Jimmy Bales Highway? Lawmakers move to name portion of SC road after ex-lawmaker
South Carolina lawmakers want to repay former state Rep. Jimmy Bales for his 22 years of service by naming a portion of a Columbia road after him.
The House and the Senate each adopted a resolution this month, directing the state’s transportation department to name a section of Shop Road — between its intersections with Pineview and Longwood roads — the “Honorable Jimmy C. Bales Highway.”
Because the change will be done by concurrent resolution, it does not need the approval of the state’s Department of Transportation commission, and staff can start the process of adding signage on the road once both chambers agree.
“I want to give credit where credit is due, and this gives him the respect he deserves,” said freshman state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, D-Richland, who succeeded Bales in the District 80 seat and sponsored the House resolution for the road name change. “It’s important to honor people who came before me.”
After 22 years in the S.C. House, Bales lost his reelection bid last summer to primary challenger Johnson, 35.
The Lower Richland representative was elected in the late 1990s, a period when Democrats slowed down the Republicans’ eventual takeover of the state House, a class with so few members still around, House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, mentioned in Bales’ September farewell address.
A native of Virginia, Bales, 85, was a South Carolina teacher, before he became principal at Lower Richland High School. Bales’ colleagues in the House would affectionately refer to him as “Dr. Bales.” Bales served on Richland County Council before he joined the House in 1999, later chairing the county’s legislative delegation.
But Bales’ worsening health took focus in his last few years in the House, after on a few occasions he collapsed while in the chamber, needing medical attention.
“My health couldn’t keep up with me,” Bales told The State Thursday, adding he no longer drives.
Bales said he is honored by his colleagues’ efforts.
“I stayed over there 22 years, and I had things in the community that I thought would improve the lives of our citizens, and I got money to fund them. And all the delegation voted for it. I am grateful to them,” Bales said. “We had a good relationship. There wasn’t any difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. (On) things that helped our community, we all voted.”
State Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, said no one worked harder than Bales for the Shop Road extension, making the road name change more needed.
“He was the driving force for that. He never gave up,” said Jackson, who filed the resolution in the Senate. “Jimmy has served Richland County and this state for a long time. I hope we can get this done so he will be able to be a part of the dedication.”
South Carolina has a treasured history naming bridges, roads and highways after South Carolinians.
But attempts in the past to quash the practice — particularly after some namesakes have been arrested for or convicted of a crime — have gone nowhere. Last year, legislation to only rename bridges, roads and highways after a person who has been dead for more than a year, or in special cases — for example, a police officer killed in the line of duty — failed to get out of committee.
Fourteen roads, bridges, and intersections were named after someone in South Carolina in the last year.
They included a section of Aiken County road named after the late state Rep. Ronnie Young, who died in 2019.
Now at home, Bales said he has been surrounded by family and is trying to keep himself busy. Though, he said, he misses the State House and his former colleagues, refusing to let an election loss get in the way of making fun of them.
“Garry Smith is a mess,” said Bales, who was known to debate back-and-forth especially with the Greenville lawmaker on the House Ways and Means Committee, which they both served on. “I look up on the television, and there he is standing behind the governor. We got along good. But he talks all the time. He never does shut up.”
