Pendleton Mayor-Elect Brings New Optimism for Town’s Future

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

In the spring of 2020, when the pandemic pushed the world behind closed doors, a professor left Farmington, Arkansas for a house in Pendleton without ever setting foot in the town. She arrived not with the native’s certainty but the newcomer’s hope, drawn by the promise of community, a new role at Clemson University, and, unwittingly, a cascade of disruptions that would shape her journey far more than any careful planning could.

For nearly six years now, Pendleton has been home to Mayor-Elect Sarah Stokowski. The stories of her prior lives—childhood in Aurora, Illinois, the long years spent in the South—trail behind like distant echoes. The accent, perhaps, shades her vowels may not sound local, but the strength of her civic spirit is unmistakably Southern, forged in grassroots tradition and undimmed by the pandemic’s uncertainties.

“I bought my house sight unseen,” said Stokowski “I had never been to Pendleton before I moved here.”

It’s one of those stories that fit perfectly in the annals of small-town America—part opporutunity, part leap of faith.

At Clemson, her professorial duties began on March 12, 2020—a date marked more by what did not happen than what did.

“Three, four days later,” she recalls, “the world shut down. I couldn’t get on a flight; I couldn’t drive. We weren’t sure if gas stations would be open, or if the roads would be open.”

Such details, prosaic but urgent, framed the peculiar tension of early pandemic days. In the end, perhaps Pendleton became home due to an urgency dictating a new chapter, one where curiosity winning out over uncertainty.

In the pause between reminiscence and anticipation, the conversation turns local: Did she ever imagine she would become mayor of Pendleton?

“My mom would remind you if she were here: I did my eighth-grade career project on becoming a United States Senator,” said Stokowski. It’s the kind of origin story only families remember, both prophecy and parental pride.

“Am I surprised? A little. Am I shocked? No. I’ve always been civic-minded.” She loand the phrase with understated conviction, saying she’s at ease with public service, propelled by an affection for the communal rhythms of small-town life.

Her reverence for Pendleton emerges, not as boosterism, but as genuine delight.

Her agenda for the days ahead are driven by a desire to promote responsible growth and development, recreation programs for all ages, and collaboration with those seeking to make Pendleton a better place to work and live.

“I couldn’t imagine a better place than here,” said Stokowski. “We have the best community, and this is the best small town in America.” These words, earnest and unrehearsed, offer the coda to a story about arrival, adaptation, and the slow work of belonging. Pendleton, for Sarah Stokowski, is a small town big enough for new stories—written into the everyday experiences between residents and the place they call home.