Roy Warner Park recently had a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new football field and concession stand. A huge thanks and credit for making this happen was given to everyone from the Aiken County Park staff, Willie Stroman and Carolyn Rushton, to Kathy Rawls and all the way back to Rosa Freitag and her passion for the park.
Carroll Warner donated the land for the park in honor of his father, Marion Roy Warner. Carrol Warner died at the age of 63 in 1994. Carrol, a graduate of Clemson, a farmer and businessman, had served on the Aiken County Council for 17 years. He was an Air Force veteran of the Korean War, a past president of the Wagener Lions, member of the Wagener Jaycees and member of the Aiken Rotary Club.
In 1978, $7,000 in proceeds raised from a Wagons to Wagener festival were used to match a federal grant for the park’s construction. Town officials had already received $50,000 in federal aid for the park and Kathy Rawls worked tirelessly to get funds for this park throughout the years.
In the mid 1980’s, the town turned the land over to the county for development. The county immediately built the community center building in which the seniors met for meals provided by Aiken’s Council on Aging until the Listine Gunter Courtney Center was built on land donated by Norman Courtney in honor of his wife Listine. The seniors now meet at the Courtney Center where Carolyn Rushton is the park supervisor.
Also in the ‘80’s, Aiken County Councilmember Kathy Rawls got the funds for the fields and then for the lights on the fields with assistance from County Administrator Gary Smith and the Recreation Commission’s Paulette Bolin. Currently, she is securing the funds to replace the lights and to install a walking trail. Rawls has been vital to the development of the park.
As soon as the park had lights, the Wagener Youth Baseball, later called Dixie Youth began using the fields. This league was volunteer run by Dwight Yon and Mickey Jeffcoat and many, many parent volunteers. The park also developed a basketball court, tennis courts and a small playground. Today, the playground is enlarged, the tennis courts are gone and the basketball courts are still in use.
In 1995, the county assigned the park its own park supervisor, Ms. Emory Musselwhite. Musselwhite brought in aerobic classes, tumbling for kids, karate, a 4-H program and more. Around 2007, Rosa Frietag brought her passion in to manage and update the park which ended with her untimely death in October of 2008, just days before an anniversary celebration was to be held. Willie Stroman is the current park supervisor.
In the ‘90’s, the WSHS Future Farmers of America (FFA) raised a lot of funds with rodeos and mud runs in the area that is now a football field. The Young Farmers group in Wagener raised a lot of support by hosting the mud runs. Allen Williams, John and Clint Brown, Gene Garvin, Kevin Warner and many more had a lot of impact on the future of the park through the Young Farmers organization.
Also in the ‘90’s, the concession stand was built, made possible initially by Joey Heyward and Kathy Rawls. The new football field has the park’s second concession stand.
Keep up with events at the parks on Facebook/RoyWarnerCourtney or at AikenCountyPRT.com.