‘A friend to everybody’: Loved ones remember late Conway bailiff, family man
Every day Earl Spain showed up an hourly early to work at the Conway Courthouse. He would sit in his car, wait until 6:30 a.m. and call his daughter on her way to work.
His daughter, Melondy Spain Moultrie, was Spain’s only child who he didn’t see every day. So he made an effort to talk with her every morning and then again at 7 at night. like clockwork.
Moultrie said her dad never wanted her to forget how much he loved her.
“He just loved his kids and wanted to make sure we were close,” Moultrie said of her father, who died at age 82 on Dec. 21 after a months-long fight against cancer.
Despite his sickness, Spain refused to miss a day of work as a bailiff for the Horry County Sheriff’s Office.
To his family he was a hero, to his coworkers he was a mentor and to the kids he helped he was a calming presence. His son, James Earl Spain II, said it didn’t matter if you were family, a friend or a stranger - he treated you the same.
“That was just dad,” James Earl Spain II said. “He would give you the shirt off his back and if he didn’t have one, he would go buy you one.”
When the elder Spain met someone in need, he did what he could to help them. Sometimes he’d even invite kids in need to spend weeks with his family.
Spain served in the U.S. Army, coached football, worked in the education system and with foster kids, and since 2002 he’s served as a bailiff typically for the family court floor in the Horry County Courthouse.
His love of working with kids made him well suited to work on the family court floor of the Horry County Courthouse. There, he helped kids whose parents were divorcing, undergoing custody battles and or those who were going through tough times.
“I call it our toughest floor,” said Lt. Brooks James with the Horry County Sheriff’s Office. “You start talking about family, blood and kind. People can get nasty. But he controlled that table and the floor.”
Spain helped kids when they needed it most and he did it by showing them respect first, James said. He wanted the kids who came through the courtroom to present themselves in a way fitting of the location.
Despite his position, Spain did not wear a police uniform in order to be more approachable in case kids were nervous around officers. James said he could entertain the kids while also challenging them to be strong through whatever brought them to court.
To courthouse employees, Spain acted as a constant positive presence in the courtroom. Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said no matter how tough his day was, Spain had a joke or a funny story that could cheer people up.
He was a person meant to do the job he was in, said Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson, who worked with Spain for years. While he was friendly to everyone, Spain was also able to be stern when his bailiff duties required it.
Brooks said Spain was never trained in police tactics or security, but he knew how to control his floor by being able to talk with people, especially kids.
“It would be funny to see kids acting out in the hallway and Mr. Earl going to straighten them out,” Brooks said. “He knew everybody, he was a friend to everybody.”
Moultrie said she is sharing with her kids all the kind messages people are saying about her grandfather. The family has heard from government leaders, lawyers and many other lives he has touched.
To her it isn’t a surprise. Over the years, Spain showed a friendliness to all, no matter how difficult the times.
“The last few years have been turbulent with race relations, but to my dad it didn’t matter,” Moultrie said. “He treated everybody the same.”
This story was originally published December 25, 2019 at 12:00 PM.
