I'm Theo Watson Swopes, born November 1954 in Finklea, SC. My mother was a homemaker and farmer, while my father was a carpenter. I was the eighth of eighteen kids. We grew up on a large farm owned by my father's family. My main education started in 1960 at a segregated Finklea High. By 1970, I was bussed to Green Sea High. I got perfect attendance and was voted "most athletic." After graduation in 1972, I got married and moved to Myrtle Beach, SC. Five children (one died) came from this union before divorcing in 1987. In 1987, my sixth child was born, leading me to be a single mother for the next nine years. I remarried in 1996 and relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, two years later.
