Mary Ann Hutcheson
Humor is Dee Dee Whitehead’s most notable and endearing characteristic. One of the common threads woven into the fabric of her life is her ability to make friends wherever she goes and stay in close touch with them throughout the years. She is an inspiration. Whitehead describes herself as a military brat. Her father was in the army, and the family’s frequent moves resulted in her attending 13 schools in 12 years. She always returned to her Eau Claire community in Columbia, where she loved what she calls her “growing up years.”
Whitehead graduated from Eau Claire High School in 1961. Afterward, she spent a year earning funds to attend (the then) two-year Anderson College and was admitted to a work-study program. When she wasn’t attending classes, she ran the switchboard in the college President’s office. “I would not have been able to afford college otherwise. Those were some great years, and where I met my husband, Bob,” she says. The couple married after she graduated.
In following years, they lived in Rome, Georgia, Lexington, South Carolina, Barnwell, South Carolina, and finally back to Lexington, where her husband served as principal of Gilbert High School from 1975 to 1999 years before retiring. Among his many achievements during that time, Bob Whitehead was selected as SC High School Principal of the Year in 1994 representing the State of SC.
Over the years Mrs. Dee Dee took on many different titles. She once served as a cheerleading coach, something she had never done before but was determined to make work. She remembers having the best time with her cheerleaders, allowing them to create cheers, boosting their morale, and chaperoning them during trips. Eventually, she ended up as the Benefits Supervisor at Lexington School District One until she retired. Her work team blended well throughout their time together; it counts as one of her best experiences. To those entering the workforce, she stresses the importance of loving your work and co-workers. Her advice: “Stick with it, if you can. Make it a goal to make it a better place. Sometimes that might not work out, but you try. That’s what it’s all about in the workforce, helping each other.”
Mrs. Dee Dee has lived in the same house for 50 years and has worked for the Gilbert Peach Festival peeling peaches, smiling, handing out water and enjoying everyone she meets for 49 years at the time this was written. She worked 13 hours during the festival in 2024, which was located in the shady park for the first time, she jokes. She will mark 50 years of servitude at the Gilbert Peach Festival this July 4th, 2025. “Such fun memories!” she exclaims.
After her beloved husband passed in 2014, she planned to keep busy as long as her health was good. Today she volunteers in programs such as the Backpack Program and Laces4Love, which provides new shoes for needy students. She visits and brings food to shut-ins, took a group of women and supplies to western North Carolina after hurricane Helene, and loves to bowl!
She laughs when describing her senior group. “You ought to see the seniors. The balls go in the gutter, but everyone has a great time doing that.”
Whitehead has two daughters, four grandchildren, and two great grandchildren and is very proud of them all. She is an active, longtime member of Lexington Baptist Church and is currently planning a trip to Niagara Falls with a senior group from Leesville’s Cedar Grove Lutheran Church. “They’ve taken us Baptists in on their trip,” she laughs.
One admirer states, “She’s in her 80’s and retired but she volunteers for pretty much everything. She laughs when she says she drives the elderly around, volunteers for her church (all the time), still mows her own lawn, and is a card shark. I want to be like her when I grow up. She’s a phenomenal person and a true blessing.”
Dee Dee Whitehead rolls with life’s highs and lows. She does it with love, strength, and laughter, a lesson in resiliency that all of us might learn.
