Heaven Is a Beautiful Place: A Memoir of the South Carolina Coast In Conversation with William P. Baldwi

270 Pages·2015·8.09 MB·English

by  Genevieve C. Peterkin

Heaven Is a
Beautiful Place

Heaven Is a
Beautiful Place
A Memoir of
the South
Carolina Coast
Genevieve C.Peterkin
In conversation with
William P. Baldwin
new foreword by
Lee G. Brockington
new afterword by
William P. Baldwin
The University of South Carolina Press
© 2000Genevieve C. Peterkin and William P. Baldwin
Foreword by Lee G. Brockington © 2015University of South Carolina
Afterword © 2015William P. Baldwin
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN978-1-61117-602-5 (cloth)
ISBN978-1-61117-523-3 (paperback)
ISBN978-1-61117-524-0 (ebook)
This book contains excerpts from interviews conducted by Genevieve Willcox Chandler
for the Federal Writer’s Project of the Works Progress Administration. The interviews
are among the collections of the Library of Congress and the South Caroliniana Library,
University of South Carolina.
Jacket illustration: Morning Coffee,watercolor by Ellen Fishburne Triplett
Contents
Foreword vii
Introduction xi
Two Worlds 1
3
Little Red Horses
9
Mama
16
Daddy
21
TheWriter’s Project
28
Lillie-in-the-Valley
35
The Garden of Eden
43
Lillie’sWorld
48
Mrs. Floyd
49
Bubba Dick
51
Christmas
54
New Year’s Eve
57
Brookgreen Gardens
65
1941
Other Worlds 67
69
Cousin Sam
73
The Crash Boat Crew
80
People Mama Brought Home
87
The Gray Man
92
Alice Flagg
99
School
104
Communism
107
Germany
112
Library Problems
vvii Contents
Marriage 115
117
Bill Peterkin
123
Marriage and a Child
127
Bill Hickman
130
Captain Peterkin
134
Aunt Hagar
139
A Light
142
Civil Rights
151
Doubts
156
Fish Stories
161
Troubles
166
Julia Peterkin
168
Courage
Modern Times 173
175
Buck
179
Skin
188
Zacky Knox
194
Politics
199
Hurricanes
208
A Communion
210
Another Communion
Jim 211
213
Mourning
221
IfYou Follow Me
223
Anger
226
An Afterlife
228
Mother’s Day
A Final Word 229
231
Dogs and Flowers
235
Afterword
Foreword
“Hey, you’re new, aren’t you?” Sister Peterkin asked as the rain poured
down outside a little cottage on the grounds of Holy Cross Faith
Memorial Church at Pawleys Island. We were scheduled to work a shift
together at the community clothes closet and her warm welcome made
me glad I’d braved the wet weather. As I hung my raincoat on a nail, I
told her I had moved down from Columbia and begun work at Hobcaw
Barony. She told me her sister June Chandler Hora had worked there
in the past and when I told her I had a part-time job at Murrells Inlet’s
Anchor Inn Restaurant, she told me her brother Tommy had been co-
owner at one time.
Right away, I shared that my first visit to the restaurant was in July
1969
and the patrons had been excited about the moonwalk that night.
I told her we had watched it from one of two TVs at the Sea Ranch
17
Motel on Highway . She couldn’t wait to tell me that both her other
brothers, Joe and Bill Chandler, were NASA engineers and present in
Houston for the landing and I realized that explained the locals’ excite-
ment. Two men who’d made good were once mere boys during World
25
War II, sitting in boats and dodging shots fired from B- bomber pilots
in training over the inlet.
Immediately, Sister Peterkin had established a rapport and exhib-
ited a willingness to accept me as a newcomer to her community. Few
customers walked in that day due to the rain and she intrigued me with
stories of local families both black and white, of events past and future,
and fish markets and restaurants to visit. “It certainly is nice to have new
people. I hope you will get involved in the community.”
viii Foreword
At my first Georgetown County League of Women Voters meet-
ing, there sat Sister Peterkin, on the board and speaking passionately
about voting rights and equal access to a good education. She men-
tioned the first woman ever elected to the South Carolina General
Assembly, Mary Gordon Ellis, who ran on the issue of buses being pro-
1920 30
vided for black students in the late s and ’ s. I quietly added that
state senator Ellis was my great-aunt. Sister Peterkin recommended
that I serve on the education committee.
As an activist for racial equality, Sister Peterkin served as head
librarian in Georgetown and fought the library board’s unwillingness to
comply with new federal laws to make libraries accessible to all mem-
bers of the community. During her two contentious years of employ-
ment, she kept track of each black patron denied service at the desk. I
admired Sister Peterkin and wanted to get to know her better.
I was a newcomer and noticed that some of the crowd didn’t make
overtures to an outsider. Even though I’d vacationed at a relative’s beach
house on Pawleys Island each August, I had many things to learn about
my new life in the lowcountry. I was full of questions and she talked to
me as if no one or no other task existed for her that day. Historian
Charles Joyner describes “the muted music and calm rhythms of her
warm southern voice” and I felt blessed indeed to talk with her.
1984
Sister Peterkin was a recent widow when I met her in and
when I began to date a man twenty years my senior, she reminded me
that her husband Bill Peterkin was twenty-four years older than she.
She shared some of her painful memories of marriage and parenthood.
It was her honesty and encouragement which led to my acceptance of
1988
an engagement ring from Bill Shehan in .
She had a goal to help others acclimate to the environment of Mur-
rells Inlet, to be educated on its history and ecology, to appreciate its
beauty and uniqueness, and furthermore, to be good stewards of the
1989
Waccamaw Neck. In September , Hurricane Hugo brought
destruction to her world, and she admits in these pages “a storm of that
nature can affect people on the inside in the same way it wrecks their
Foreword ix
203
world on the outside” ( ). She saw the odd tricks nature plays dur-
ing a storm, but also how neighbors responded to and helped one
another during the disaster. She felt that “the nearest we get to under-
233
standing [God’s] love for us is by considering our love for others” ( ).
Murrells Inlet’s history is woven into the fabric of her memoir,
Heaven Is a Beautiful Place. For those blessed to be born on the coast, her
stories and accounts of life ring true. For those new to the community,
this book guides you through the people, places, sorrows, and pleasures
of a life led by the marsh. If you moved here wanting to know more and
to assimilate into the community, Sister Peterkin’s words will reassure
that you have chosen well.
Sister Peterkin had a way of reaching out to the underdog. In many
cases, a newcomer’s goal is to fit in, to take part, to know what the
natives know. Sister Peterkin understood this longing of others, and
through the words on these pages, includes you and allows you belong
to this coastal community.
Lee G. Brockington
2014
April