Thomas Rich (1908 - 1979)

Born 6 Jul 1908 in Red Bluff, Marlboro County, South Carolina

Ancestors

Husband of Pearl (Norton) Rich — married 30 Nov 1927 in Bennettsville, Marlboro, South Carolina, United States

Died 5 Nov 1979 at age 71 in Bennettsville, Marlboro, South Carolina, United States

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Biography

Thomas Rich was born on July 6, 1907 (some records show 1907) in Red Bluff (now Clio) Marlboro County, South Carolina. He is the son of John Rich and Fannie Polston Rich.

On November 30, 1927, Tom Rich married Pearl Norton, the daughter of Walter Norton and Molly Caulder Norton. They were living in the Harmony School District in Marlboro County, South Carolina. They had two children, Horace L. Rich, born in 1931 and Peggy Rich, born in 1934.

By 1940, Tom and Pearl had moved to Sumter, South Carolina and were living with their daughter Peggy who was 6 years old at the time. Their son, Horace passed away on November 18, 1937 at the age of six.

Sometime in the 1950s, Tom and Pearl moved their family to Bennettsville, Marlboro County, South Carolina.

Tom passed away on November 5, 1979 in Bennettsville, Marlboro County, South Carolina and is interred in Sunset Memorial Park in the same city.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (Index Link' : accessed 12 March 2016), Tommie Rich in household of John Rich, Red Bluff, Marlboro, South Carolina, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 84, sheet 2A, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,375,480.

• "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (Index Link: accessed 2 February 2017), Tomie Rich in household of John Rich, Red Bluff, Marlboro, South Carolina, United States; citing ED 127, sheet 23B, line 63, family 445, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1703; FHL microfilm 1,821,703.

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (Index Link: accessed 2 February 2017), Tom Rich, Harmony, Marlboro, South Carolina, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 32, sheet 1B, line 59, family 12, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2205; FHL microfilm 2,341,939.

• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (Index Link: accessed 2 February 2017), Tom Rich, Sumter Township, Sumter, South Carolina, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 43-38, sheet 7B, line 74, family 129, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3842.

• "South Carolina, County Marriage Licenses, 1911-1951", database, FamilySearch (Index Link: 8 October 2020), Tom Ritch, 1927.

• "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (Index Link: 16 May 2014), Tom Rich, Residence, Bennettsville, South Carolina, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.

• "South Carolina Deaths, 1915-1965," database with images, FamilySearch (Index Link: 18 April 2016), Thomas Ritch in entry for Horace Ritch, 18 Nov 1937; citing , Ritch, Horace, 1937, Department of Archives and History, State Records Center, Columbia; FHL microfilm 1,943,848.

• "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (Index Link: 19 May 2014), Tom Rich, Nov 1979; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

• Find A Grave Memorial #146912756

• Spears Discusses Book On 1952 Darlington County Murder

• Hartsville Rotary Club Hosts Author Dr. M. B. (Beverly) Spears

Research Notes

• Unsolved: Murder in the Solid South By M.B. Spears

The most notorious unsolved murder in our state's fraught history went down in Darlington County in the 4th Judicial District of South Carolina in the dark of April 3, 1952. This book is a protest and an anniversary marker, written 63 years after the killing night. The recollections of many who experienced the crime and its investigation close up and variously have since been woven into UNSOLVED. These, along with one last startling revelation, are forthwith included in this 2018 Final Edition of UNSOLVED: A Murder in the Solid South. What difference, at this point, does an political murder from the past make? More than you might think. Old sins cast long shadows; no one can forget what will not be forgotten. M B Spears and her contemporaries had their lives changed by this crime and what followed it. As hope for closure evaporated, "normal" life shifted, showing them once and for all that they couldn't trust the manmade justice system as it existed in the Solid South. Among ordinary thinking people in the victim's church-going, Bible-believing, agricultural community, acceptance of entrenched local leaders crumbled into dust and was replaced by distrust of those who would defend the indefensible. Seeing the Pee Dee region from across the sea for 18 years clarified for M B Spears how and why Solid South crime(s) went unsolved. Some warn it's best to let sleeping ghosts lie. Others develop over time a need to liberate those ghosts by tearing apart the thickened covering of lies. Their experiences and recollections have built UNSOLVED. In the course of 3 years since first publication, probably for the first time in the history of publishing, a book has evolved into a detective.