Busy beach highway bears Darlington war hero’s name
William G. “Billy” Farrow
When he flew against Japan in 1942, Lt. William “Billy” Farrow of Darlington could never have dreamed there would one day be a highway named after him in Myrtle Beach. It’s called Farrow Parkway. It honors Farrow, one of the pilots in the Doolittle Raid, a major strike against Japan in retaliation for Pearl Harbor. Farrow, 24, was captured and executed. He earned a Purple Heart, Presidential Citation, an induction into the South Carolina Hall of Fame — and Farrow Parkway. “For us to have a local guy on there, knowing it was a suicide mission from the start, is phenomenal,” Darlington County historian Brian Gandy told WMBF-TV. “For it to be Billy Farrow in particular, is astronomical. … He gave the most significant contribution that any human can give in military service. He gave his life.” “It’s just not about the folks like Billy Farrow, it’s about all veterans and the contributions they make, and I think if there’s one thing that Billy Farrow had, he had the opportunity to remind us, it’d be to thank every one of those veterans,” Gandy told the TV station. Farrow’s ashes are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
