The McDougald Funeral Home 2211 N. Main Street Anderson, SC 29621 864-224-4343OBITUARYFLAG MEL WOODY December 18, 1922 - March 15, 2007TOWNVILLE, SCMr. Esteen Melvin Woody of Townville, SC, retired sports editor and writer, whose newspaper career spanned 42 years, died Thursday, March 15, 2007 at AnMed Health Medical Center, Anderson, SC of Wegener's vasculitis. He was 84.Mr. Woody moved to Townville in 1988, when he retired from the Miami News. He came to Miami in 1980 and was its sports editor when Clemson won the National Collegiate Football Championship with a victory at the Orange Bowl in Miami.Born in Los Angeles in 1922, Mr. Woody was a son of the late Christine Burket and Esteen H. Woody. He was graduated from Crown Point (IN) High School and attended Indiana University before enlisting in the U. S. Navy in 1943. He attended the V-12 Naval Officer's Training program at Purdue and attended midshipmen's school at Northwestern and communications school at Harvard before service as a communications officer on the cruiser Duluth in the Far East.Mr. Woody and his wife, the former Shirley Jane Haviland were married July 6, 1946, in Asbury Park, NJ. Mr. Woody entered the newspaper business, first as a suburban reporter for the former Newark (NJ) News, when he covered the burning to the ground of the Canoe Brook Country Club (Summit, NJ), the building which had served as the plantation house in David W. Griffith's 1915 film classic, 'Birth of a Nation.' He moved to the Newark News sports department as night sports editor in 1951, a job that enabled him to attend Upsala College, East Orange, NJ, during the day. He graduated in 1953, magna cum laude.In the spring of 1954, Mr. Woody covered his first baseball spring training camp with the then NY Giants at Phoenix, AZ. He said his most vivid memory of that spring was in the clubhouse with pitcher Sal (The Barber) Maglie when Willie Mays walked into the clubhouse after a 19-hour flight from Virginia upon his release from the US Army. Magile interrupted autographing baseballs to say, 'Boy, am I glad to see you!' The reason became apparent when the brash young Mays, who should have been back at the hotel asleep, went on the field during an intra-squad game Manager Leo Durocher was conducting, hit a home run his first time at bat, then made a spectacular catch in the outfield after which he bounced off the deep center field wall, whirled and doubled a base runner off first base. That was Mr. Woody's introduction to the future Hall of Famer. PAGE TWO OBITUARY: MR. MEL WOODY'He was the best ballplayer I ever saw.' Mr. Woody often said. Mr. Woody was a lifetime member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America at his death and each year pored over candidates' statistics and performances before sending in his ballot. He also became a well-known figure at other sports scenes. He served as national president of the Tennis Writers Association and probably was the first northern writer to befriend the late, great Arthur Ashe. He served on the board of directors of the National Rowing Foundation, several terms as president of the New York Hockey Writers' Assn., and was a selector in both the annual Heisman Trophy voting and the Lambert Trophy voting for the Eastern Collegiate Football Championship. The Newark News folded in 1972 while Mr. Woody was covering the New York Mets in Cincinnati. That led to his joining the Cincinnati Enquirer, where his first job was ghost writing Red's outfielder Pete Rose's analysis of the 1972 World Series for that paper. 'I'd stand there fuming while Pete talked endlessly to every sportswriter in the world.' Mr. Woody recalled. 'I thought he wouldn't have a word left for the Enquirer readers, and we're paying him! But he was amazing. He could talk about baseball-and Pete Rose-for hours without repeating himself. He always had more fresh angles to discuss with me for our readers.' Mr. Woody was assistant sports editor there when called to the Miami News in 1980.Mr. Woody served as the first beadle at the Townville Presbyterian Church (USA), assisting Rev. Minnie Sue Douglas during services. He wrote a history of the church in 1990, which he called 'OUT OF NAZARETH' based on the title of the sermon preached by its pastor, Rev. John Bailey Adger at the 1877 dedication of the present sanctuary. Folk from Maryland to Texas to California sought copies of the book for information about relatives and friends here. Townville folk who read it urged him to expand the book into a history of the community at large and he was informally collecting background for such a work at his death.Mr. Woody is survived by his wife, Shirley; a daughter, Mrs. Susan Logan of Dalton, PA; a son, Luke and his wife, Antonia of Montgomery, NY; half-sister, Mrs. Frances Jean Parker and her husband, George of Townville; half-sister Mrs. Arleene, and her husband, Tom Ratcliff of San Diego; step-sister, Mrs. Betty Lloyd of Kansas City, KS; and a granddaughter, Helen Logan of Dalton, PA. A Memorial Service will be conducted by the Revs. Minnie Sue Douglas and James T. Foil at Townville Presbyterian Church, Monday, March 19, 2007 at 7:00 pm. Mr. Woody's ashes will be interred in Union Cemetery, Hackettstown, NJ.In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to Townville Presbyterian Church (USA), P.O. Box 124, Townville, SC 29689 or the Vasculitis Foundation, P.O. Box 28660, Kansas City, MO 64188-8660.A message of condolence may be sent to the family by visiting www.mcdougaldfuneralhome.comTHE MC DOUGALD FUNERAL HOME is in charge of arrangements.