to the 1903 team coached by John Heisman. After graduation in 1949, Mr. Clanton remained at Clemson to serve on the coaching staff. The following year, after his father's heart attack, Mr. Clanton returned to Darlington to help run the family business, Clanton's Auto Auction, where he worked until he retired in 2006. Because he felt that he owed so much to Clemson, Mr. Clanton was a lifelong supporter of Clemson and IPTAY. Mr. Clanton had the distinction of being named to Frank Howard's All-Time Dream Team, made up of players chosen from 1931 to 1969. On December 28, 1950, Mr. Clanton married his high school sweetheart, Mary McFadden, in a double wedding ceremony with her identical twin sister, Marian, and her husband Bill Harper. Mr. Clanton and Mr. Harper were volunteer football coaches for many years at St. John's High School under Coach Jimmy Welch. They enjoyed their association with many of the young men through the years. As a young man, Mr. Clanton served with the Darlington County National Guard in the Medical Unit. Over the course of his lifetime, Mr. Clanton served on several boards, including the Darlington County Board of Education, First National Bank of Darlington, Wachovia Bank of Darlington and the Darlington Country Club. He was a charter member of the Florence Fitness Forum and member of the Darlington County Associated Club and the Brockington Hunting Club. Mr. Clanton was a member of the Carolina Independent Auto Dealers Association, the Southern Auto Auction Association, the National Auto Auction Association and other regional, state and local dealers associations. He was actively involved in all of these associations and enjoyed working with his faithful employees and the dealers that made his business so successful. In 1993, 50 years after the auction's founding by Mr. Clanton's father, the business was one of the ten largest auto auctions in the United States. As a faithful and dedicated member of the Darlington Presbyterian Church over the course of his lifetime, Mr. Clanton was a member of the Men's Sunday School Class, served on the administrative board, and served as a Sunday School Teacher, Sunday School Superintendent, Deacon, Chairman of the Deacons, Elder, Clerk of Session and Chairman of three pastor search committees. Mr. Clanton loved his family, Darlington, Clemson, football, hunting, fishing, all outdoor activities and practical jokes with his friends. Surviving are his wife of 66 years, Mary McFadden Clanton; his sons Richard McFadden Clanton and wife Lynn of HIlton Head, SC, and Robert Dean Clanton and wife Mary Beth of Darlington; his five grandchildren Mary Carolyn Longbrake and husband Kyle of Lynchburg, Virginia, William RIchard (Will) Clanton of Clemson, SC, Thomas Ray Clanton and wife Kayla of Easley, SC, Anna James Clanton of Greenville, SC, and Rosalyn McFadden (Rosi) Clanton; three great-grandchildren Colton, Ray Longbrake, Nathan Jordan Longbrake and Jillian Margaret Longbrake; a sister Bernice (Bunny) Clanton Thomas of Florence and several nieces and nephews. Mr. Clanton was preceded in death by his parents, a son, Ray McIver Clanton, Jr, in 1990, and two brothers, James Corbett (JC) Clanton, Jr. and Laurie Harold Clanton. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to the Darlington Presbyterian Church for the Mozambique Bible Project 311 Pearl Street, Darlington, SC 29532. or the Susan Johnson Memorial Fund, 311 Pearl Street, Darlington, SC 29532. A guestbook is available online at www.belkfuneralhome.com.