Shealy's Bar-B-Q Matriarch Passes Away

If you've spent any time in Lexington County, you've probably been invited out to Shealy's Bar-B-Q House in Batesburg-Leesville.

And it's quite possible if you made the trip out to the restaurant, with its long lines of folks waiting for chicken livers, rice and hash and the barbecue dinner on long tables with friends, family and strangers, you've run into Sara Risinger Shealy.

Shealy, the co-founder of the Lexington County institution, passed away Monday. She was 88. Visitation will be Wednesday night at the Barr-Price Funeral Home in Batesburg-Leesville.

Services will be conducted at 3 p.m. Thursday at St. Paul's Church with the Rev. Ernie Hack and the Rev. Dr. John Hill officiating. Entombment will follow in Christ the Good Shepherd Mausoleum at Ridge Crest Memorial Park.

According to her obituary at Barr-Price, serving as pallbearers will be Mikel Smith, Dr. John Ergle, Hollie Ergle, Jody Rhyne, Rocky Tindal, Tommy Kaminer, Robert Shealy, and James Shealy.

In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to St. Paul's Church, 144 E. Columbia Ave., B-L, SC 29070, Gideons International, B-L Camp, P.O. Box 2149, B-L, SC 29070 or to the Sara R. Shealy ProStart Fund C/O South Carolina Tourism & Hospitality Education Foundation, High School Culinary Arts Program, P.O. Box 7577, Columbia, SC 29202.

A former member of the Leesville Town Council, she was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, selected as Business Woman of the Year, and was inducted into the South Carolina Restaurant Hall of Fame.

Surviving are her husband, John F. Dorn; children, Tommy Lee (Sonya) Shealy of Leesville and Nancy Shealy (John) Hill of Summerville; step-children, Paul Earl (Willette) Taylor of Gilbert, Pat Bean of FL, Wyman Risinger of Leesville and Dorothy Grimes of KS; granddaughters, Lindy Victoria Hill, Sherrie Lyn Shealy, and Kaylee Rebekah Hill; sisters, Rubye Dellinger of Spartanburg, Evetta Smith of Gilbert, and Mary Ergle of Batesburg, many loving nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her first husband, Victor Lee Shealy, granddaughters, Mandy Elizabeth Hill and Allison Leigh Shealy, and husbands, Waldo Risinger and Paul Taylor, and step-mother, Ruby D. Risinger.