On paper, my hometown is Columbia, but I was really raised out in Irmo, which is just outside the city limits. (Literally--you can spit from Irmo to Columbia.)
Famous Irmese include:
-Andre Bauer, Lt. Governor of South Carolina
-Leeza Gibbons, TV host
-BJ McKie, who helped the Gamecocks to a few great basketball seasons in the late 1990s (and he was my first interview for Columbia's paper back in those days, when I was part of their Young Writers Staff)
-Lilian Garcia, ring announcer for WWE RAW
As a bonus, Irmo High has a few claims to fame itself:
-The Academic Quiz Team from 2000-01 and 2001-02 became the world's first and only back-to-back national champions, winning almost every national title available. (We're also the only three-time champion.)
-Irmo's band won something like 10 straight state titles
-Back in 1998, a wee scandal was touched off when the then-principal of the school cancelled an Indigo Girls concert planned for the gym.
To top it all off, Irmo is home to the annual Okra Strut, a celebration of all that is okra. (If you haven't had fried okra, you haven't lived.) Last year, 1293 marched in the parade. It was fun, until that one set screw came out of the drivetrain.
