Selena S. Tomlin remembered in Allendale County obituary notice

Selena S. Tomlin’s ties to Fairfax ran through the details that matter most to Allendale County families: she was born there, graduated from Allendale-Fairfax High School and was the daughter of the late M.G. Smith Jr. and Mary Ellen Harter. She died at home in Columbia on May 18 at age 81 after an extended illness, and her obituary named her as the wife of Freddie Massey.

For readers in Fairfax, those facts place Tomlin inside a shared local history rather than a distant family notice. Fairfax was chartered in 1893 and incorporated in 1896, with its origins traced to Owen’s Store and the area near Fairfax Cemetery. Tomlin’s school connection also links her to one of the county’s longest-running institutions, Allendale-Fairfax High School, which has deep roots in the town’s educational history.

That history matters in Allendale County, the state’s youngest county, formed in 1919. In a place where town lines, school ties and family names often overlap, obituary notices do more than mark a death. They preserve the connections that bind Fairfax, Allendale and the surrounding rural communities together, especially for relatives and neighbors who recognize a familiar name across generations.

County school records from 1922-1923 already listed a Fairfax high school in Allendale County, underscoring that Tomlin’s link to Allendale-Fairfax High School belonged to a long-standing local tradition. Her obituary, published Thursday, May 21, added another name to the county’s living record of families rooted in the town’s past and carried forward through its schools and households.

For Allendale County readers, Selena S. Tomlin’s remembrance was not just a notice of loss. It was a reminder of how Fairfax natives continue to shape the county’s story, one family line and one school connection at a time.