TO RECOGNIZE JAMES E. "JACKIE" HITE, OWNER OF JACKIE HITE'S BAR-B-QUE IN LEESVILLE, TO EXPRESS SINCERE APPRECIATION FOR HIS SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO HIS COMMUNITY AND TO OUR STATE AND NATION, AND TO WISH HIM A HAPPY SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY.

Whereas, born on April 21, 1940, James E. "Jackie" Hite recently celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday. He graduated from Batesburg-Leesville High School, where he played on the 1958 football team, which won that year's lower state championship, and he was inducted into the Batesburg-Leesville High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009, as a member of its inaugural class; and

Whereas, Jackie Hite is renown in the Batesburg-Leesville community and beyond for his restaurant, Jackie Hite's Bar-b-que of Leesville, carrying on his family's forty-four year tradition of cooking barbeque. Before opening Hite's Bar-b-que in 1979, he was a partner and salesman for Hite's Supply Company and was self-employed as a plumber and electrician; and

Whereas, among the many accolades bestowed on Jackie Hite's Bar-b-que, the restaurant was featured in the March 2015 issue of Southern Living magazine as one of the "10 Must-Visit Carolina Barbecue Joints", "an ideal place to sample Midlands-style hash and rice"; and

Whereas, the May 2015 issue of Columbia Metropolitan magazine describes the restaurant's cooking process in an article "Characters of Carolina keep the coals hot", which is to smoke pork, chicken, and ribs over an open pit of hickory wood and coals for more than twenty hours using a mustard-based sweet sauce; and

Whereas, in his definitive resource volume, A History of South Carolina Barbeque, barbeque aficionado Lake High, Jr., mentions the popular restaurant; and

Whereas, Mr. Hite served his community as mayor of Leesville for five years and as a member of the Leesville City Council for eight years. He was the commissioner of the Leesville Public Works Commission for two years and chief of the Leesville Fire and Rescue Department for ten years; and

Whereas, Jackie Hite has served Lexington County as president of the Lexington County Fire Chiefs Association and as a member of the Lexington County Law Enforcement Officers Association. Mr. Hite served his State and his nation in the South Carolina National Guard; and

Whereas, a master crappie fisherman, Jackie Hite has spent more than forty years fishing for crappie in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Using live bait and jigs, he has amassed numerous first, second, and third place World Championship Team finishes, and in the last seven years, he has caught more than ten thousand crappies a year with an average of two hundred days a year on the water; and

Whereas, Jackie Hite is married to Mickey Hutto Hite and, together, they have raised four fine daughters, Kim Hite Sanders, Jackie Hite Shealy, Rebecca Hite, and Sue Hite Futia, who have blessed them with six adoring grandchildren: Samantha Shealy, Nicholas Futia, Alexander Futia, Jacob Futia, Sydney Sanders, and Andrew Sanders. Mr. and Mrs. Hite celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in June 2014; and

Whereas, the South Carolina House of Representatives is grateful for Jackie Hite's rich legacy in the Palmetto State, and the members salute him for providing the culture of traditional cuisine that has brought pride and recognition to our State. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, recognize James E. "Jackie" Hite, owner of Jackie Hite's Bar-b-que in Leesville, express sincere appreciation for his significant contributions to his community and to our State and nation, and wish him a happy seventy-fifth birthday.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to James E. "Jackie" Hite.