‘A visionary’: Myrtle Beach community leaders mourn loss of former mayor John Rhodes
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WPDE) — One phrase will come up often if you talk about John Rhodes with those who knew him.
“What a visionary,” former Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus said.
Lazarus was friends with the former mayor of Myrtle Beach, who passed away Saturday after suffering from COVID-19, for more than 40 years.
“My kids call him Uncle John to this day, that’s how close we are,” Lazarus said.
When Rhodes served as mayor from 2005 to 2017, Lazarus spent nearly ten of those years working alongside him as a member of Horry County Council. Lazarus says the accomplishments of Rhodes’s tenure, from the expansion of the downtown boardwalk and the Market Common to the creation of Savannah’s playground, all started with his vision.
“That was his leadership that was able to do that,” Lazarus said. “We had a great council following him that worked hand in hand with him.”
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