ExPats Extra: Brendan Clark

Keeping Hometown Touchstones Close to Home

Former Elmiran Brendan Clark has spent close to 30 years broadcasting local sports and news in South Carolina but his hometown is always on his mind.

He left the region to attend the University of South Carolina, graduating in 1993 and immediately taking a position with the NBC affiliate in Columbia, S.C. After a couple of years honing his skills, Brendan moved to the NBC affiliate in Charleston, S.C., becoming the weekend sports anchor.

Although his parents still reside in Elmira, he doesn’t get to make it back to the Southern Tier as often as he likes.

“I’d come back every month if I could,” Brendan says.

However, as most people who leave the region search for links to their hometown to stave off homesickness, like the Kennedy Valve fire hydrants that can be found around the globe, Brendan had a unique connection to Elmira, unexpectedly, appear about 10 years ago.

“My old college roommate who I’m still very good friends with, lives in Greenville, S.C. His parents are up there, and they were redoing their basement. They had two pictures hanging along the staircase going down to the basement and they wanted to reframe them,” he explains.

When the frames were removed, they found that the pictures were backed by a couple of early Elmira newspapers, circa 1890.

Photos provided. Brendan Clark has framed old Elmira newspapers that were found backing pictures hanging on walls in South Carolina.

The antique papers were a delightfully happy find for the former Elmiran, who was now delivering the news, albeit in a different city.

“I put it in glass frames – two of them,” he says. “They’re behind my bar at my house now. It’s funny, there are articles on how they can cure “fits” and stuff like that. It was pretty interesting stuff.”

It seems no matter how far one goes, if you're from Elmira, your hometown is always close by.