Musician killed in auto accident ‘was all about God and hard work’

The very first drum Sher’Mann Palmer learned to play was a caramel popcorn tin.

Now, 20 years later, his family gathers together and looks at that same, beat up tin a little differently, as they remember his life and the joy he brought to their family.

Palmer, 24, was killed in a car accident on Sunday on his way home from playing the music he was so passionate about.

Marry German, a 45-year-old Myrtle Beach woman who allegedly turned her Dodge Ram onto the wrong side of the Trask Parkway while under the influence struck Palmer’s Nissan head on, killing him, fire and law enforcement officials said. She faces charges of felony DUI and leaving the scene of an accident and is being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center. Her bond was set at $50,237.

Palmer’s family said that, from the time he was a little kid, he loved music. He could play just about anything, his cousins Dwayne Hinkle and Marquis Simmons said. If he met an instrument he couldn’t play, he would learn.

Once, Palmer sat down and learned to play an entire CD in a week, Simmons said. That’s just the way he was; music poured out of him. Jazz, blues and gospel seemed to be his favorites, they said, but he could play “anything with a good beat.”

Simmons said his cousin inspired him to become a musician and taught Hinkle how to read music. Simmons picked up the drums, and Palmer would encourage him to keep playing, even after Palmer went away to study music at South Carolina State University.

Palmer was the kind of man who would pick up the phone and call someone he loved just to make sure they were doing alright, Simmons said.

Palmer’s relatives remembered him first and foremost as a man of God. Through everything, good and bad, he would tell them, “Pray,” they said. He didn’t just say it, though, he lived it. Palmer would pray with and for everyone he knew, and he would remind and encourage them to pray as well, his cousins said.

“He would just walk into the room and say, ‘Praise the Lord!’ ” Hinkle remembered.

“He was all about God and hard work,” Simmons said.

“Everything he did was through God,” Hinkle said. “He was an amazing musician, a good friend and an athlete. He was an all-around, stand-up guy.”

Palmer was supposed to be the best man in Hinkle’s wedding. “He was my best friend,” he said, recalling rides in his first car with Palmer. “Everywhere I went, he was right there next to me.”

The men said Palmer was a beacon of light for his family and friends.

“It’s almost impossible to be sad thinking about him, because I only have positive memories of him,” Simmons said. “If he were here he’d say, ‘What are you crying for? I’m playing for God now.’ ” Simmons guessed his cousin is meeting a whole new realm of instruments in heaven, eager to figure them out.

Palmer’s cousins said he was an “uplifting spirit” with an everlasting smile.

“He was the heartbeat of this family,” Simmons said.

That beat lives on through those who love him and keep his life’s song close to their hearts.

This story was originally published July 12, 2016 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Musician killed in auto accident ‘was all about God and hard work’."