South Carolina Sen. Kay Patterson, D-Columbia, eulogizes former U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond during Thurmond’s funeral service at First Baptist Church July 1, 2003 in Columbia. Then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (seated behind Patterson on the right) also gave a eulogy for Thurmond. (File/Tim Dominick/The State-Pool/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA — Former South Carolina Sen. Kay Patterson, a stalwart fighter for civil rights during more than three decades at the Statehouse, died Friday at age 93.
Patterson, first elected to the House of Representatives in 1974, had been in hospice care for several months before dying in the early morning hours Friday, said Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine, a Columbia Democrat who holds his former seat.
Patterson was among three Black legislators in the House who were elected in 1984 to the Senate. He remained in the upper chamber until his retirement in 2008, when then-Rep. John Scott, who died last year, won the seat.
Over his 34-year Statehouse career, Patterson was known for bringing humor into debates, even as he scolded his fellow lawmakers.
“When he got to the well, everybody got to their seat. Not only would we be informed and chastised, we’d be entertained,” said Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Hopkins. “You wanted to hear what he had to say.”
Born in Darlington County, Patterson attended Claflin College until 1951, when he joined the Marine Corps. He finished his undergraduate degree in social sciences at Allen University in 1956.
Patterson’s first foray into the Statehouse, however, was during his time at Allen University, when he worked as a janitor in the Wade Hampton Building, he said during a 2004 interview with the University of South Carolina. At that time, in 1956, Black people weren’t allowed in the Statehouse, Patterson recalled.
“And then one day I came back down here as a member of the House, and then one day in ’84 I came back sitting in the Senate as a senator,” Patterson said. “Now that’s a helluva long ways to come. That’s a long ways to come.”
For 14 years, Patterson taught at W.A. Perry Middle School before being reassigned as school classrooms integrated. When the new school didn’t want to give him as much work, he took a job with the South Carolina Education Association, where he worked until retiring in 1985, he said during the USC interview.
He was a lifetime member of the NAACP. He credits his “favorite uncle,” the Rev. Horace Prince Sharver, who was statewide president of the civil rights group, for his outspokenness.
“He was the one that inspired me to speak up and to speak out. That’s the way he was, and I wanted to be like my Uncle Sharver, and so I’ve always been outspoken,” Patterson said in 2004. “You should give respect to your elders and respect to your supervisors. I always respected them, but if something was on my mind, I was going to speak it, and if they did something wrong, I was going to tell them about it. I would always speak up and speak out.
“And that’s just my hallmark ever since I was a little child,” he said.
Patterson leaves behind a daughter and three grandchildren.
SC Daily Gazette Editor Seanna Adcox contributed to this report.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.