An 80th birthday (Ashton Hester’s) to remember
Here’s an easy one…Who on this earth knows more about Walhalla, South Carolina than a former college basketball player who was born in Savannah, Georgia? That’s easy. It is Ashton Hester, the Walhallan whose Oconee County newspaper career lasted a half century—most of which at a former weekly paper that chronicled Walhalla and area since the middle of the 19th century. His knowledge of local history is likely second to none after having read practically all editions of the Keowee Courier that he could get his hands on. The surprise of the occasion was announcement by Leslie Hagerty that the exhibit hallway of the Oconee History Museum will be named for John Ashton Hester. Those who spent part of their Saturday afternoon at Durham Hall learned a lot about the quiet, tall and slender man who reported for and edited the Courier – a paper that is still missed in the county seat. Ashton Hester’s admirers feted him with an 80th birthday celebration that included city government’s proclamation of Ashton Hester Day Saturday on his birthday. Hester kindly departed from politely declining to have his voice recorded for radio, and granted 101.7/WGOG NEWS an interview. Much of it will air on Monday.