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40 images Created 30 Jul 2017

A collection of some of my favorite images from the past 26+ years. Most were taken for the various newspapers I worked at throughout that time and are significant on a personal level.

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  • Bob Nolan cleans and strokes the grave stone of His wife Peggy Nolan with a reassuring motion that gives the stone a sheen that sets it apart from the others. The grass below the marker is worn from his pacing footsteps. Nolan, a 79-year-old retired army veteran who served for 20 years 2 months and 22 days, visits Peggy every morning at Fort Jackson National Military Cemetery. Since she passed in 2007 Bob has only missed visiting his "beautiful Southern Belle" 21 days. Peggy is buried with his purple heart medal around her neck. "I figured she gave me an extraordinary life, she deserves it," he said.
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  • Cowboys prepare for their events as the Blythewood "Doko" Rodeo gets underway at Blythewood Community Center Park. The event featured live music, food, mechanical bull riding and an array of rodeo events including bull riding.
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  • Hailey McCurry, 9, of Lancaster, sits in a swing as race cars make their way to turn one during a race in August. The play area above the track is a popular destination for children of all ages. "Dirt Track"
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  • Jessie Frierson has been selling produce part-time on weekends for about 25 years. About five years ago he moved to his present location on Leesburg Road. "I enjoy meeting people," he said. Although Frierson wouldn't share his age he did say being outdoors helps him stay young. "If you don't get out of the house you get old faster," he said.
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  • Mandi Ridgedell, a singer with the Victory Belles, plants a kiss on Thomas Burgess, a Battle of the Bulge vet and member of the 87th Infantry Division, as she sings "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" during the Battle of the Bulge victory floor show and party at the Columbia National Guard Armory Friday. "This brings back an awful lot of memories," he said.  This image was part of Gerry Melendez winning portfolio in the National Press Photographers Association Best of Photojournalism 2011. Melendez took third place in the Photojournalist of the Year (Smaller Markets) category and also had an honorable mention in Sports Picture Story for his work at The Masters. Now in its eighth year, the Best of Photojournalism (BOP) is the world's leading digital photojournalism contest.
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  • (06/29/05) -- Columbia, SC --BLUFF ROAD---Children play on their bikes outside Milligans on Bluff Road. “This is where the black warriors grew up – the toughest area I ever lived in,” said Ron Ferg.  The retired art educator and local artist was remembering his childhood on Bluff Road while showing off some of his art at Milligans country store, where children played. This stretch of nearly 20 miles from I-77 leading to Gadsden continues its struggles with crime and an inability to find an identity. “We hardly have any landmarks,” said Coley Washington, a longtime resident. “But we continue to fight to improve this area.” <br />
And fight they do. Take a quick drive down this road and you will get the sense that the starkness you witness as you drive has remained unchanged for years. Take a closer look, and you will discover close-knit families and communities where children still gather around their country store – where an old cemetery is being preserved on the Westinghouse property – where a church is celebrating 145 years of existence.<br />
	It’s a place where brothers come out at night to light up their homemade basketball court; where children pick fresh strawberries and blueberries each summer; where people rise at the crack of dawn to meet at a local diner; where tourists from around the world come to explore one of the country’s most unique attractions – the Congaree National Park.
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  • (10/24/04) Gerry Melendez/The State-- U.S. Senator-to-be Barack Obama campaigns for Inez Tenenbaum at Bible Way Church.
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  • (04/10/05) -- Augusta, GA -- MASTERS --   Tiger Woods celebrates his Masters victory with his caddie Steve Williams after sinking the winning put in a playoff hole on No. 18 during Sunday's final round of The Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.
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  • C.A. Johnson High School quarterback Michael Knox and teammates rest inside a baseball dugout during halftime of their game against Ben Lippen. This image was part of a season-long project exploring the tight weave of C.A. Johnson High School students’ personal lives, their relationship with head coach Jerry Jackson and their identity as football players.
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  • Raul, 25, has a beer and a smoke inside a Saluda, South Carolina pool hall, Friday, May 19, 2006. He came to the U.S. illegaly from Veracruz, Mexico seven years ago and hasn't seen his family since. "I can't even remember what they look like," he said. Traveling alone, Raul made his way to South Carolina from California and has been working at Amick Farms processing chickens. "I don't think people realize how hard life can be here,"he said. "I'm ready to go back. I'm done. I've made up my mind."
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  • 02/20/07---Charleston, SC---Gerry Melendez/ Robert Parks has been sharing the word of God on the corner of President Street and I-26 in Charleson for nearly fifty years. He is known by many as the "Rainbow Man" for a bright and colorful rainbow mural on his property. Parks built his church by hand in 1963 after God spoke to him and told him to buy the corner property. "He spoke to me in a vision," he said. "And I love God so much I had to do what the Lord told me." Today, Parks continues to help people in need and says his property is a landmark in town."The people love you because you stand for what God says."
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  • Families try to recover after a massive earthquake in India in 1999.
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  • South Carolina's LB Dantzler heads back to the dugout as Arizona celebrates after winning the 2012 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, NE.
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  • Andy Uswa gazes at a group of bluebirds as they feed in his backyard, Monday, February 16, 2015. "The story with the bluebirds began in the fall of 2013," he said. "I looked out the kitchen window and I saw a couple of bluebirds." Uswa went to Wild Birds Unlimited and bought a bag of live mealworms along with dried worms. As he fed them, the numbers started to increase. "The latest count in January was more than 80," he said. "I don't know how many will stick around and lay their eggs. If they do I'll just have to buy more worms."
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  • Into the light---(10/21/06)---Columbia, TN---USC's Captain Munnerlyn makes an acrobatic interception in the fourth quarter as the South Carolina Gamecocks take on the Vanderbilt Commodores, Saturday, October 21, 2006 at Vanderbilt Stadium.
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  • Dr. Dale Hamrick greets Bea Geiger and prepares to perform a routine checkup on the 97-year-old inside her Columbia home. "You know if you keep growing I'm going to have to put a new roof on this house," she jokes. Hamrick is one of the last remaining "country doctors" traveling to his patients at their homes.
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  • Cowboys get ready behind the chutes as they prepare for the Caldwell Night Rodeo in Caldwell, Idaho.
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  • South Carolina Gamecocks wide receiver Alshon Jeffery (1) makes a one-handed catch for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Gamecocks game against Citadel at Williams-Brice Stadium, Saturday, November 19, 2011.
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  • The Gonzales family has lived on Kelly Mill Road for about nine years. As the weather gets warm the family invites friends over for dinner, volleyball and some trampoline fun. Life along Kelly Mill Road and Rimer Pond Road.
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  • Known as the “Salmon River Caveman,” Richard Zimmerman, or Dugout Dick, lived an essentially 19th century lifestyle who never owned a telephone or a television and lived almost entirely off the land in Salmon, Idaho.
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  • South Carolina Gamecocks quarterback Perry Orth tries to collect himself on the bench in the first half against Georgia at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga, Saturday, September 19, 2015.
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  • USC's Whit Merrifield drives in the winning run in the 11th inning during game two of the 2010 College World Series finals between South Carolina and UCLA at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb, Tuesday, June 29, 2010. It gave the Gamecocks their first National Championship in baseball.
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  • Diamond's in the Dust for ESPN - Cecil "CJ" Hentz, 21, waits to bat against Upstate at Rutherford's Field in Newberry, SC. Hentz went to Mid-Carolina High School, where he was an All-Region and All-State player and lettered in three sports. Baseball, football and basketball. "It gives us something to do on the weekends," he said.
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  • "I'm going to do this till I can't stand up," said Odell Jackon as he finished cutting Bill Dixon's hair at Jackson's barber shop on Bluff Road. Dixon, 76, has been getting his haircut from Jackson since 1973. "I don't know what makes him a good barber but I've always been satisfied." <br />
 "Just  being here is unique," said owner Odell Jackson, 58. "You should see all the different people that you meet."<br />
The old building used to be a seamstress shop and a Magistrate's office. "Then I dropped in."
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  • An inversion darkens the skies behind Boise's Mike Smith as he tries to balance himself on a railroad track behind the Boise Depot while walking home late Wednesday afternoon.
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  • "House of Saints" follows Reggie Scott, a jazz musician and former convict released after serving a thirty-two year sentence for murder. Scott has returned to his childhood home, a historically significant place in Columbia's Arsenal Hill, where he's trying to bring the house back to life. Music and familiar spirits guide him in his quest.
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  • Columbia, SC 12/4/09---Neighborhood cats like Grandpa, Boscoe and Smokey are regular guests at the Grand Motel in Columbia. The motel has made a turnaround since Norman Goldberg and his wife Donna took over day to day operations in 2007. Since day one, the couple have worked tirelessly to make the motel a safe place for all their residents.
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  • Raymond Jolly watched his son and friends box at a corner field on Olympia Drive owned by the Jaco family. "This is the same Olympia I had when I was going to school over there," he said. “We played ball all the time around here.” Jolly thinks the community would flourish if there was a school for the area's kids. "We need Olympia School back the way it was," he said.
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  • Tyanne Dow, left, stepdaughter of Michael Anthony Steed, watches as his coffin is prepared for interment at Greenlawn Memorial Garden, Thursday, November 2, 3006. Steed, 41, who died from a gunshot wound after a man entered his Gatlin Drive home last Thursday, was remembered by family and friends and laid to rest.
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  • USC's Chase Vergason dives to score the Gamecocks first run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the third inning during USC's home opener against VMI at Carolina Stadium, Friday, February 17, 2012.
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  • Michael Bishop and Michael White run Dust to Dust, a "green" cemetery in Swansea where people can be buried naturally in a simple coffin like the one pictured. The coffin is left outside in plain view so visitors can get a look at what they will get.
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  • Southern Sports baseball player Joey Brooks, 9, is all smiles after his team's win over Pierce Construction in May. Lexington, SC 5/11/10 Gerry Melendez/gmelendez@thestate.com
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  • ---South Carolina junior offensive tackle No. 76 Jarriel King tries to stay warm on the sidelines during the Papa Johns.com Bowl at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, Saturday, January 2, 2010.
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  • The sun rises in the background as Bob Nolan spends a quiet moment visiting his wife Peggy at Fort Jackson National Military Cemetery. Nolan, a 79-year-old retired army veteran who served for 20 years 2 months and 22 days, visits Peggy every morning. Since she passed in 2007 Bob has only missed visiting his "beautiful Southern Belle" 21 days. Peggy is buried with his purple heart medal around her neck. "I figured she gave me an extraordinary life, she deserves it," he said.
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  • Although coming off a sub-standard year on the field, South Carolina's Jadeveon Clowney should still be a top pick in the upcoming NFL draft.
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  • OLYMPIA---On August 29, 1974 a headline appeared in the Columbia Record. It read: “Still Proud Mill Village Struggles to Maintain Its Sense of Community.” The story focused on Olympia, a small and proud mill town. Thirty six years later the headline still rings true according to many longtime residents. Olympia Mill Village, a short stretch of land surrounded by train tracks and anchored by the recently renovated Olympia Mill building is thought to be at a crossroads. New development and some preservation tries to revive what has been stagnant for years. Long on history, the town continues to evoke memories of years gone by when coke’s cost 10 cents, Jacos served moonshine and lint heads headed off for a 12-hour workday at the mill. <br />
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Anthony Allen Smith, 8, practiced his shot outside his apartment atop the Wash & Dry Laundromat in Olympia Mill Village, Sunday, January 4, 2009.
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  • Albanian refugee camp during the Kosovo crisis.
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  • (05/22/05) -- Columbia, SC --Coley---Coley Washington walks along some of her family members' graves after Sunday service at Rock Hill AME Church on Bluff Road. Washington, 86, has been attending the church since she was five. She is the last of 11 children living. "I miss my family, but I really miss my sister Vernel," she said. "Every time you would see me you would see her. We used to do everything together. We were close from childhood to adulthood. She passed a year and a half ago."
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  • Gill Jacobs shadow boxes outside Columbia Boxing Club Thursday, October 16, 2008. Jacobs is trying to make a boxing comeback. He is 54 years old. Although too old to fight in South Carolina, Jacobs is trying to line up out-of-state bouts. He has been training for a year for his comeback.
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  • The Ultimate Challenge Mud Run in Gaston, SC, took place Saturday, April 11, 2015. Established in 1993, the Mud Run is a 501c (3) non-profit organization that has grown to attract enlistee's from across the United States, Canada and around the world.
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