Three generations graduate from Dreher High School
By Jackie Perrone
jacper@juno.com

Hank DeLoach ('79), Sallie DeLoach ('07), and Jean Baer DeLoach ('37) all graduated from Dreher High School.

When the doors of Dreher High School opened in the fall of 1937, Jean Baer joined the other newcomers in the adventure of a spanking new, state- of- -the- art Dre-her High School. This weekend, May 11 and 12, 70 years later, Jean Baer DeLoach will join her son and granddaughter at Dreher's "Final Party," Saturday evening at the State Museum. Those three generations are part of the thousands who have passed through Dreher's doors, and in about two weeks the wrecking crews will move in to raze the walls where the three spent their teenage years.

"I grew up on Wheat Street and transferred to Dreher from the old Columbia High," said Jean DeLoach. "Enrollment was not large, and not many extracurricular activities were organized at first. We did have an Honor Society, and I remember some of the boys being in The Dark Horsemen."

Nearly 40 years later, her son Hank DeLoach, Class of '79, was into sports during his Dreher days. "I played football and basketball and was a member of the Key Club. By that time Dreher had plenty of activities so everyone could find something to take part in."

Dreher was the catalyst that brought Hank DeLoach and his wife Pam back into Columbia a generation later.

"We moved back into Columbia from the St. Andrews area so our children could go to Dreher too."

Their daughter Sallie, class of 2007, graduates this week, and her brother Chandler will go to Dreher from Hand Middle School in two years. Their mother Pam teaches physical education at Dreher.

Sallie carries on the family tradition of sports at Dreher lettering in four varsity sports: volleyball, basketball, softball, and soccer, while maintaining a 4.6 GPA in Advanced Placement courses. She was president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Young Republicans Club, a member of the National Honor Society, and a Richland One scholar."

She's off to Clemson in August, to major in business and marketing.

Hank DeLoach is a volunteer with the party- hosting committee, part of the Dreher Foundation organizationwhich has served for many decades, doing fundraising to provide scholarships. " Each year we are able to help about 10 youngsters stay in school."

The new Dreher facilities are designed to provide space and amenities for a first- class education, with computer labs, spacious classrooms, and a high- tech theatre with a dome and an orchestra pit.