Clerk to Council - Mary W. Blanding
Contact Information:
Sumter County Administration Building
13 East Canal Street
Sumter, S.C. 29150
Phone: (803) 436-2107
Email: council@sumtercountysc.gov
Mary Witherspoon Blanding, Clerk to Sumter County Council, is a native of Sumter, South Carolina. She was selected by County Council as the Council's second Clerk to Council in April of 1990.
She is the daughter of the late Deacon John Ivory Witherspoon and Mrs. Dorothy Mae Smith Witherspoon. Mary attended school in Sumter School District 17 and graduated from Sumter High School (formerly Lincoln High School), Palmer Junior College, and Morris College (Honor Graduate) with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Organizational Management. Mary is married to Mr. Kenneth Orlando Blanding from Manning, S.C. and they have four children - Jamie (Carl) Jackson; Kimberly (Eric) Haggard, Elijah Blanding, and Zoie Blanding; and two grandsons, Brian C. Jackson and Micah W. Haggard.
Mary currently serves and has served her home community of Sumter County in the following capacities:
- Former Member, Santee Wateree Regional Transportation Authority Board of Directors
- Member, League of Women Voters
- Member, Sumter Chamber of Commerce
- Community Relations Committee and Former Member of the Membership Committee
- Former Member, YWCA
- Former Member, Habitat for Humanity Board
- President, South Carolina Clerks to Council Association
Mrs. Blanding has her Certification as Clerk to County Council which was awarded by the State of South Carolina's Association of Counties and the Institute of Public Officials, Division of the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C.
She has also received honors and awards such as: J.T. McCain Public Service Award from the Martin Luther King Committee; American Association of Women in Community and Junior Colleges Award; TWIN Honoree (Tribute to Women in Business and Industry); Government Honoree for Mt. Zion Baptist Church Black History Month; American Association of Women in Community and Junior Colleges Award.
Mrs. Blanding was nominated in 2009 as a Woman of Excellence by the Social Justice Consortium.
She is a member of Hopewell Baptist Church, Dalzell, S.C. where she is involved in several ministries.