A semi-related story about the new Tombstone...

Sep 22, 2006, 3:36 PM

The name George V. Kornegay is a name most of you might not know, but he was a close friend of my family's from Camden, SC. George is also a HUGE reason why I love Clemson so much.

George was a converted USC fan (converted by my Grandad Joe Jackson) back in 1972...

1972 was the 1st year my Granddad got a motor home. One day my Granddad saw George's (who lived down the street at the time) motor home parked in his driveway so he stopped by and asked and asked him "who's visiting?" and George replied... "Visiting? THAT'S MINE!!"

George was a very competitive person and so was my Granddad so they both hit it off immediately by their bragging of each others motor home and businesses. My granddad ran the local liquor store and George ran Kornegay’s Funeral home.

George was a big Carolina fan but my Granddad convinced him to come up to a Clemson game one time to check it out. It didn't take but one visit to Clemson for George to be smitten

George and my Granddad traveled together to Clemson for over 20 years together and a lot of away games as well. George became a member of IPTAY got his own season tickets and became a true Tiger.

On a personal note, my first visit to Tallahassee in 1989 was a trip I made with George. Both my family and George's family were traveling down to Tally in a caravan. Being a 9 year old, I didn't want to ride in the same motor home that my mom and granny were in (yuck), so George offered to take me instead. This was doubly good news for me as George also had a daughter in HS at the time that was SMOKING HOT!! lol

Well, as it turns out we got lost in the deep country of GA for about 10 hours as we made our journey to Tally and we barely made it to town in time to catch the end of the Pep rally Clemson was throwing. As you may remember this was a time before cell phones and even car phones really so when my mom and granny got to Tallahassee before we did, they were hysterical to see we hadn’t arrived even though we had left almost 2 hours before they had.

While my mom and Granny were worrying George and I were living it up. To this day I can't remember a 10+ hour trip that I've made that was even close to as enjoyable as this one. When we arrived George joked it off saying that I gave bad directions and that they should have been more worried about him than me.

George died when I was still in high school and the pre-games in my Granddad’s motor home weren’t quite the same without George there to tell his “stories” and make us all laugh. Come to think of it George was the first person to let me try a “real drink”… a Jack and diet coke… but when I look back, I don’t remember tasting any Coke lol.

George was a great Clemson fan and always had a hand in helping Clemson every chance he could. He was a funeral home director and Clemson still gets their tombstones from him and his son Van (as seen in the pictures as well). George even has a Tiger Paw on his Tombstone back home at the Quaker Cemetery in Camden.

So next time you see those tombstones, think of George and know that they mean a lot more to me and all of Clemson than just the score carved into them.