H1 Scott Matthew Gillespie was born April 14, 1979 at Riverside Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, the first child of Carol Anne McClanahan and Thomas E. Gillespie, a little blue eyed towhead. He loved Match Box cars, remote controlled vehicles, Star Wars and Wicket the Ewok. He liked to read and often fell asleep with a book. The first time he saw the ocean at Tybee Island, South Carolina, he held my hand and refused to go in. "Too full, too full," he said.
He had an assignment in Religious Education class in third grade - why were you given the name you were. Because Mom liked Scott and Matthew means "Gift of God" and he certainly was. When we found out the child we were to adopt was a boy, Scotty wanted to name him Michael. My choice had been Stephen Michael but Scotty didn't like Stephen. After much discussion Michael David was chosen and I always told him when Michael came home from class with the same assignment about his name, Scotty would pipe up and say "because his big brother picked it."
A budding artist, Scott liked to doodle and draw. He drew a picture of a Lake Trout his grandfather, Dr. Bert L. McClanahan, caught in Manitoba, Canada that was stuffed and hanging in their family room. His grandmother, Sue Ellen Herbert McClanahan, had it framed and it hung below the trout for many years.
Scott was an excellent gymnast. He had been asked to try out for a team and he was very nervous. The tryouts were Saturday, May 28, 1988, the day before he was killed. The coach told us after he died that the try out was a mere formality, all he had to do was show up and he was on the team.
On Sunday, May 29, 1988 at 2:00 p.m. Scott and his 11 year old cousin, Christopher Patrick Gillespie, were walking to their grandparents' home (Samuel Irvin and Myrtle Leora Brock Gillespie) along a little country road in Zanesville, Ohio. They were both murdered by a drunk driver. His funeral Mass was held at St. Peter Catholic Church in Worthington, Ohio and he is buried in Union Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio. He was a third grader at Evening Street Elementary School.
-- Carol M. Gillespie
Fall, 2005
The Columbus Dispatch
Columbus, Ohio
May 31, 1988
By Catherine Candisky
As soon as Thomas Gillespie picked up his son's crumpled body off the road, he knew the 9-year-old boy was dead.
Scott Gillespie of 6717 Lakeside Circle W., Worthington, and his cousin, Christopher Gillespie, 11, of Zanesville, were killed about 2 p.m. Sunday when they were hit by as car as they walked alongside County Road 24 near Zanesville, the State Highway Patrol said yesterday.
THE DRIVER of the car, Ellis K. Harper, 27, of Zanesville, was charged with driving while intoxicated and failure to control his vehicle.
The boys were walking west when Harper's car went off the road, hit some mailboxes and a post and then the boys, the patrol said.
Scott, his parents, Thomas and Carol Gillespie, and his brother, Michael, 22 months, were visiting Mr. Gillespie's parents, S. Irvin and Myrtle L. Gillespie, in Zanesville Sunday. Thomas and Carol are Worthington dentists.
Thomas Gillespie said Scott and Christopher ate lunch at their grandparents house and started walking to Christopher's house, about a quarter-mile away.
He was working in the garage when he heard sirens a short time later.
"Jay (Christopher's older brother) came running out of the house and said the boys had been hit.
"I expected some bumps and bruises, but when we got there, I saw the bodies on the road."
SCOTT, A third-grader at Evening Street Elementary School in Worthington, was an avid gymnast. He took lessons for several years at Universal Gymnastics and recently started classes at Columbus Gymnastics Academy, his father said.
Scott was also learning to play golf. He and his father made several outings to a driving range and planned to go to a golf course this summer.
Scott is also survived by maternal grandparents, Dr. and Mrs. Bert McClanahan, Columbus.
A Mass of Christian Burial for Scott will be said at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in St. Peter Catholic Church, 6899 Smokey Row Rd. The Rev. David Sorohan will officiate. Burial will be in Union Cemetery.
Friends may call at the Rutherford-Corbin Funeral Home, 515 High St., Worthington, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today.
The McClanahan Family History is a project of Carol M. Gillespie, D.D.S.
You can contact Carol at: CGillespi2@aol.com.
Please enter a Subject of McClanahan Genealogy, to help us separate your message from spam.
The html version was created by Eric Davis
