Lilly Stern Filler was born in Munich, Germany, in 1947 to Holocaust survivors Jadzia Szklarz and Ben Stern. The Sterns immigrated two years later to Columbia, South Carolina, where Gabriel Stern, Ben’s uncle and immigration sponsor, lived. This interview opens with Lilly describing a Stern (Szterenzys) family photo taken, presumably, in Poland when Ben was a little boy. Ben met Jadzia after the war through Jadzia’s brother Ben Szklarz, who was his bunkmate in the concentration camps. Lilly recounts how her parents were reunited with their siblings after the war and talks about her aunts, uncle, and cousins. The oldest of four, she shares memories of and thoughts about growing up as a daughter of survivors. After encountering antisemitism when trying to join a high school social club, Lilly’s involvement with Jewish youth groups intensified. She elaborates on what Judaism means to her, and what it means to have a Jewish home. The interviewee recalls meeting her husband, Bruce Filler, a Rhode Island native, at Rusk Institute in New York City, where both were working as physical therapists. They married in 1972, moved to Massachusetts, earned graduate degrees, and in 1975 welcomed daughter Rachel before deciding to relocate to Columbia, where they opened their own practice, Columbia Rehabilitation Clinic. Sons Alex and Michael were born in 1978 and 1980. Four years later, Lilly, pursuing a long-held dream, started medical school at the University of South Carolina. She relates some of the issues she faced going to medical school and starting a new career as a woman in her thirties and forties, and as the mother of young children. She describes partnering with Richland Memorial Hospital to open Women Physicians Associates, an all-female OB-GYN practice. In 2000 Lilly followed up on an initiative her parents had started years before to erect a Holocaust Memorial in Columbia. She discusses how the project grew to include various members of the Columbia community, Jewish and non-Jewish. The monument, located in Memorial Park, was dedicated in 2001. The Columbia Holocaust Education Commission was established with surplus from the memorial fund and shared the same goals: “remember the six million . . . honor the survivors and the liberators . . . and educate South Carolinians about the Holocaust.”
Faye Goldberg Miller, born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1938, talks about growing up on St. Philip Street, one of three children of Polish immigrants Jeanette Altman and George Goldberg. She explains why her father changed his name to Goldberg from Geldbart after arriving in the United States. George followed his brother Israel to Charleston and opened a men’s clothing shop on King Street. The family observed the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays and Jeanette kept a kosher kitchen. Despite encountering antisemitism from a few neighborhood children, Faye says she “had a wonderful childhood in Charleston.” Faye married Ivan Miller and they raised three children, Shira, Robert, and Bruce, in Columbia, South Carolina. She discusses the family business, Groucho’s Delicatessen, purchased in the early 1940s from the Rivkins by Ivan’s father, Harold Miller, with the help of Harold’s brother-in-law John Gottlieb.
Beryle Stern Jaffe, born in 1945, talks about growing up in Columbia, South Carolina. She is the eldest daughter of Sarah Kramer and Henry Stern. After Henry was discharged from the military, the Sterns settled in Henry’s home city of Columbia, where he joined his father, Gabe Stern, in his dry goods business, at that time located in nearby Lexington. Beryle recalls segregation and how prejudice against African Americans manifested in public, as well as in her own home with regard to their hired help. The interviewee married Pierre Jaffe in 1967. Pierre, a native of Paris, France, immigrated as a child to the United States with his mother, who had married an American soldier. Pierre and Beryle raised two children, Jason and Erin, in Columbia. Interviewer Lilly Stern Filler’s parents, Ben and Jadzia Stern, were Holocaust survivors who settled in Columbia after World War II. Beryle and Lilly describe the degree to which Lilly’s parents, particularly her father, adjusted to life in a new country.
Ira Rosenberg was born in New York City in 1937, eight years after his brother, Monte, to Bessie Lipschutz and Alan Rosenberg. The family moved to Richmond, Virginia, in the early 1940s, where Ira grew up in the midst of a sizable Jewish community. The Rosenbergs were Orthodox but Ira says his parents “were not very active” in the local synagogue. However, Alan insisted Ira go to shul every Saturday morning and attend Hebrew school in preparation for his bar mitzvah. Ira is joined in this interview by his wife, Anita Moise Rosefield Rosenberg, originally of Sumter, South Carolina. They married in 1963 while Ira was serving in the United States Air Force. Ultimately, they moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where they raised their children, David, Virginia, and Mindelle. Ira describes his career as a pharmacist after he was discharged from the military in 1966. In the 1980s he changed professions and opened his own business as a realtor and real estate appraiser, Rosenberg & Associates. Ira and Anita discuss changes in Reform Judaism and in their synagogue, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. They talk about Rabbi Stephanie Alexander, KKBE’s first female rabbi, and the degree of acceptance extended to lesbian and gay members by the rabbi and the congregation. Anita recalls being on the national commission of a program begun in the 1970s by Rabbi Alexander Schindler, a former president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. The program, called Outreach, was designed to encourage acceptance and inclusion of intermarried couples and their families. See also a follow-up interview (Mss. 1035-461) with the Rosenbergs, conducted on November 4, 2016.
Selden K. Smith, a South Carolina native who taught history for nearly four decades at Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina, talks about his role in the development of Holocaust education courses. He describes meeting local survivors and says of interviewer Lilly Stern Filler’s mother, “The most compelling person of all—it was all compelling—was Jadzia [Stern].” What started as an experimental course featuring presentations by survivors grew into a standard offering at Columbia College. Dr. Smith notes he was not involved in or even aware of the effort to create legislation that established the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust (SCCH) in 1989. However, he was appointed to SCCH in 1990. He credits Margaret Walden, who then worked for the South Carolina Department of Education, for much of the progress made with Holocaust education in the state. Among SCCH’s projects was a joint effort with South Carolina Educational Television to interview survivors and liberators, resulting in the publication of the teaching guide South Carolina Voices. The interviewee discusses the status of Holocaust education in South Carolina and suggests that the challenge is how to make it “relevant to one’s day and time.”
Born in 1923, Jane Murray McCollum is the third generation of her family to live at Jack Daw Hall Plantation, located on Edisto Island’s Frampton Inlet. From an early age, she called Jack Daw home. It is also home to ‘Murray’s Graveyard,’ a spot of land her great-grandfather gave to the black slave families, and a separate graveyard, called ‘Jenkins’ Cemetery, for whites. Jane came of age during the Depression, which the family weathered by living off the bounty of land and sea—’...fish, oysters, clams...and all kinds of vegetables’—and by operating a small store called the Sea Island Bargain. The Murrays also, on one terrifying night, rode out the hurricane of 1940 at Jack Daw. Jane comes from an artistic family: Her mother, Faith Murray, was an artist who taught at Charleston’s Gibbes Art Gallery; her father, Chalmers Murray, was a writer, best known for his novel, Here Come Joe Mungin. Her father had a long-time friendship with the artist Jasper Johns, who also had a house on Edisto, She and her sister (also Faith; also an artist) went to the tiny Seaside School on Edisto—there were only seven students in Jane’s class—and she later attended the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina, after which she joined the WAVES. Having served in the Hospital Corps, she subsequently went to nursing school, receiving her training at Roper Hospital in Charleston. When she married, Jane moved to Greenville, SC, until her husband’s retirement; In response to a question about race relations in the intervening years, Jane responded that she saw little difference: ‘When I was growing up here, I didn't even realize they were black. They were really friends...Coming back, I still feel the same way.’ But she does feel that the relationships between blacks and whites were better in those days. Jane has lived at Jack Daw exclusively since 1986. She crabs and swims off a floating dock on the same waters she knew as a child. Following in the family tradition, she paints. As to how her return to Edisto suits her, Jane says: ‘Just to be able to sit here on this front porch and look over there at the creek and the beach and to hear the wind blowing through. Can’t do much better.’
Mortimer Bernanke, the youngest of three sons of Pauline and Jonas Bernanke, recounts the history of his family in Dillon, South Carolina. Jonas was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I when he was captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia. Mortimer describes his father's escape through China, whereupon he returned to Austria in 1920 and married Pauline, who had trained as a doctor at the University of Vienna. The couple immigrated to New York City and Jonas earned his pharmacy degree at Fordham University. The Bernankes moved to Dillon in 1941, when Mortimer was thirteen years old. Pauline, who had practiced medicine in New York for two decades, found her career as a physician cut short when she was refused a license by South Carolina. Instead, she assisted Jonas in his pharmacy, Jay Bee Drugs, in Dillon. Mortimer joined his father in the drugstore after studying pharmacy at the University of South Carolina. He describes how his brother Philip joined him in the business, the changes they made during their time as partners, and their decision to sell to a large corporation in the 1990s. Mortimer married Rita Lee Strobing of New Jersey in the mid-1950s and they raised two children in Dillon. They were members of that town's Ohav Shalom Synagogue. Mortimer was among the men who conducted lay services for a congregation of about twenty-five families, a number that fell to three or four by the 1990s. He discusses how the Ohav Shalom members that remained decided to sell the building and divide the proceeds. The interviewee talks about his love of theater; he and another New York transplant, Tom Fletcher, started a theater group in Dillon and, over the course of four years, put on over a dozen plays in a tobacco warehouse. One of their productions was written and performed in celebration of Ohav Shalom's fiftieth anniversary in 1961. Among the topics discussed: the attention Mortimer and Dillon have received thanks to nephew Ben Bernanke's renown as chair of the Federal Reserve; the reorganization of a B'nai B'rith chapter in the Florence area, spurred by Latta resident and businessman Moses Kornblut; and Beth Israel Congregation, Florence, where the interviewee has been a member since the 1990s. Mortimer was joined in this interview by long-time friend Patricia "Pat" Siegel; the interviewer was Beth Israel Congregation's part-time leader, Rabbi Leah Doberne-Schor.
When Pierre Manigault was a child, his grandfather Edward owned Rochelle Plantation. When his father Peter took over Rochelle’s management in Pierre’s high school years, Manigault was put to work cultivating a ten-acre rice field, giving him insight into the difficulties of this job. He recalled Herman “Duff” Holbrook, who went to work for his father as president of White Oak Forestry and manager of Rochelle. Holbrook was like another grandfather for Manigault, and a mentor with a vast fund of knowledge about wildlife and the Santee Delta. He worked with Holbrook for a number of summers and spring breaks. Manigault’s great-grandfather, Arthur, after discontinuing rice cultivation, purchased controlling interest in Charleston’s newspaper. His father Peter, when manager of the newspaper, invested in pine lands in the Delta for the raw materials necessary for newspaper, and set up White Oak Forestry, a subsidiary of Evening Post Industries. Conservation for wildlife habitat was a priority, and Peter Manigault’s conservation efforts including his leadership in establishing the first conservation easement in the Santee Delta by a private landowner. Manigault discussed the impact of the October 2015 floods on the Delta. He talked about his father’s good friend, Ted Turner, who purchased Kinloch Plantation next to Rochelle. They shared interests in media and yacht racing. Manigault reflected on the early Huguenot Manigaults who immigrated to America and the Santee Delta; he also imagined the transformation of the Delta from forest to rice fields. He considered the labor required for that massive undertaking, and the incredible craftsmanship of enslaved workers seen in such buildings as St. James Santee Church, and various Delta plantation houses. He described the significance of the Santee Delta as an internationally recognized conservation area. Manigault has followed in his father’s footsteps in working to conserve the Delta.
Pat Ferris was born in Greenwood Lake, NY, and lived in Virginia and New York until age nine when he moved to South Carolina. His grandmother had a modern house on South Island with electricity supplied by a generator. The family also had the old plantation house on Cat Island. His grandfather was William G. Ramsey, who worked for the DuPont Company. He became a senior engineer at DuPont, and his stock holdings became very valuable for the family. He came to South Carolina because of the Dupont’s interest in turpentine, and became aware of the excellent hunting opportunities. Living on Cat Island and South Island in his youth, Ferris felt it was “heaven”. He had a little dinghy he rowed around on Winyah Bay, and hunted ducks with a shotgun given to him at age 10 by his grandmother. She also gave him the job of killing snakes and alligators: the latter damaged the dikes. He received a nickel for each kill. Ferris learned to sail on a summer vacation to Nantucket Island. He and his brother would go along with a harbor pilot who guided ships into Georgetown. They signed on as cabin boys on a round trip from Brooklyn, NY, to Georgetown, SC, on the lumber schooner Annie C. Ross. Ferris also described a voyage with his brother and a friend in their teenage years in a catboat from Greenport, Long Island to South Carolina. Ferris went to boarding school, and would spend summers on South Island. Ferris attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) when WWII broke out, and he entered the Coast Guard. He patrolled first St. Helena Sound, and then off Charleston in private yachts. He helped a one-armed man pull a seine net on the edge of Winyah Bay. He knew Tom Yawkey, owner of the Boston Red Sox, and owner of the majority of Cat, South, and North Islands. He went on hunts with him on those properties and elsewhere. Cat Island Plantation continued to actively cultivate rice until 1941. With the damming of the Santee River by Santee Cooper, the influx of saltwater did considerable damage to the dikes, and the family received a $6000 settlement. Ferris described years of hunting on Cat island: deer, ducks, and turkeys. He described how Tom Yawkey set up the Yawkey Wildlife Center. Ferris returned to recounting his Coast Guard service, describing his transfer to the South Pacific after going through training at the Loran School. He was at Guam when the war ended, and returned to the US on the aircraft carrier Belleau Wood. He finished by telling a story when he and his brother were “bad boys’ during their childhood on Cat Island.
Gerald Alston was born at the Wedge Plantation, and at age four moved to Germantown. In his childhood, he, his brother, and friends would cut and split firewood, used for both cooking and heating. Like his father and grandfather, Gerald went to work for Herman “Duff” Holbrook, who taught him about plantation and wildlife habitat management. He recounted one incident when Holbrook had grabbed a rattlesnake by hand, and had Alston drive the truck while Holbrook held the rattlesnake and relocated it. Another memorable story was a canoe trip out to Six Mile, a property in the middle of the Delta. The trip took place the day before the arrival of Hurricane Hugo (1989). It was raining and rough on the water, and Holbrook wanted to protect the property by opening up a trunk. Alston was frightened, but successfully helped Holbrook with this mission; they arrived safely back on land. After Hugo there was extensive work to do on these lands. Holbrook purchased a backhoe that Alston ran for 25 years, operated now by his son. He recalled taking rides from Will Alston in a wagon trailed behind a tractor, going from Germantown to Hampton Plantation. Will Alston would stop by Gerald Alston’s grandmother, Ella Alston, and give him a ride back home. Alston also talked about visiting with Sue Alston in her later years. He remembered Archibald Rutledge as a friendly man. Alston recalled times when the mosquitoes and biting flies were “terrible”. He remembered a trip to Cat Island to purchase an old Pontiac just for the engine. He described an annual event put on by the South Santee community. Alston continues to enjoy his job with While Oak Forestry working for Mike Prevost, and having his sons, Errol and Gerald Jr., working with him.
Shirley Gergel Ness talks about her father, Joseph Gergel, who served for three years in the Russian army before immigrating in 1914 to Columbia, South Carolina, where two of his brothers resided. Joseph volunteered for duty in the United States Army during World War I and worked as a supply sergeant in New York. He met his wife, Jean Fingerhut, when he was invited by a fellow soldier to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for Passover. Shirley, who was born in 1928, talks about growing up in Columbia, attending public school, and working in her father's store. The interviewee intended to go to law school after graduating from the University of South Carolina in 1948; she describes how Coleman Karesh, law professor and son of Rabbi David Karesh, blocked her admission that year based on her age and gender. Shirley recalls how her husband, Everett Ness of Sumter, South Carolina, courted her; they married and moved to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1949. They ran the Nursery Nook, a children's toy and furniture store on King Street for fourteen years before going bankrupt. Their children attended Addlestone Hebrew Academy. In 1966 the Nesses moved to Columbia, the Midlands being a more convenient location for Everett, whose job as a manufacturing representative required travel to other southeastern states. Shirley contrasts the Jewish communities of Charleston and Columbia and tells the story of how a member of the Gergel family in Russia tracked down her American cousins in South Carolina, uniting the descendants of Joseph and his siblings who stayed in the Old Country.
Joseph J. Lipton discusses growing up in Beaufort, South Carolina, the eldest of three sons of Helen Stern and Samuel Lipton (Lipsitz). Samuel emigrated from Lithuania as a teen in the early 1900s, arriving first in New York. He followed a relative to Dale, South Carolina, not far from Beaufort, and worked in his store for a time before opening his own business in a small crossroads nearby called Grays Hill. He met Helen while on a visit to Charleston, South Carolina, where she lived with her brother, Gabe Stern, and worked in Kerrison's Department Store. They married in 1922 and moved to Beaufort. After graduating from Clemson College, the interviewee earned his law degree from Mercer University, a Baptist-affiliated institution in Macon, Georgia, where he was the only Jewish student. He describes how, fresh out of law school, he assisted a lawyer whose case regarding asbestos and interstate commerce advanced to the United States Supreme Court. He took a job with the South Carolina Legislative Council, where he was employed for thirty years. Lipton remembers visiting his cousins, the Sterns, in Columbia as a teen, and participating in AZA (Aleph Zadik Aleph) activities. He comments on Congregation Beth Israel in Beaufort and recalls singing Kol Nidre in the synagogue during the High Holidays.
John Baker, born in 1955 in Columbia, South Carolina, recounts the history of Baker & Baker, the law practice turned real estate development firm established by his father, David Baker, and his father's first cousin, Lee Baker, after World War II. David married JoAnn Schreiber of Brunswick, Georgia, and they raised five children in Columbia. Growing up Jewish, John remarks that although the Bakers were not very observant, they were intensely proud of their heritage. He and his twin brother, Frank, became bar mitzvahs in a double ceremony at Tree of Life Synagogue, attended by prominent South Carolina politicians, including Strom Thurmond, who knew David Baker through his civic engagement. John notes his admiration for his paternal grandmother, Clara Kligman (Kligerman) Baker, a Polish immigrant who ran a grocery store in Columbia. After earning his business degree from the University of South Carolina, the interviewee worked for real estate developer Walter Keenan. In 1979 John joined his father and Lee Baker in their firm as a property manager. Twelve years later he married Marcie Stern of Columbia; they have a daughter, Gabrielle. In the mid-1990s John and Lee Baker's son-in-law, Steven Anastasion, took over daily operations at Baker & Baker. John discusses his support of Israel and describes his involvement in the local community. The transcript contains corrections made by the interviewee during proofing.
Reverend McKinley Washington was born in a small community outside of Sumter, South Carolina called Stackhouse Place. In this interview he talks about life on Edisto Island during the height of the civil rights movement including the changes he has witnessed. McKinley’s dad was a sharecropper and his mom a teacher. He graduated from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina with both a degree in political science and religion and a Master of Divinity. During college in the early 60’s he was part of a lunch counter demonstration and listened to Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X when they visited campus. McKinley shares many of his own civil rights experiences. He came to Edisto Island in the mid-60’s to pastor the Edisto Presbyterian Church which was African-American. At this time the African-American community was very poor. Rev. Washington helped organize and was part of the South Carolina Commission for Farm Workers, Community Action Program, Head Start Program, Political Action Committee, and the NAACP. He describes how he worked to get African-American’s registered to vote, to integrate the local schools, the state park, and swim on Edisto beach. He was persuaded to run for public office and elected to the State House of Representatives. There his goal was to get things done in rural areas such as Edisto Island. He fought for roads to be paved, ditches to be cleaned, and was instrumental in getting money for a new bridge to replace the often broken down drawbridge. The new 1993 bridge is named in his honor. He went to Washington to plead for the Sea Island Healthcare Center. After the old Edisto Island School closed rather than be integrated, he helped the African-American community buy it for recreation, summer, adult education, and daycare programs, and community center. McKinley describes his work with Fritz Hollings and the changes in the Republican and Democratic parties. He says that while things have improved tremendously for African-Americans, there is a lot still left undone.
Emily Hutchinson Meggett was born in Edisto, as were her mother, Laura B. Hutchinson (who later moved to New York), and grandmother, Elizabeth Major Hutchinson, who raised Emily. Through her grandmother’s line she is related to Jim Hutchinson (her great-grandfather, sometimes called a ‘king’ of Edisto, who was the illegitimate son of Isaac Jenkins Mikell). Emily attended Seaside, Geneva, and Limay—all Edisto schools. She didn’t finish high school; she married in 1951 instead. With her husband, Jessie Meggett (who once lived in the Point of Pines cabin that now resides at the Smithsonian), Emily raised ten children, all of whom attended Edisto schools and later went on to college and successful careers, in fields as varied as the stock market, nursing, teaching, government administration, and the military. She has 24 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren; only one of the latter lives on Edisto. For 46 years, beginning in 1954, Emily worked for the family that owned Dodge Plantation. The family had a staff of six who worked for them as needed during the winter months. She rose from dishwasher to cook to housekeeper over that time. In the summers, she worked over the years for the Bolton, Mitchell, and Pepper families, among others. Emily talked about the Mother Emanuel murders; she had a family connection to two people who died there. She said she felt sorry ‘for the people who lost their lives, and for that young man and his family.’ She continued: ‘Back in the slavery time, people taught their children hate, and ain’t all of [it] erased. There's still some there.’ Of race relations on Edisto, she acknowledged that she had seen big changes but that she would like to see more. ‘I'm saying this for years and years...the Lord don't want us to be separated. He made you, he made me. [We’ve] got a different color of skin—but you've got the same red blood, and I've got the same red blood, so he don't want us to separate. He wants us to be close to each other...I don't see colors. I see you as a person.’ Maybe, she joked, she thought that way because of her connection to Jim Hutchinson: ‘I got a streak of lean in me, coming out of the white family.’ Emily Meggett has traveled widely: to Germany, Paris, London; Maine, Tennessee, Florida, Maryland, Colorado. When asked where she wants to be, though, she doesn’t hesitate: ‘This is where I want to be.’
Bill Mace grew up in Johnsonville, SC, and fished on the Lynches and Pee Dee Rivers. He learned to fish from his father, and to hunt from his grandfathers. On a fourteen-foot boat he and his brother continued to venture further on fishing, hunting, and camping trips down river to Sandy Island and Georgetown. During high school Mace worked at a wool mill, but wanted to find a job in the outdoors. After high school he went to school in Anderson for a year, considered transferring to Clemson for parks and recreation, but instead came back to Georgetown and went to work at a textile plant. Mace went to a meeting with the director of the South Carolina Game and Fish Division who encouraged him to get an associate degree in wildlife management. He attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Georgia, and was offered a job at Santee Coastal Reserve (SCR) by Tommy Strange in 1976. Among other tasks, Mace managed former rice fields. He took over as manager when Strange retired, and worked there for 21 years. Mace discussed brackish water management in the 24,000-acre SCR, and the constant work to repair and replace water-control structures. Mace imagined the Santee Delta before it was cleared for rice fields, and the enormous labor involved in building the rice field dikes, constructed by enslaved workers. Mace also discussed the hunts of the Santee Gun Club members, including many attempts to navigate in thick fog. Some of his work included law enforcement, and he talked about several episodes where people tried to steal old bricks from historic structures in SCR. In his 21 years at SCR there was only one episode of an accidental shooting on a hunt, and through a heroic effort by one of the guides the victim survived. SCR had significant damage from Hurricane Hugo (1989), and of many issues it took half a year to rebuild the dikes. Mace reviewed many of the conservation protections in place on the Delta’s public and private lands. He retired from the state in 2010, and went back to work as manager of Annandale Plantation, a tract of private lands (around 3500 acres) owned by Dan Ray on the north side of the Santee Rivers. He is doing similar work to what he did at SCR in managing rice fields for waterfowl. Mace lives nearby, and though he once thought of retiring to the North Carolina coast, he now can’t imagine living anywhere else. He also touched on the seasonal challenges of mosquitoes in the Delta.
Phil Wilkinson was born in Denver, Colorado, and his family moved around due to his father’s occupation as an army engineer. He moved to the Lowcountry early in his childhood, and at age 12 his family purchased Hopsewee Plantation on the North Santee River. Most of his childhood activities were in the woods or on the river. His father gave him a dory, and he and his older brother explored all around the Santee Delta including to Cedar Island for overnight stays. He learned to hunt and fish from an older black man, Daddy Ben, who lived in a cabin at Hopsewee. In his high school years he had a summer job building the new bridge over the North Santee River. Wilkinson went to USC for undergraduate studies, starting in engineering and shifting to business administration. After college he worked at Cat Island doing construction work, and the owner of the property, an ornithologist, suggested he consider a biological career. After a meeting with Jim Webb, director of the state wildlife department, he went on to get a masters degree from Auburn. Webb offered him a job at a newly acquired state property, Dirleton Plantation. During his time at Dirleton Wilkinson met Tom Yawkey, owner of South Island plantation. He recruited Wilkinson to work for him on his properties doing wildlife management, with a primary focus on waterfowl by managing impoundments and their plant ecology. He hunted quail often with Yawkey. Wilkinson imagined the Santee Delta when the virgin forest still existed, and considered the changes after the damming of the Santee River. Wilkinson gave his own perspective on dealing with biting insects. He told two stories of personal adventures in the Delta: the “Pine Top” story, and another about discovering alligator poachers. After his employment with Tom Yawkey ended, he worked for the state on endangered species, and began a long period of study of alligators, primarily on South Island. Wilkinson reflected on potential threats to the Santee Delta, and the significant conservation efforts. He compared the labor of transforming the Delta into rice fields to the building of several pyramids. He finished up by reading a poem he authored entitled “Daddy Ben”.
Colleen Condon (b. 1970) describes her upbringing in an Irish-American family in Charleston. Her family came to the States from County Cork during the time of the Famine, first landing in a northern city before coming to Charleston, which she remarks is most likely due to the similarities between Charleston and County Cork. Her great-great-grandfather started Condon’s department store in Charleston in 1899, which was family owned until closing in 1984. She discusses what it was like growing up in a large but very close-knit family with lots of ties to the community. She feels that issues of prejudice and discrimination against Irish Catholics in particular is something that has decreased through the generations, and that the Irish Catholics have become more integrated with the wider community as the years have passed, that Irish identity has “mesh[e]d really well” with Southern identity in Charleston. As to the difference between Charleston and other southern cities, she feels that the Irish community and sense of Irish identity is more prominent in Charleston than it is in places such as Atlanta or Charlotte. Part of her interview also includes her experience as a lesbian in an Irish-Catholic family, and how she has begun to try to separate her Irish identity from Catholicism because of the difficulties she has faced. Colleen and her wife were the first couple in the state of South Carolina to be granted a marriage license as a same-sex couple, after a long legal battle.
Sound engineer, drummer, and songwriter Jason Mcfarland was born in New York City in 1973. He has lived in the Lowcountry since the 80s. His earliest music memories are related to Joyce Kilmer Park in South Bronx where every Saturday bands like Chic or Talking Heads used to play. Additionally, he saw legendary musicians as The Jackson 5 and James Brown at the Apollo Theater where his cousin worked as a sound engineer. These early experiences were enriched by the Gospel and Funk sounds of Awendaw. Later, he attended Wando High School and was a member of the Marching Band. In the interview, McFarland tells about the origin of his first band, Funny Looking Kids, and explains how young musicians worked to find opportunities to play before the internet era. He reflects about punk culture and states that Black Flag, Bad Brains and the Descendents were his most influential artists. He affirms that touring with Fishbone was one of the most memorable and remarkable experiences of his career. He recalls the Charleston music scene in the 80s and 90s naming the music venues, record stores, and bars that congregated musicians and students in the city. McFarland is proud of his multifaceted career as a sound engineer and as a musician, which gives him multiple opportunities to enjoy great music. At the time of the interview, McFarland was playing with two bands, Funny Looking Kids and Hybrid Mutants.
Delia Chariker was born in born in Kingsville, Texas and when she was two moved to Clover, South Carolina where she grew up. Her earliest musical memories relate to her mother's big playful and musical family. She learned to play guitar when she was in High school. She attended college in North Carolina and after that she moved around the country playing in Nashville and California. However, making a living as a musician proved to be a struggle and she returned to school to obtain a Masters in Music therapy. She reflects about being a working musician and states this is one of the most rewarding times of her career: She is able to make a living creating music with her veteran clients and plays around town with her musician friends. Animas, her solo album reflects Chariker's deep connection with her Native American spirituality roots. At the time of the interview, Chariker was employed at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affair Medical Center and was the Music Director at Unitarian Church in Mount Pleasant.
Music entrepreneur and philanthropist Eddie White was born in 1960 in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended Wando High School and later Furman University where he obtained a degree in dentistry, a profession he has practiced for more than thirty years. Music acquired an important place in White's life when he met his wife and her musical family. This interest deepened raising his three children because White became involved with his children music activities and by doing that, he had the opportunity to meet and share time with interesting and creative people. In 2007, after a series of collaborations with local musicians and small concerts, he opened Awendaw Green with the purpose of offering a listening environment for new bands and local talent. In the interview, White remembers the beginning of the project, the challenges they faced and reflects about the impact of Awendaw Green on the Lowcountry music scene and beyond.
Guitarist and entrepreneur Clelia Hand Reardon was born in Huntsville, Alabama. She recalls her beginnings: taking piano lessons when she was in first grade and knowing when she was only thirteen that she wanted to be a classical guitarist. Reardon talks about her mentor and friend, Mr. Fred Sabback, and states he was the biggest influence in her career. In the interview, Reardon reflects about her prolific career as a performer and as a teacher. She remembers her experiences playing in many shows in Charleston; included Man of the Mancha, Porgy and Bess, and Jesus Christ Superstar; touring Europe twice with a jazz band, and participating in the organization of the Guitar Foundation of America international conventions and competitions. Finally, she reflects about the rewards of her teaching career.
Barbara Dugan discusses her upbringing as part of an Irish-American family in New York City. Her grandparents emigrated from County Mayo and County Kerry around 1900. Her grandmother, Catherine, took care of janitorial duties in her apartment building while her grandfather, Patrick, became employed in steel works and helped to build several New York City area bridges. As a child, she had difficulty getting her grandmother to speak in detail about Ireland, which she suspects is because of the hardships the family endured before their move to the United States. Barbara grew up going to all-girls Catholic schools and was raised Catholic. She speaks glowingly of her travels in Ireland and discusses the various ways in which she passes a sense of Irish-American identity onto her children and grandchildren. Barbara recently relocated to Charleston to be close to her married son and grandchildren, who live in Mt. Pleasant.
The former Charleston mayor discusses family storytelling. He considers himself and his mother's side of the family to be introverted. His father's side are talkative, "Irish" storytellers. Riley shares family lore he received as a child. These include impressions of his father and his political associates, including Senators James F. Byrnes and Fritz Hollings. He also shares family stories and impressions of memorable relatives, including his grandfather J. Edwin Schachte's involvement with the Knights of Columbus, his uncle Lawrence G. Riley's life in the merchant marine, and pranks with his uncle John E. Riley. Riley lore also ties the family to the Civil War through his great grandfather Henry Oliver, a Confederate veteran. After the Civil War, Oliver walked home from Richmond, Virginia. The interview concludes with Rileys childhood memories of World War Two.
Riley discusses his years in the South Carolina House of Representatives (1968-1974). During those years, Riley was part of a small group of young legislators known as the Young Turks, which attempted to pass progressive reforms but faced the opposition of conservative legislators lead by the long-time serving Speaker of the House, Solomon Blatt Sr. Riley discusses his 1968 campaign and the unsuccessful runs of James Clyburn and Herbert Fielding. The interview concludes with Riley reflecting on his wife Charlotte's role and presence in his political career.
Carol Tempel was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1941 to first generation Polish and German- Czechoslovakian parents. Her father was a Roman Catholic Democrat and her mother a Missouri Synod Lutheran Republican. She credits her parents' experiences as the foundation for her understanding of civil rights; " I think those experiences are really the thing that helped me understand what the civil-rights movement was all about, what discrimination was all about, what prejudice was all about, because it was founded on knowing people as people." Her father encouraged her to attend college and pursue a career in science even when in 1963 it was an uncommon career choice for a woman. She graduated from Augustana College, majoring in Biology and Secondary Education. Later she pursued a master's degree in Biology and completed her PhD in Educational Leadership. In the interview, Tempel tells about the times when she was denied employment despite her qualifications because of her gender. In 1978, Tempel moved with her husband, George Tempel, and children from Kansas to Charleston. Tempel remembers feeling she was "an anomaly" among the other women. She joined the League of Women Voters and soon was deeply involved in the Equal Rights Movement. She tells about the efforts to reform the legislation in South Carolina, the criticism she received in her own community because of her activism, and finally the frustration when despite all the hard work in 1982 the legislation did not pass. Tempel never stopped working in the community; from ‘82 to ‘88 she served as a chair of the James Island Constituent School Board and was the owner of a small business. In '88, she was hired by Charleston County Schools as curriculum specialist and she worked with the school district in many different capacities until her retirement. She is the president of the American Association of University Women of South Carolina. In the interview, Tempel reflects about the motivations behind her activism, her biggest accomplishments, and what means for her to be a feminist and a southern woman.
María Asunción Córdova was born and grew up in Punta Arenas, Chile. She is the daughter of Miguel Córdova and the writer María Asunción Requena. When she was eleven years old, her parents divorced and she moved with her mother and her two brothers to Santiago de Chile. Cordova attended the University of Chile, where she graduated with the title of Doctor in Dental Surgery. There, she met her husband, Dr. Carlos Salinas. In 1972, Córdova and Salinas relocated to Baltimore, Maryland to work at the Johns Hopkins University. In this interview, Córdova remembers her life in Chile and reflects about her experiences as a young professional, mother, and activist. / María Asunción Córdova nació y vivió su infancia en Punta Arenas, Chile. Es hija de Miguel Córdova y de la escritora María Asunción Requena. Cuando tenía once años sus padres se divorciaron y tuvo que mudarse junto a su madre y sus dos hermanos a Santiago de Chile. Córdova estudió en la Universidad de Chile, donde se graduó con el título de Doctor en Cirugía Dental. Allí conoció a su esposo, el Dr. Carlos Salinas. En 1972, Córdova y Salinas se radicaron en Baltimore, Maryland para trabajar en la Universidad Johns Hopkins. En esta entrevista, Córdova recuerda su vida en Chile y reflexiona sobre sus experiencias como joven profesional, madre y activista.
Charleston?s longest-serving mayor discusses his experiences as an undergraduate at The Citadel (1960-1964). Prompted by a yearbook photo, Riley shares memories of his classmates, including a company commander with a proclivity for pranks involving wildlife. Riley also reflects on Charleston's Civil War Centennial events, which were part of a year-long national commemoration. Cadets re-enacted the December 1861 firing on the federal supply ship, the Star of the West, which preceded by four months the attack on Fort Sumter that marked the start of the Civil War. Riley recalls his cousin Steve Schachte firing a model cannon at a Star of the West replica from the roof of the family home on Charleston's Battery. Riley also describes his relationship to Thomas Nugent ("The Boo") Courvoisie, a beloved Citadel administrator. A trip to New Orleans as a member of the Summerall Guard during Riley's senior year was especially memorable. He additionally reflects on his early work experiences, including assisting his father in his insurance business and an internship in Congressman Mendel Rivers's office in Washington, DC. Riley concludes with some reflections on the influence of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. on his values.
Susan K. Dunn (1951) was born in Murray, Kentucky. Her mother was a homemaker and her father, a World War II veteran, was a Methodist Church minister who was very active in the Civil Rights movement. Dunn attended Duke University from 1968 to 1972, and her whole college experience was deeply impacted by the anti-war movement. In this interview, Dunn remembers her days as a student, protesting in the Duke Campus, and marching to DC. After college she decided to become an attorney and attended the University Of North Carolina School Of Law in Chapel Hill. Although it was a predominately male environment she did not face discrimination or problems for being a woman. It was later, when she was looking for a job that she confronted more barriers related not only to her gender but also to the fact that she lacked family connections. After graduation she moved with her husband to Charleston and worked for a small local law firm for a while. Later, she opened her own practice focusing mainly in family law. In 1993, Dunn began litigating in a high profile case known as Ferguson et al V. City of Charleston et all which lasted for more than a decade and was decided by the United States Supreme Court. "It involved a legal challenge to a policy that was basically created by the Charleston City Police and the Medical University. It was a policy that dealt with drug-testing pregnant women and using the criminal procedure to force them into treatment or to arrest them." The Supreme Court held that the policy was unconstitutional because it violated the Fourth Amendment. During all the years living and practicing law in Charleston Dunn has been involved in many causes directly related to protect and advance women's rights. Dunn has devoted her time and energy to many organizations, such as NOW (National Organization of Women), The South Carolina Women Lawyers' Association, and the City of Charleston Women Association. However, she affirms that "probably the place where I've affected more women is representing them in divorces and not charging them an arm and a leg and, you know, trying to, in one way that I could, help them get through that process with their dignity intact".In addition, Dunn worked as a lay minister at the Circular Church from 1999 to 2009. She explains that her church community is very important for her. Finally, Dunn reflects about her life as a mother and professional, and about what it means to her to be a feminist and a southern woman.
Lidia Gabriela Ojeda Ruiz (b. 1997) was born in the town of Jerécuaro in Guanajuato, Mexico and came to the United States in 2006, with her two older brothers to live with her mother and her older sister who were already settled in Johns Island, South Carolina. In this interview, Ojeda remembers growing up in Mexico, the difficulty and confusion of leaving family and friends in Guanajuato to start a new life in the United States, and the challenges she faced adjusting to a foreign environment. She shares her story of adjusting to the school system, learning English and becoming acculturated. Moreover, she discusses her status as a Dreamer and the burdens placed upon DACA students to further their education beyond high school. Ojeda tells about her interest in criminal justice, her work with a local immigration lawyer, and her plans to continue her education in the future. In this interview, Ojeda reflects about how growing up in two different places, Guanajuato and South Carolina, have shaped her life and character.
Consuelo Campos was born in Aquila, Michoacán, Mexico. Because her family was very poor and she was the oldest of thirteen siblings, she started working at an early age in the production of bricks and selling food that her mother prepared. She attended school only for two years after the village priest convinced her father that education was necessary and important. Poverty and the news of prosperity that came from the north fueled her desire to emigrate and help her family. At the age of nineteen, she married a young man from her town who worked as an agricultural worker in the United States. Soon after, in 1989 they settled in the state of Washington. In 1992, they moved to Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina but continued to travel as a migrant working family. Finally, after almost ten years working in the fields and concerned about her children’s wellbeing, she decided to settle down and began to clean houses in Johns Island. She learned English and opened several small businesses, including a cleaning company and a restaurant. At the time of the interview, Campos was working full-time with the company Mary Kay. She reflects on the reasons for emigrating, remembers life on Johns Island and Wadmalaw Island in the 90s, and takes pride in accomplishing her goal of helping her family. / Consuelo Campos nació en Aquila, Michoacán México. Su familia era muy pobre y como era la mayor de trece hermanos tuvo que comenzar a trabajar desde muy pequeña en la producción de ladrillos y vendiendo comida que su madre preparaba. Asistió a la escuela solamente por dos años después de que el sacerdote del pueblo convenciera a su padre de la que la educación era necesaria e importante. La pobreza y las noticias de prosperidad que llegaban desde el norte alimentaron su deseo de emigrar y ayudar a su familia. A los 19 años se casó con un joven de su pueblo, que se desempeñaba como trabajador agrícola en los Estados Unidos y con él, en el año 1989 se radicó en el estado de Washington. En 1992 se mudaron a Wadmalaw Island, Carolina del Sur, pero siguieron viajando en familia como trabajadores migrantes. Finalmente, después de casi diez años trabajando en el campo y pensando en el bienestar de sus hijos, decidió establecerse y para ganar su sustento empezó a limpiar casas en Johns Island. Aprendió inglés y abrió varios pequeños negocios, entre ellos una compañía de limpieza y un restaurante. Al tiempo de la entrevista Campos estaba abocada a tiempo completo a trabajar con la compañía Mary Kay. Campos reflexiona sobre las razones para emigrar, recuerda la vida en Johns Island and Wadmanlaw Island en la década de los noventa y se enorgullece de haber logrado su objetivo de ayudar a su familia.
María was born in Caracheo, Guanajuato, Mexico. She is the youngest of eleven siblings in a family dedicated to rural work. She got married when she was twenty years old. Soon after, her husband, following in the footsteps of family and friends, left for the United States to work in agriculture. While her husband worked in the United States, she took care of the family in Caracheo. Each year, her husband went back home. However, after the terrorist attack in New York City, the trip became increasingly more dangerous. Thinking that her children needed to be with their father and have a better future, Maria decided to move to the United States and settled in Johns Island, South Carolina. In the interview, Maria talks about the process of adaptation to life in the United States, the difficulties related to physical and cultural isolation and the support she received from the island's Hispanic community. Maria affirms that, despite the obstacles, she is happy because her family is reunited and her children are well. At the time of the interview, Maria had four children and two grandchildren. / María, nació en Caracheo, Guanajuato, México. Es la menor de once hermanos de una familia dedicada al trabajo rural. A los veinte años se casó. Al poco tiempo su esposo, siguiendo los pasos de familiares y amigos, se marchó a los Estados Unidos para trabajar en la agricultura. Mientras Su esposo trabajaba en Estados Unidos ella cuidaba la familia en Caracheo. Cada año su esposo regresaba al pueblo para estar con la familia. Pero después del ataque terrorista en la ciudad de Nueva York el viaje se volvió cada vez más peligroso. Para que sus hijos pudieran crecer junto a su padre y tener un mejor futuro, María decidió mudarse a Estados Unidos y se estableció en Johns Island, Carolina del Sur. En la entrevista, María habla acerca del proceso de adaptación a la vida en Estados Unidos, las dificultades relacionadas con el aislamiento físico y cultural y el apoyo que recibió de la comunidad hispana de la isla. María afirma que, a pesar de los obstáculos, ella es feliz porque su familia está reunida y sus hijos están bien. Al momento de la entrevista María tenía cuatro hijos y dos nietos.
Marshall Stein, born in Allendale, South Carolina, in 1935 to Lena Young and Max Stein, recounts the Stein and Young family histories. Lena, a Beaufort, South Carolina, native, was a daughter of Russian immigrants Toby and Julius Young, who, having lived in a number of northern cities, including New York, moved to Beaufort to take advantage of the lower cost of living and the less populated, rural atmosphere. Besides opening dry goods and furniture stores in Beaufort, the Youngs ran lumber mills in neighboring Burton and in Allendale, about sixty miles inland. The interviewee relays anecdotes about Julius, who was fully accepted by his fellow businessmen in Beaufort, so much so, he had the dubious distinction of being invited to join the Ku Klux Klan. Max Stein was one of four sons of Lena (same name as her daughter-in-law) and Morris Stein of Indianapolis, Indiana. Morris ran a tannery and frequently went on the road to sell his hides. Julius Young was one of his customers, and Max met his future wife, Lena, after accompanying his father on a sales trip. Max and his new bride tried living in Indianapolis, but Lena didn't like it, so they moved to Allendale where Max opened a grocery store. The family relocated to Beaufort when Marshall was six years old; by then, he was a big brother to Bernard. Max joined the Young family in the lumber industry, which expanded to include a building supply and contracting business in Beaufort. Marshall describes growing up in the Lowcountry town with his brother, Bernie, and his sister, Leonora Lynn, born four years after the move. He shares fond memories of the Youngs, particularly his four cousins, who were like brothers, and his aunt Sanie, who married Ben Fox of Asheville, North Carolina; Ben ran Fox's Jewelers on Bay Street in Beaufort. The interviewee cherished the small-town atmosphere and the intimacy of services and gatherings at Beaufort's Orthodox synagogue, Beth Israel, led by Rabbi Spier. He recalls one or two "Germanic Jewish" families living in Beaufort who didn't attend Beth Israel; instead they traveled to the Reform synagogue in Savannah or Charleston. "Because of that they didn't fit in too well with the rest." Note: the transcript includes comments and corrections made by the interviewee and interviewer during proofing.
Nicolas Lindsay was born in 1927 at the Hotel Davenport of Spokane, Washington. He was the son of renowned American poet Vachel Lindsay and poet Elizabeth (Lisa) Connor Lindsay of St. Louis. His father killed himself when Nick was four; he and his sister were raised by their mother thereafter. The family moved across the country: to Illinois, California, Alabama, Maryland, and to New York, where he attended boarding schools. Nick did not graduate from high school, but went to work in a steel mill instead, where he helped organize Steel Workers of America, CIO. Later he attended college in Connecticut and got a scholarship to UNC, where he met his future wife, Frances Easley DuBose (DuBose). They raised 10 children and have been married for 70 years. DuBose, a South Carolinian, had visited Edisto as a child, a connection that led to the young Lindsay family’s moving to the Island in 1955. Before arriving on Edisto, Nick worked briefly for the Atomic Energy Commission, which was building what came to be known the Savannah River Project. After the family moved to Edisto, Nick worked as a teacher for a time; but he needed to make more money, so he took on carpentry work, building houses and boats, among other things, including the steeple on the Episcopal Church, which he and his wife did together. The two of them also got involved in efforts to help the black residents of Hollywood and Edisto register to vote—a dangerous business at the time. Because of intimidation by armed white men at the registration center, ‘Nobody got out of the car. I turned around; we came home.’ He continued: ‘We were troublemakers,’ citing the history of the white Presbyterian Church he was asked to write, but which the Church subsequently declined to publish. Nick referred to another book he wrote, And I’m Glad, an oral history mostly narrated by Edisto Islander Sam Gadsden. He discussed a number of renowned Edisto Islanders throughout its history, including April Frasier (on whom, he noted, the title character from Here Come Joe Mungen was based); slavery-era plantation owners Townsend Mikell and his father, Isaac Jenkins Mikell; the ‘King of Edisto,’ Johnny Thorne, who established the freedmen’s village of Shago; and Jim Hutchinson (‘the founding father of the Republican party’) and his son, Henry.
Rosemary Smith and Keller Barron share their memories of South Carolina Democratic Senator Hyman Rubin (1913–2005), who was elected in 1966 and served for eighteen years. Rosemary, who grew up in Nazi Germany, was the administrative assistant to the Senate Medical Affairs Committee that Rubin chaired. Keller was the research director for the Joint Legislative Committee on Aging, also headed by Rubin. Both women describe Rubin’s attributes and tell stories about his contributions to the city of Columbia and the state. He was a founding member of the Columbia Luncheon Club and the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council, both organized in the early 1960s to facilitate racial integration. The interviewees note that although the senator did not “wear” his Jewishness “on his sleeve,” he did decline invitations to attend functions at Forest Lake Club in Columbia, where Jews were not accepted as members. For related materials, see Hyman Rubin’s May 24, 1995, interview, Mss 1035-024, and Rose Rudnick Rubin’s May 5, 1996, interview, Mss. 1035-072.
Stephanie Waldron grew up in Kenya on a farm in a house built by her father with no electricity. Later, her mother married Dr. Richard Dominick, who periodically visited Kenya. He was an avid hunter, hunting ducks on Long Island and big game in Kenya. During his visits to Africa they went on safaris, to photograph rather than to hunt. During his youth, Dominick traveled with his family to Coosawhatchie, SC, and developed a love for South Carolina. When he retired from his career as an ophthalmologist, he purchased the Wedge Plantation on the Santee Delta to pursue his lifelong passion of collecting moths. Waldron moved with her mother and siblings during her adolescence to the Wedge. Dominick supervised the renovation of the main house, and built a laboratory for his moth studies called the Bug House. This building also contained a darkroom for color photography development. A steady stream of visitors, scientists and collectors, came to the Wedge. The family had horses, and her stepbrother and stepsister rode often. The family bred thoroughbred racehorses, and Waldron worked with the horses. She reflected on times of the year when deerflies and mosquitoes were rampant. Dr. Dominick died in 1976, and her mother stayed at Wedge another ten years. She described the Wedge property, and recalled trips out to Cedar and Islands. The University of South Carolina purchased Wedge, and it became an institute for the study of mosquito-borne diseases. Waldron stayed on for a while before pursuing her career in film and landscaping. Students came to Wedge, and Waldron ran the kitchen and cooked on her assigned days. Waldron recalled childhood activities from Wedge with her step-siblings. Dr. Dominick had decided at age 40 to no longer hunt, and just observe wildlife. Waldron laughed about locals having trouble understanding her dialect (British). Waldron imagined the amount of labor, and the engineering required, to build all the rice fields in the Santee Delta. She recalled her first time catching shrimp with a seine net at Santee Coastal Reserve with Bill Mace. She expressed her good fortune to have lived for many years in the Santee Delta.
Roselen Morris Rivkin, born in 1926 in Romania, immigrated with her family to the United States in 1932. They lived first in Elkhart, Indiana, then South Bend, Indiana. She met her husband, Arnold Rivkin, of Columbia, South Carolina, while he was stationed at Notre Dame during World War II. They married in South Bend in August 1946 and moved about three months later to Columbia to operate Edward’s Men’s Shop at the corner of Washington and Assembly streets. After twenty years, the store relocated to 1625 Main Street and reopened as Marks’ Men’s Wear. Roselen talks briefly about Arnold’s parents, Rachel and Raphael Rivkin, and recalls the Jewish merchants she knew on Assembly Street and Main Street. She found Columbia’s Jewish community to be small, close-knit, and welcoming. Roselen and Arnold raised three children, Mark, Allen, and Lynda, in the capital city. For a related interview, see Caba Rivkin, Mss. 1035-017.
In this follow-up to their June 23, 2016, interview (Mss. 1035-452), Ira and Anita Rosenberg talk about their children and grandchildren and how they observed Judaism as a family when the children were growing up. Ira notes that he was a co-founder of Dragon Boat Charleston, served on the boards of Charleston Jewish Community Center and Charleston Jewish Federation, and is a past president of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. He discusses the benefits of Jewish community centers, his thoughts on the recent transition of the local center to one without walls, and his feelings about the presence of Chabad in the area.
Mike Prevost grew up in Georgetown, SC, and his interest in the outdoors developed in his summers spent at Pawley’s Island. He became an avid duck hunter, and his experiences in rice fields inspired his career in coastal habitat ecology. Prevost received his BS from the University of Georgia (UGA) in 1973, and afterward was employed for three years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Georgia coast. He returned to UGA for a Masters, studying under Dr. Sydney Johnson, and did his thesis fieldwork at Kinloch Plantation in the Santee Delta on brackish marsh waterfowl foods. Prevost received mentoring from Kinloch’s manager, Kenny Williams, as well as from Phil Wilkinson. After completing his degree, he was employed by SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) working on mosquito control, particularly on understanding the ecology of the mosquito and source reduction. Prevost moved on to employment with SC Wildlife Marine Resources Department (SCMRD) with a focus on waterfowl habitat. The range of his work was from Savannah to Georgetown, and he spent much of his time in the Santee Delta. The work in the outdoors provided a number of challenges: biting insects, equipment issues, and the need to often improvise. Part of his time with SCMRD included working at Bear Island in Colleton County, and during that time the concept of the ACE Basin Project evolved. Prevost became a coordinator for the ACE Basin Task Force. After the ACE Basin Project he went to work full time for The Nature Conservancy as the project director for the Sewee To Santee landscape. In 2010, Prevost had the opportunity to go to work for White Oak Forestry Corporation, a subsidiary of Evening Post Industries. White Oak Forestry consists of 17,000 acres in the lower Santee Delta, and was established by Peter Manigault, a visionary conservationist who was the first landowner to place a conservation easement on private land in the Santee Delta. Prevost followed Duff Holbrook as president and manager of White Oak Forestry, and he told two stories about experiences with Holbrook out in the Delta at Six Mile Island. He reflected on the Delta from hundreds of years ago, the changes created by the development of rice culture, and by the Santee Cooper project that reduced the Santee River flow by 90 percent. Prevost recalled some notable people from the Delta, including William Garrett and Ben Willy Richardson. Of threats to the Delta he identified changing climate and sea level rise. Prevost discussed the high significance of the Santee Delta on a number of levels.
William Garrett grew up on Blake Plantation, part of the Santee Gun Club. His parents were George and Celia Garrett; his father was a trunk minder. During his youth Garrett helped his family grow rice. He had four sisters and four brothers. The family did not have electricity so he cut wood for heating and cooking, and pumped water. Garrett told a story about swimming with his brother Moses toward a log in the South Santee River that turned out to be a large alligator. When he was a young guide for the Gun Club the manager allowed his brother and him to go over to Murphy Island to hunt cattle. He started working for the Santee Gun Club at age 18 or 19 for a salary of $2.50 per week. His main responsibility was to take care of the Santee Gun Club members he was guiding, and get them back safely after the day’s hunt. These hunts took place in blinds on the mainland (the Cape) and on Murphy and Cedar Islands. He recalled a young overconfident guide on his first day stating he could find his way back. When the young guide and his member were long overdue, the manager sent Garrett to find them. Garrett recalled going with his uncle to Murphy Island to get turtle eggs during his childhood. He recalled cattle lined up along the beach at night to get away from the mosquitoes. Garrett said he got used to the mosquitoes. He mentioned the names of some of the Gun Club members, and recalled taking Peter Matthiessen, the son of one of the members, goose hunting on Murphy one evening. Garrett was very worried about potential changes when the Gun Club was transferred to the state of South Carolina. He remembered walking four miles from his home on Blake Plantation to court his wife in South Santee. They were married in 1946. Part of his work for the Gun Club and the state was to build trunks, water control structures, and place them in the dikes. Garrett related his experience in South Santee during Hurricane Hugo. He shared three stories of accidental shootings at the Gun Club. Garrett mentioned changes in fishing after the Santee River was dammed and some of his fishing experiences. He also commented on race relations in the area.
Selma Blick Dickman of Columbia, South Carolina, is joined by her daughter Janis Dickman in this interview, which focuses on social issues dating to the late 1940s. Selma, a New York transplant, describes how she feels about living in the South. After moving to Sumter, South Carolina, in 1949, her tendency to talk about New York was greeted with advice from the Jewish natives: talk less about New York and more about her new home. Selma discusses her past perceptions of Jewish-Christian relations and notes how they have changed over time. She and Janis respond to questions about antisemitism and Janis recalls that as a child growing up in Columbia, "I always remember feeling different." Both describe their reactions to learning of the Holocaust and Selma remembers the arrival in Columbia of survivors Jadzia Sklar and Ben Stern, the interviewer's parents. Selma considers how her views of African-Americans have changed during her lifetime; both interviewees talk about racism, segregation, and present-day race relations, including the controversy surrounding the presence of the Confederate flag on the South Carolina State House grounds. Selma's husband, Max Dickman, who died thirty years before this interview, co-founded the scrap metal business, Columbia Steel and Metal. The Dickmans raised three daughters in Columbia. In a postscript to the interview, Janis describes the Dickman family's relationship with Florida Boyd, an African-American woman who worked in their home for forty-three years. The transcript also includes comments and corrections made by Janis during proofing and additional background information she provided upon request.
Kenny Williams was born December 20, 1942. He grew up in Georgetown, SC in a lower middle class family. He learned fishing, hunting, and wildlife ethics from his father and uncles. He received an undergraduate degree from Wofford College, and a masters degree in wildlife biology from Auburn. While at Auburn, he applied for employment at Kinloch Plantation, owned by the Dupont family, and began work there after graduation. He learned about plantation management from the manager, Richard Stanland, and replaced him as manager when Stanland retired. The work at Kinloch included farming, use of water control structures, and managing rice fields for migratory waterfowl. The labor, working with a few employess, was often hard and challenging. Kinloch had a clubhouse where the family entertained friends and guests during the winter season, and his related responsibilities were directing the daily duck hunts and other wildlife hunts. While manager he was married and had two sons who grew up there. Williams had a "great" cook, Irene Rivens, who worked and cooked for him. The Duponts decided to sell Kinloch, which was purchased by Ted Turner; Williams discussed this transition. The biting insects of the Santee Delta were seasonally a most difficult challenge, and he recounted dealing with the worst times. Williams imagined what the Santee Delta was like when it was a virgin gum and cypress forest, and the effort required to build the rice fields. He commented on changes for the Santee Delta’s black population. Speaking about the conservation of the Santee Delta, he discussed his work as a consultant in land management for wildlife, and a regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited. He recalled a summer job while still at Auburn as a biological technician in Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, and a close encounter with a cottonmouth on Bulls Island. Williams also reflected on changes in the Santee Delta as a result of the damming of the Santee River, and decreasing waterfowl populations. Williams discussed the significance of the Santee Delta.
Jane Wineglass was born in 1927, and grew up in the South Santee community at Collins Creek. She was the youngest of fifteen children, and a self-described tomboy. Her mother, Eve (maiden name Manigault) Green, was born on Murphy Island; her father was Sambo Green. Her mother worked as a cook at the Wedge Plantation, and walked to and from work. When her mother became disabled, Wineglass took over as cook and eventually worked for a new owner, Dr. Richard Dominick. He hosted an annual event in the South Santee community. Wineglass also played at the Wedge during her childhood: beside her mother working there she had a number of family members living there. The Dominicks had a home in London, and took Wineglass there for six weeks. She went along as cook, but for her it was a "glorious" vacation. After Dominick died and the Wedge was purchased by the University of South Carolina, she went to work for a while at the Santee Gun Club. Wineglass recalled her father and his work as a carpenter: repairing homes, building homes, building trunks for controlling water, and generally doing "neat" work. In dealing with mosquitoes, she would break off branches from a shrub to beat them off. Though Wineglass was raised in a large family, she had only one child, a son, who died from being "heartbroken". She still has grandchildren in NC who occasionally visit. Wineglass recalled her parents growing rice in a low spot on their property. Her father used a wagon to go to work, pulled by an oxen named Pete. The animal was given to the family by the government to use for plowing their garden. Since her childhood, Wineglass has attended the same church, Greater Mount Zion AME Church. She became one of their local ministers. She reflects on the tragedy at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston. She regularly attends Sunday school, Sunday service, an evening service at another church in Awendaw, and a Tuesday evening prayer meeting. Of her fourteen siblings, only one, William Green, is still alive. The most important aspect of the Santee Delta for Wineglass: it is home, and the best place for her to be.
Henrietta Smalls was born in Germantown SC on October 24, 1925 to Mary and Isaiah Robinson. She moved to Shulerville and Mauss Swamp before returning to Germantown. According to Smalls, life was rough: there was no electricity or running water, and there was little opportunity for employment. Her mother planted a garden and cooked on wood fires; the family also had cows, hogs, and chickens. Smalls helped out by gathering firewood, pumping water from a well, and washing clothes. Walking was a necessity without a car. She married Peter Smalls; he served in the Army in the Pacific in World War II, and afterward worked for many years at the Naval Shipyard. Before she married, Smalls worked at Hampton Plantation a couple days a week in the flower gardens. She had four children, and after they were all in school she went to work in Charleston at National Linen. Smalls’ godmother was Sue Alston, known as the Angel of Hampton Plantation. She spent much time with Alston at her home in Germantown, and described her as the mother of the community. Smalls went to her church – Howard AME – and attended prayer meetings at her home. She has continued to plant a garden, and greens are her favorite. Smalls talked about Hurricane Hugo, and the recent flooding. After the family got a car, Smalls helped out members of the Germantown community, taking people shopping, to the doctor, and on other business. She reflected on changes in her community.
Enrique Martinez is the owner of La Casa Mexicana, one of the first Hispanic stores in the city of Goose Creek. He was born in Tampico Tamaulipas, Mexico and studied Agricultural Administration at the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas. At the end of the 80s, he emigrated with his then-wife Marcela Ortega to the United States and after a brief stay in Texas, they settled in Johns Island, South Carolina. Martinez started working in agriculture, but the devastation caused by hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the subsequent real estate development in the area demanded more workers and created new job opportunities. Martinez found work in the construction of the Kiawah golf courses. He and his wife opened El Mercadito, the first Hispanic store in Johns Island. After their separation, Martinez left the island and moved to North Charleston. He became familiar with the growing Hispanic community of Goose Creek and decided to establish the store he still owns. In the interview, Martínez reflects on his experiences as an immigrant and the evolution of the Hispanic community in the area. He also speaks proudly of his children and of what he has been able to achieve in his life. / Enrique Martínez es el propietario de ”La Casa Mexicana” uno de las tiendas de productos hispanos con más trayectoria en la ciudad de Goose Creek. Nació en Tampico Tamaulipas, México y estudió administración agropecuaria en la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas. A fines de la década de los ochenta emigró con su entonces esposa, Marcela Ortega, a los Estados Unidos y después de una breve temporada en Texas la pareja se asentó en Johns Island, Carolina del Sur. Martínez encontró empleo en la agricultura, pero la devastación producida por el huracán Hugo en 1989 y el posterior desarrollo inmobiliario de la zona demandaron más trabajadores y originaron nuevas oportunidades por lo cual Martínez comenzó a trabajar en la construcción de los campos de golf de Kiawah. Junto a su esposa abrió la primera tienda de productos hispanos en Johns Island ”El Mercadito”. Después de su separación, Martínez dejó la isla y se mudó a North Charleston. Se familiarizó con la vibrante comunidad hispana de Goose Creek y decidió establecer allí el negocio que todavía conserva. En la entrevista, Martínez reflexiona acerca de la evolución de la comunidad hispana en el área y sus experiencias personales como inmigrante. También habla con orgullo de sus dos hijos y de lo que ha podido construir en su vida.
Sean Doherty discusses his experience growing up as part of an Irish-American family in New York City. His parents emigrated from County Donegal in the 1920s. He discusses growing up in a neighborhood of various first-generation immigrants from different backgrounds. He was an officer in the United States Marine Corps, until he became a salesman for Sylvan Pyrometric Systems, eventually retiring and coming to Charleston.
Iris was born in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico. Her grandmother served as her main caregiver because her mother worked full time and studied on the weekends. She suffered the absence of her mother, but from her she learned to strive for her goals. As a teenager, she was sent to Mexico City to study cosmetology. When she returned to her town, she fell in love and had her first child at seventeen. She had her own hairdressing and beauty business, but she aspired to a better quality of life for herself and her child. Excited by the stories of prosperity coming from the north, she decided to emigrate. She left her nine-year-old son with her sister and embarked on the difficult journey to cross the border. The crossing was plagued by situations of danger and abuse. Life in the United States was more difficult than she had anticipated, and her plans to reunite with her child took six years to complete. The reunion was fraught with difficulties and the family needed a lot of time and determination to heal their wounds. Iris’s son was at risk of deportation but, fortunately, he was able to apply for DACA and receive approval. Iris worked as a promoter in the PASOs program and currently continues to volunteer in the community and her parish.Nació en la ciudad de Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México en el año de 1972. Siendo niña estuvo al cuidado de su abuelita porque su madre trabajaba a tiempo completo y estudiaba los fines de semana. Sufrió la ausencia de su madre, pero de ella aprendió a luchar por superarse y lograr sus metas. Siendo adolescente se fue a vivir a la Ciudad de México para estudiar cosmetología. Cuando a volvió a su pueblo se enamoró y a los diecisiete años tuvo a su primer hijo. Tenía su propio negocio de peluquería y belleza, pero aspiraba a una mejor calidad de vida para ella y su niño. Entusiasmada con las historias de prosperidad que le llegaban del norte decidió emigrar. Dejó a su hijo de nueve años con su hermana y emprendió el difícil viaje para cruzar la frontera. El cruce estuvo plagado de situaciones de peligro y abuso. En Estados Unidos las cosas fueron más difíciles de lo que había anticipado y sus planes de reunirse con su niño demoraron seis años en cumplirse. El reencuentro estuvo plagado de dificultades y la familia necesitó mucho tiempo y trabajo para reparar las heridas. El joven estuvo a punto de ser deportado, pero afortunadamente pudo acogerse a los beneficios de DACA. Lopez trabajó como promotora en el programa PASOs, y actualmente sigue ofreciendo su trabajo voluntario en la comunidad y su parroquia.
López was born in Mexico City in 1978, but grew up with her grandparents in a very small town called Huaycali in the state of Guerrero. Recalling her childhood, López reminisces about the responsibilities she had as a peasant girl and describes the customs and celebrations of her land. As a teenager, she crossed the border with her family and, after a difficult and dangerous journey, arrived in Johns Island, South Carolina, where one of her aunts lived. Almost immediately, López started working in the fields to pay for the expenses of her trip. A short time later, a young friend from Mexico came looking for her. They were married soon after, and have been together ever since. They have two children and consider Johns Island their place in the world. In her interview, López explains that education is very important to her and her husband, which is why they have made an effort to learn, better themselves, and train as community leaders. In this learning process, she explains, the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy played a crucial role. López also reflects on her work with various community organizations such as PASOs, Family Corps, and Holy Spirit Parish.López nació en la Ciudad de México en 1978 pero creció junto a sus abuelitos, en un pueblo muy pequeño llamado Huaycali en el estado de Guerrero. Recordando su infancia, López cuenta acerca de las responsabilidades que tenía como niña campesina y describe las costumbres y celebraciones de su tierra. Siendo adolescente, cruzó la frontera con su familia y después de un viaje azaroso y difícil llegó a Johns Island, South Carolina donde residía una de sus tías. Apenas llegada, Alma comenzó a trabajar en la agricultura para poder pagar los gastos de su viaje. Al poco tiempo, un joven amigo de México llegó a buscarla y enseguida se casaron. Desde entonces López y su esposo han estado juntos. Tienen dos hijos y consideran a Johns Island su lugar en el mundo. López explica que la educación es muy importante para ella y su marido y que por esa razón se han esforzado en aprender y formarse como líderes comunitarios. En ese proceso de aprendizaje, su relación con las hermanas de Our Lady of Mercy tuvo un rol fundamental. López, también reflexiona acerca de su trabajo con distintas organizaciones comunitarias como PASOs, Family Corps y la Parroquia Holy Spirit.
In the second part of her interview, Margarita recalls the different places she’s worked since her family settled in the Lowcountry. Her first job was in North Charleston in a food processing facility, where she spent most of her working hour processing vegetables in a walk-in cooler. She withdrew from that position because she was pregnant and the long hours of work in the intense cold were affecting her health. After the birth of her baby, she got a job at Carolina Nurseries in Moncks Corner and was surprised by how many Mexican workers the company employed. Currently, she works with her husband in a landscape company. Upon arriving in the Lowcountry, Margarita and her family settled in a neighborhood located behind Midland Park Elementary. Margarita remembers with great affection the Midland Park teachers who, from the first school day, supported and encouraged her daughter and continued providing help, support, and encouragement throughout her time at school. Her daughter, a young DACA, is studying at the University of Delaware. Margarita reflects on the limitations she had as a mother to support her daughter in the process of applying for college and expresses the immense pride she feels for her daughter’s achievements.En la segunda parte de la entrevista, Margarita recuerda los distintos lugares en los que trabajó desde que se establecieron en el Lowcountry. El primero, fue en North Charleston en una cámara frigorífica procesando verdura. Se retiró de ese lugar porque estaba embarazada y las largas horas de trabajo en el frio intenso le estaban afectando su salud. Después del nacimiento de su bebe consiguió trabajo en Carolina Nurseries en Moncks Corner y se sorprendió de la cantidad de trabajadores mexicanos que la compañía empleaba. Actualmente trabaja con su marido en una compañía de jardinería. Al llegar al Lowcountry, Margarita y su familia se establecieron en un vecindario ubicado atrás de la escuela Midland Park. Margarita recuerda con mucho afecto a los maestros de esa escuela que desde el primer día apoyaron y alentaron a su hija y que a lo largo de su vida escolar la acompañaron y la ayudaron a encontrar recursos para progresar. Su hija, una joven DACA, estudia en la Universidad de Delaware. Margarita reflexiona acerca de las limitaciones que tuvo como madre para apoyar a su hija en el proceso de ingresar a la universidad y expresa el orgullo inmenso que siente por los logros de la joven.
Carmela was born in a rural community called Ojo de Agua, Santa Cruz, Nundaco, Tlaxiaco, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. She grew up speaking Mixtec, learned to speak Spanish in school, and from an early age helped her family with the house and small farm chores. At the age of fourteen, after finishing middle school, she moved to Mexico City. In the interview, Carmela tells about her life in the capital, first under the care of her mother's godmother and then employed with two other families. She tells about the things she learned living in a big city, but also about the situations of injustice and abuse to which she was subjected. Back in her village, Carmela married a childhood friend. Unfortunately, the couple's first baby was stillborn. The loss of her child left her in such deep pain that her family feared for her mental health. Relatives and friends advised them to travel to the United States to distract themselves and recover. Though she was initially unwilling to leave her homeland and terrified to cross the border, she joined her husband anyway and set off along the road to the north. Carmela remembers how they prepared for the trip and the problems they faced in the desert. She also tells of her first impressions upon arriving in South Carolina and how she learned to live in the United States, where her three children were born. Finally, Carmela reflects on work, access to education and health services, her concerns about immigration raids, and her dreams for her family.Carmela nació en una comunidad rural llamada Ojo de Agua, Santa Cruz, Nundaco, Tlaxiaco, en el estado de Oaxaca, México. Creció hablando mixteco, aprendió a hablar español en la escuela y desde temprana edad trabajó junto a su familia en las tareas de la casa y el campo. A los catorce años, después de terminar la escuela media se mudó a la Ciudad de México. En la entrevista, Barrios relata cómo fue su vida en la capital, primero bajo el cuidado de la madrina de su madre y luego empleada con otras dos familias. Cuenta las cosas que aprendió viviendo en una gran ciudad, pero también las situaciones de injusticia y abuso a las que fue sometida. De vuelta en su pueblo, Barrios se casó con un amigo de la infancia. Desafortunadamente el primer bebe de la pareja nació muerto. La pérdida de su niño la dejó sumida en un dolor tan profundo que su familia temió por su salud mental. Familiares y amigos le aconsejaron que viajara a los Estados Unidos para distraerse y recuperarse. Sin deseos de dejar su tierra y aterrorizada de cruzar la frontera, emprendió junto a su esposo, el camino al norte. Barrios recuerda cómo se prepararon para el viaje y los problemas que enfrentaron en el desierto. También cuenta sus primeras impresiones al llegar a Carolina del Sur y cómo fue su proceso de aprender a vivir en los Estados Unidos donde nacieron sus tres hijos. Por último, Barrios reflexiona sobre el trabajo, el acceso a la educación y los servicios de salud, sus preocupaciones sobre las redadas de inmigración y sobre sus sueños para su familia.
