“Do I have to go to Clemson?” asked Michelle Clements Bedenbaugh’s ’91 youngest daughter, Ally, when she was looking at college.
Bedenbaugh replied, “No, but you’ve got to get at least 90 hours so you can get a ring and I can get my picture.”
In the late ’80s, Bedenbaugh met her husband, Kenneth Ray “KB” Bedenbaugh ’89, when they were students at Clemson. Ever since, she’d dreamed of getting a family Clemson ring picture.
“Our first date was at Mac’s Drive In,” Bedenbaugh said, remembering meeting KB on a shuttle to campus from the same apartment complex. She was a financial management major, and he was a natural resource management major. Now, a Steven Jordan print of Mac’s hangs by the back door in the Bedenbaughs’ home, a nod to the first date that turned into a full-blown Clemson family.
All three of the Bedenbaughs’ daughters went to Clemson — even Ally, a construction science and management major who led the 2022 Habitat for Humanity Homecoming Build. When all three children were finally in one place, Bedenbaugh jumped on the chance to get her long-awaited ring photo. It was May 2022, and the family was vacationing in Rosemary Beach, Florida. Ally had just received her ring at the recent Ring Ceremony in April.
The photo includes the hands of her husband, three daughters and son-in-law: KB Bedenbaugh ’89, Emily Grace Bedenbaugh ’19, Michelle Clements Bedenbaugh ’91, Ally Michelle Bedenbaugh ’23, Michael Robert Baker ’17, M.D. and Molly Bedenbaugh Baker ’16, M.D.
“I always wanted a picture like this,” Bedenbaugh said. “I finally have it, and I want to share it with all the other Tigers out there.”
