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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder | name=Alfred William "Red" Bethea | image=Alfred Bethea of SC.jpg | birth_date=June 20, 1916 | birth_place=Dillon, South Carolina | death_date=Sept..."
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Alfred William "Red" Bethea
| image=Alfred Bethea of SC.jpg
| birth_date=June 20, 1916
| birth_place=Dillon, [[South Carolina]]
| death_date=September 13, 1999 (aged 83)
| resting_place=Dothan Methodist Church Cemetery in Dillon County
| office=State Representative for [[South Carolina]]
| term_start=January 10, 1961
| term_end=1966
| occupation=[[Farmer]]
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]-turned-American Independent (1970)
|residence=Dillon, [[South Carolina]]
|religion=[[United Methodist]]
|spouse=JoAnne Dellinger Bethea
|children=Kitty, Buddy, Shannon, Lesa, Cammie, and Fitzhugh<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Fitzhugh Lee and Bonnie Keen Bethea
|alma_mater=[[Clemson University]]<br>
[[Colorado State University]]
|branch=[[United States Army]] Air Corps
|rank=[[Lieutenant colonel]]
|battles=North African Theater of Operations<br>
European Theater of Operations of [[World War II]]}}
'''Alfred William Bethea''', also known as '''Red Bethea''' (June 20, 1916 – September 13, 1999), was a [[farmer]] from Dillon County in eastern [[South Carolina]] who served as a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] state legislator from 1961 to 1966. In 1970, he left his party to run unsuccessfully as the [[Governor|gubernatorial]] nominee of [[George Wallace]]'s former American Independent Party.
==Background==
A son of Fitzhugh Lee Bethea (1889–1971)<ref name=cemetery/> and the former Bonnie Keen (1888-1938), Bethea received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1938 from [[Clemson University]] in Clemson in northwestern South Carolina. He served as a [[Lieutenant Colonel]] in the [[United States Army]] Air Corps in the North African and European theaters of operations during [[World War II]]. He earned a [[Master of Science]] degree from [[Colorado State University]] in Fort Collins, [[Colorado]], then known as Colorado A&M. Bethea was an active member the Veterans of Foreign Wars. From 1959 to 1960, he was a member of the United States [[Chamber of Commerce]]. He served as well on the Dillon County [[Farm Bureau]]. He was a lifetime member of the booster group called IPTAY ("I Pay Ten a Year") to support Clemson athletics. He was a member of Rotary International and the Main Street and Dothan [[United Methodist Church]] at 401 E Main St. in Dillon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21276163|title=Alfred W. "Red" Bethea (information taken from gravestone)|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=August 31, 2021}}</ref>
Bethea and his wife, the former JoAnne Dellinger (1928-2008), daughter of Lester E. and Saidee Blanchard Dellinger, had six children, Kitty, Buddy, Shannon, Lesa, Cammie, and Fitzhugh Bethea.<ref name=cemetery>{{cite web|url=http://sciway3.net/proctor/dillon/cemeteries/Dothan_cem.html|title=Dothan Methodist Church Cemetery|publisher=sciway3.net|accessdate=May 2, 2014}}</ref>
==Gubernatorial race==
In 1968, Bethea supported former Governor George Wallace for [[U.S. President]] in the three-way campaign against [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Richard M. Nixon]] and Democrat [[Hubert Humphrey]], the outgoing [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]], who sought to succeed President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Whereas Wallace returned to the Democratic Party to run against Albert Preston Brewer (1928-2017) for governor in 1970, Bethea became the standard-bearer of Wallace's former American Independent Party in his own run for governor against the Democrat John Carl West (1922-2004), the departing lieutenant governor, and the Republican choice, outgoing [[U.S. Representative]] Albert William Watson (1922-1994) of South Carolina's 2nd congressional district.
Bethea claimed that Wallace was sympathetic to Bethea's campaign, but with his own race in Alabama Wallace took no part in the South Carolina campaign.<ref>Billy Hathorn, "The Changing Politics of Race: Congressman Albert William Watson and the South Carolina Republican Party, 1965-1970," ''South Carolina Historical Magazine'' Vol. 89 (October 1988), p. 233.</ref>
Frank B. Best, Sr., of Orangeburg, the 1968 Wallace campaign manager in South Carolina, endorsed Watson, on the basis of the congressman's [[conservative]] record, rather than the victorious West, who had backed Humphrey in the previous presidential race. West had called Humphrey "a real friend of the South though he has had no credit for it."<ref>''Florence Morning News'' and ''Charlotte Observer,'' October 12, 1970; ''The State'' of [[Columbia]], April 1, 1968, October 10, 1970; ''Columbia Record,'' October 13, 1970.</ref> Other Wallace leaders backed the Democrat West, who led in ten of the twelve counties that Wallace had carried in 1968.<ref>South Carolina Election Commission, 1968 and 1970 election returns; ''Columbia State,'' November 11, 1970.</ref> Bethea finished the race with 9,758 (2 percent), a margin too small to have denied victory to Watson. West prevailed with 251,151 (52.1 percent); Watson trailed with 221,236 (45.9 percent).<ref>South Carolina Election Commission, 1970 general election returns</ref>
Bethea died at the age of eighty-three. He is interred with other family members at the Dothan Methodist Church Cemetery in Dillon County.<ref name=cemetery/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bethea, Alfred}}
[[Category:South Carolina]]
[[Category:Farmers]]
[[Category:State Representatives
[[Category:Former Democrats]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:United Methodists]]
| name=Alfred William "Red" Bethea
| image=Alfred Bethea of SC.jpg
| birth_date=June 20, 1916
| birth_place=Dillon, [[South Carolina]]
| death_date=September 13, 1999 (aged 83)
| resting_place=Dothan Methodist Church Cemetery in Dillon County
| office=State Representative for [[South Carolina]]
| term_start=January 10, 1961
| term_end=1966
| occupation=[[Farmer]]
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]-turned-American Independent (1970)
|residence=Dillon, [[South Carolina]]
|religion=[[United Methodist]]
|spouse=JoAnne Dellinger Bethea
|children=Kitty, Buddy, Shannon, Lesa, Cammie, and Fitzhugh<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Fitzhugh Lee and Bonnie Keen Bethea
|alma_mater=[[Clemson University]]<br>
[[Colorado State University]]
|branch=[[United States Army]] Air Corps
|rank=[[Lieutenant colonel]]
|battles=North African Theater of Operations<br>
European Theater of Operations of [[World War II]]}}
'''Alfred William Bethea''', also known as '''Red Bethea''' (June 20, 1916 – September 13, 1999), was a [[farmer]] from Dillon County in eastern [[South Carolina]] who served as a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] state legislator from 1961 to 1966. In 1970, he left his party to run unsuccessfully as the [[Governor|gubernatorial]] nominee of [[George Wallace]]'s former American Independent Party.
==Background==
A son of Fitzhugh Lee Bethea (1889–1971)<ref name=cemetery/> and the former Bonnie Keen (1888-1938), Bethea received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1938 from [[Clemson University]] in Clemson in northwestern South Carolina. He served as a [[Lieutenant Colonel]] in the [[United States Army]] Air Corps in the North African and European theaters of operations during [[World War II]]. He earned a [[Master of Science]] degree from [[Colorado State University]] in Fort Collins, [[Colorado]], then known as Colorado A&M. Bethea was an active member the Veterans of Foreign Wars. From 1959 to 1960, he was a member of the United States [[Chamber of Commerce]]. He served as well on the Dillon County [[Farm Bureau]]. He was a lifetime member of the booster group called IPTAY ("I Pay Ten a Year") to support Clemson athletics. He was a member of Rotary International and the Main Street and Dothan [[United Methodist Church]] at 401 E Main St. in Dillon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21276163|title=Alfred W. "Red" Bethea (information taken from gravestone)|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=August 31, 2021}}</ref>
Bethea and his wife, the former JoAnne Dellinger (1928-2008), daughter of Lester E. and Saidee Blanchard Dellinger, had six children, Kitty, Buddy, Shannon, Lesa, Cammie, and Fitzhugh Bethea.<ref name=cemetery>{{cite web|url=http://sciway3.net/proctor/dillon/cemeteries/Dothan_cem.html|title=Dothan Methodist Church Cemetery|publisher=sciway3.net|accessdate=May 2, 2014}}</ref>
==Gubernatorial race==
In 1968, Bethea supported former Governor George Wallace for [[U.S. President]] in the three-way campaign against [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Richard M. Nixon]] and Democrat [[Hubert Humphrey]], the outgoing [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]], who sought to succeed President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Whereas Wallace returned to the Democratic Party to run against Albert Preston Brewer (1928-2017) for governor in 1970, Bethea became the standard-bearer of Wallace's former American Independent Party in his own run for governor against the Democrat John Carl West (1922-2004), the departing lieutenant governor, and the Republican choice, outgoing [[U.S. Representative]] Albert William Watson (1922-1994) of South Carolina's 2nd congressional district.
Bethea claimed that Wallace was sympathetic to Bethea's campaign, but with his own race in Alabama Wallace took no part in the South Carolina campaign.<ref>Billy Hathorn, "The Changing Politics of Race: Congressman Albert William Watson and the South Carolina Republican Party, 1965-1970," ''South Carolina Historical Magazine'' Vol. 89 (October 1988), p. 233.</ref>
Frank B. Best, Sr., of Orangeburg, the 1968 Wallace campaign manager in South Carolina, endorsed Watson, on the basis of the congressman's [[conservative]] record, rather than the victorious West, who had backed Humphrey in the previous presidential race. West had called Humphrey "a real friend of the South though he has had no credit for it."<ref>''Florence Morning News'' and ''Charlotte Observer,'' October 12, 1970; ''The State'' of [[Columbia]], April 1, 1968, October 10, 1970; ''Columbia Record,'' October 13, 1970.</ref> Other Wallace leaders backed the Democrat West, who led in ten of the twelve counties that Wallace had carried in 1968.<ref>South Carolina Election Commission, 1968 and 1970 election returns; ''Columbia State,'' November 11, 1970.</ref> Bethea finished the race with 9,758 (2 percent), a margin too small to have denied victory to Watson. West prevailed with 251,151 (52.1 percent); Watson trailed with 221,236 (45.9 percent).<ref>South Carolina Election Commission, 1970 general election returns</ref>
Bethea died at the age of eighty-three. He is interred with other family members at the Dothan Methodist Church Cemetery in Dillon County.<ref name=cemetery/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bethea, Alfred}}
[[Category:South Carolina]]
[[Category:Farmers]]
[[Category:State Representatives
[[Category:Former Democrats]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:United Methodists]]