Friends, church members and pastors have sought to comfort loved ones of the victims of a serial killer even as they try to come to grips with the aftermath of a tragedy that struck the Gaffney area in late June.
Mourners enter First Baptist Church of Gaffney on July 5 for the funeral for Hazel Linder, 83, and her daughter, Gena Lisa Linder Parker, 50. (Photo courtesy of the Gaffney Ledger)The murders have ended, but the healing has just begun. The victims – from ages 15 to 83 – are being remembered for lives of Christian commitment and full-throttled involvement in their churches.
‘A great asset to our church’
When anything needed doing at Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Cowpens, Kline Cash, 63, a well-known peach farmer in the Gaffney community, was among the first to step forward and volunteer to do it.
Pastor Robert Kirby said Cash, who grew up at Mt. Olive, was a “fantastic deacon” with a servant attitude. Cash also was chairman of the stewardship ministry. “He was one of the rocks of our church,” Kirby said.
His death on June 27 was a “traumatic experience” for the church. “It was like losing a family member,” said Kirby.
Kirby said the church held a special Sunday night service and invited church members to stand up and share their memories of Cash. “Everything he’s done has led to a story,” Kirby said.
“He was just a pillar of our church.”
‘Outgoing, wonderful people’
Hazel Linder, 83, who with her daughter died on July 1, was “one of the highest quality women you could ever meet,” said Becky Godfrey, secretary at Cherokee Creek Baptist Church in Gaffney, where Linder was a member since 1950.
Godfrey said Linder, a retired school teacher who was at church two times on Sundays and every Wednesday night, was “always doing things for people” like baking cakes or giving money for a special project at church. As a member of Godfrey’s discipleship training class, Linder was also an encourager, often stopping to touch Godfrey’s shoulder and compliment her teaching.
Godfrey said it was hard to go back into the class a week after her friend’s death “because she was always there.”
“Our church is just totally devastated,” Godfrey said. “It’s just hard for it to sink in because she was just part of us all the time. We’re hurting, and we’ll be hurting a long time around here.”
Linder’s daughter, Gena Parker, 50, a popular elementary school teacher from Anderson, was visiting her mother in Gaffney when both women were killed.
Parker, a member of New-Spring Church in Anderson, where she resided with her husband and two sons, grew up at Cherokee Creek Church and was married there.
Godfrey recalled seeing a young Gena, a shy child who would later grow up to be a “bubbly, outgoing” woman, clinging to her mother at the start of a Vacation Bible School. “She literally had her arms and legs wrapped around her mama and would not turn loose,” Godfrey said.
She was “an exceptionally fine person, a good Christian lady” who “was just like sunshine,” Godfrey said.
‘Our hearts are broken’
For Clyde Thomas, pastor of Cherokee Avenue Baptist Church in Gaffney, the tragic deaths of Stephen Tyler, 48, and his 15-year-old daughter, Abby, were a shock to his congregation and a profound loss that will take a long time to heal.
“I tell my people that, as Christians, we don’t live by explanations, we live by the promises of God in his word,” Thomas said.
Tyler and his daughter were attacked inside the family’s furniture and appliance store on July 2. He died at the scene. Abby died two days later.
Thomas said Tyler was a “man of character” who boldly shared his faith with his customers. He said Tyler wrote and printed a tract called “Lost and Found” and kept copies of it on the counter. He shared the tract with his customers.
“He would always say, ‘I’m a businessman, but, first and foremost, I’m a Christian,’ ” Thomas said.
In addition to serving as a deacon, Tyler was a Sunday school teacher and church treasurer. He also ran the church’s video and sound equipment during worship services.
Thomas, who has been at the church for 30 years, said he watched Tyler grow up. “I’ve known him all my life. I didn’t lose a church member – I lost a friend.”
Abby was active in the church’s interpretive movement young group. “She had that gift for expressing herself,” Thomas said. “She was a fine Christian young person who lived her faith every day at school and in the community. She was a beautiful young girl inside and out.”
Thomas said his church has responded to the family and will continue to do so in the coming weeks and months.
“This is not a one-time response,” he said. “It will be a continual response.”
Thomas said a “service of healing” for the Gaffney community will be held July 28 at 7 p.m. at Restoration Church on Limestone St.