Remembering Joe Shaw: Lancaster’s ‘champion mayor’

The city of Lancaster has lost its most ardent supporter and “champion,” after the Sunday death of Mayor Joe Shaw at age 83.

Shaw was the longest-serving mayor in the city of about 25,000 residents’ history, serving from 1978 to 1994 and again from 1999 through his passing Sunday. He was known in the city simply as “Mr. Mayor” for generations of people who saw him riding around almost every day to survey the community.

“Joe Shaw was our champion mayor,” said Sara Eddins, a Lancaster City Council member who served with Shaw and has known Shaw and his wife for decades. “He did it all. He led the city as mayor, but he cared about people more than anything. We in Lancaster are just devastated.”

Shaw died after a brief illness. He will be replaced temporarily by John Howard, city councilman and mayor pro tem, until a special election can be held. Shaw was re-elected as mayor in November 2014.

“I will step in to fill Joe Shaw’s shoes, but I don’t know that anyone can do that,” Howard said Monday morning. “Joe Shaw was a great person.”

Flags at Lancaster city and county buildings are at half-staff in honor of Shaw. His funeral will be 3:30 p.m. Sunday at First Baptist Church in Lancaster. Visitation will be at Lancaster City Hall rotunda from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Shaw was first elected mayor almost four decades ago and served until losing an election in 1994. Then supporters asked him to try again in 1998 and he won repeatedly since then. He was known for pointing out potholes that had to be filled, streetlights that had to be fixed – the types of things that matter to regular people.

“Mayor Shaw was a great leader for our community, a real activist because he was so active with the community,” said Jackie Harris, another City Council member. “His passing is a great loss for our community.”

Shaw was a dedicated baseball supporter who helped found and run the league for children in Lancaster and helped found the Lancaster County Gamecock Club. He received the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor, in 2010.

Lancaster has had to deal with the economic and social upheaval caused by the closing of textile mills that for decades employed thousands in the city and surrounding county, but Shaw always pushed for the city to remain positive, and he never shied from bragging about Lancaster’s positives, his political peers said.

“Joe Shaw loved Lancaster,” council member Eddins said.

This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Remembering Joe Shaw: Lancaster’s ‘champion mayor’."