The Honorable Wyatt T. Saunders, Jr. was born September 20, 1942, in Winston Salem, NC, to parents Gladys McCall Saunders and Wyatt T. Saunders. From 1960 to 1962, he attended Millsaps College in Jackson, MS, and earned his B.A. degree from Presbyterian College in 1965. He received his Juris Doctor from Wake Forest University in 1968.
Judge Saunders was a retired judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit Court of South Carolina. He began his career as an attorney in 1968 and practiced until 1994. From 1972 until 1992, he held the position of city attorney for the City of Laurens, and from 1994 until 1998, he served as counsel for the Commission of Public Works, past president of the Laurens County Bar Association and family court judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit. He was then elected circuit court judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit in 1998 and served until his retirement in 2009.
He was a member of First United Methodist Church of Laurens, Sherlock Holmes Society, Rosemont Society, Chattooga Conservancy and Kappa Alpha Order Fraternity.
The Hon. Wyatt T. Saunders Jr. died on September 29, 2009. He is survived by his wife, Laura H. “Holly” Saunders; three daughters, Laura M. Saunders, Lillie S. Broome (son-in-law, Lee), and Leigh S. Little (son-in-law, Benjamin); and a grandson, Wyatt Little.