Former rival for sheriff becomes sheriff’s right-hand man

One of Dillon County Sheriff Major Hulon’s former rivals recently became his second in command after Hulon promoted his captain to chief deputy this month.

Lake View native Larry Abraham said he sought the position of sheriff in 2008, but decided to withdraw from the race after meeting Hulon.

“Basically, we were introduced to one another because we were talking about the changes we wanted in Dillon County,” Abraham said. “As we talked, it looked like our vision was the same for the county. We found that we had a lot of the same ideas. I decided I would not run and (I would) support him for sheriff.”

It didn’t matter which one of them made the changes, just as long as they took place in the county, he said.

“By teaming up, it was the only way to accomplish our goal,” Abraham said.

With Abraham’s backing, Hulon went on to defeat former longtime Sheriff Harold Grice for the position.

Hulon also defeated Grice’s former chief deputy sheriff, Douglas “Humbunny” Pernell, who ran as a petition candidate after Grice was defeated.

Last year’s campaign wasn’t the first time Abraham dabbled in Dillon County politics.

Five years ago, Abraham also ran against Grice for sheriff.

“It didn’t go the way I hoped it would go,” he said. “I got 29 percent of the votes.”

Abraham was employed as a Florence police officer during his campaign and said he didn’t really have the time to campaign as he should have.

“I know I could have done much better if I did campaign,” he said.

Abraham said he served as a captain in the sheriff’s department for the first six months of the new administration because Hulon wanted to be hands-on when it came to law enforcement in the county.

“When he was doing his campaigning, he said he wasn’t going to start with a chief deputy,” he said. “He wanted everything to go through him.”

As chief deputy, Abraham said, his main objective is to see that the sheriff’s vision for the county is carried out.

In his new role, which officially began July 2, Abraham said he will draw from his experience as a Dillon County jail administrator and a U.S. Army sergeant major.

In 1998, he helped the jail staff transition from an old detention facility to a new one and even helped bring the jail into “the computer age,” he said.

“There was no technology, no computer,” Abraham said. “The first week I was there, I got them one computer.”

Before returning to his hometown of Lake View with his wife, Ruby, Abraham traveled to Vietnam, Korea and Panama during his 24 years in the Army.

“I think the military gives you a lot of hands-on experience. I believe the military is what gives you confidence to do what you want and to be what you want to be,” Abraham said. “I believe in order to do anything, you have to have confidence. I believe the military taught me that.”