Yelton was cherished part of close-knit family and friends

Emily Yelton taught Justin Anderson’s younger brother Matthew to swim, said Justin’s older brother Stephen. It was just one of many signs of the bonds between the Anderson and Yelton families in Greenville’s Spaulding Farms neighborhood.

Emily, 19, had recently decided she wanted to become a teacher, said her mother Kim, who is a tennis instructor.

Sophomores at Clemson University, Emily and her identical twin sister, Meredith, continued parallel paths as they had at Greenville’s J.L. Mann Academy. Both had been members of the high school cheerleader squad. Emily became the squad captain.

At Clemson, Emily joined the Delta Zeta sorority. But many of her lifelong friends were at USC, and they were the ones who invited her to the beach.

Until she received that invitation Thursday morning, the twins had planned to go home to Greenville for the weekend to be with their parents.

Emily had an active spiritual life, attending Brookwood Church and participating in Young Life, a non-denominational Christian ministry that reaches out to youth through volunteers, staff, club meetings, and camps.

“Emily was a very strong Christian,” said her father, Jeff Yelton, who is vice president for merchandising at ScanSource Inc., a Greenville-based computer resources company.

The lives of Emily and Meredith Yelton were almost inseparable from those of friends Justin Anderson and Travis Cale. Emily had dated Travis since high school, and accompanied him to the beach weekend at Ocean Isle. She had gotten to know his new friends at USC by attending ball games and social events in Columbia.

Just two weeks ago, Kim and Jeff Yelton had moved away from their longtime Spaulding Farms residence to a new home several miles south in the new Cobblestone community. It was a move that Kim said has helped her endure the loss of her daughter.

“Everything just seemed to be in place,” she said. “If I had to go back to that old house with all those memories, I don’t think I could do it.”

Friends remembered Emily for her contagious friendship and gregarious nature.

“She never forgot,” said Brendan Smith, 20, a childhood friend. “Really, (she was) just an amazing girl. We’ve all got stories.

Smith remembered meeting the Yelton twins at a Super Bowl party hosted by Buncombe Street United Methodist Church in Greenville.

“I was like, ‘Goodness, they are wild,” he said. “They could talk to a wall.”

The Yelton twins had five close girlfriends, and they would hang out a lot with a group of other guys at J.L. Mann that included Tripp Wylie, Travis Cale and Justin Anderson.

“Just always together, always hanging out,” said Brayden Wynn, 20. “We all dated around with each other.”

Emily Yelton was a good friend, Smith said, and she often would tease Smith’s younger brother, Liam. On visits to Smith’s house, Yelton would try to find Liam’s candy stash. Liam would furiously defend its hiding place.

Eventually, Smith said, Liam gave in to Yelton and started sharing candy. Emily Yelton returned the favor by buying him Bi-Lo grocery bags full of candy.

“She wasn’t doing it for attention or anything like that. She wouldn’t call me and tell me she was bringing it over,” Smith said. “I’d come home and they’d say ‘Oh yeah, Emily stopped by last week and brought Liam another bag of candy.”

Smith said Liam decided to comfort Meredith Yelton the only way he knew how — by giving her a bag of candy.

Reach Hammond at (803) 771-8474. Staff writer Adam Beam contributed to this report.