WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: Some of our outstanding women of Orangeburg County | Lifestyles
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The following article is intended to recognize some of the great women that Orangeburg County has produced over its years of existence. There is no doubt of the contributions that women have made to make our county what it is today.
Surely, they have had to work very hard for the accomplishments they have completed since 1704. The following will provide the reader with a short biographical list and the names of others who have helped to make Orangeburg County what it is today.
Julia Moorer Breeland
Julia Moorer Breeland became the first successful Black businesswoman in Orangeburg County. In 1912, Breeland opened the Elite School of Beauty Culture. Her business was considered to be one of the first beauty shops in Orangeburg. She was affectionately called “Madam Breeland” by her students and patrons.
In 1928, she remodeled her business in the Crum Building on Broughton Street to make reservations for both Black and white customers. It included separate waiting rooms and other requisites.
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Julia was an ingenious businesswoman in the field of cosmetology during her lifetime. In her vision, Breeland educated young Black girls, and sold, distributed and developed beauty and hair products and services to both Black and white women in Orangeburg County for more than 36 years.
In July 1936, Breeland organized the South Carolina Beauticians Association with 26 members. For the next four years, she served as the president. Later on, the organization became known as the South Carolina State Cosmetology Association.
After her death in 1952, Breeland was posthumously inducted into the National Beauty Culturist League Hall of Fame. Madam Julia Breeland is considered the “Madam C.J. Walker” of South Carolina.
Gloria Blackwell Rackley
The name of Gloria Blackwell Rackley will forever be stamped in the history books of Orangeburg and our nation. Her stance on civil, social, educational and anti-segregation activities helped to clear the path for some of the rights that we enjoy today.
Rackley became employed in Orangeburg as a third-grade teacher at Whittaker Elementary School in 1960. She developed into an outstanding teacher and was dearly loved by her students. At this point, Rackley also became entrenched in the “Orangeburg Freedom Movement.”
Somehow, Rackley was destined to be a spokeswoman for civil justice and social reform and was dispatched to Orangeburg by way of divine intervention. The cadence by which she marched was nowhere near the synchronization by Black Orangeburg of that time. Though not spoken of as a “radical,” she mirrored all of the necessary ingredients that would result in such a labeling.
in 1961, she took on the Orangeburg Regional Hospital because they maintained separate facilities for whites and Blacks in the waiting room, wards and other rooms. Rackley filed a federal lawsuit to break the back of segregation in the county-owned hospital.
The case was argued on Sept. 24, 1962, and decided on Nov. 9, 1962. The results of Rackley’s actions and commitment brought down the barriers of segregation at the Orangeburg Regional Hospital.
Ellen P. Chaplin
Ellen P. Chaplin became the first and only woman to serve as Orangeburg County’s superintendent of education in 1951. Chaplin was considered one of the most active women to live in Orangeburg County.
Always energetic in civic and church matters, she was a member of the Orangeburg Music Club, the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Pilot Club, the South Carolina Association of School Administrators; the Council of Delegates; National Committeewoman for the Young Democrats of South Carolina, and state secretary for the Young Democrats.
Chaplin also was the chairwoman of the Orangeburg County Library Board from 1954 to 1977. She became the 1973 Career Woman for Orangeburg County; 1974 Career Woman for South Carolina; chairwoman of the Orangeburg County Bicentennial Music Festival and member of the Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College Board.
In 1981, Ellen Chaplin collected an extensive amount of history of Orangeburg and authored the book “Facts and Legends of Orangeburg County.”
Geneva Dean, Margaret Thompson
Geneva Dean became the first woman to hold the position of probate judge in Orangeburg County in 1986. Dean had been a deputy probate judge 20 years prior to her election.
Margaret Thompson became the first African American woman in 1990 to be elected to a countywide office in Orangeburg County. Thompson was also elected to the spot of Probate Judge and became the second woman to hold that position.
Dean and Thompson followed each other into the position of probate judge because of the leadership and guidance of former Judge Harry Dawkins.
Ann Gue Jones
Ann Gue Jones in 20001 became the first woman elected as a Family Court judge in Orangeburg County.
Jones is a graduate of Furman University with a B.A. in history. She completed her studies at the University of South Carolina’s School of Law. She was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1990. Jones served as a staff attorney for the state Supreme Court in Columbia for 10 months. There she was responsible for researching and preparing memorandum opinions for the court in the areas of criminal law, domestic law, civil law and appellate practice.
Elloree teachers
In May 1956, a group of black women teachers along with five men resigned from their positions at the Elloree Training School in Elloree. They all felt that the contract for their teaching positions violated their constitutional rights with questions about their membership in the NAACP.
On April 19, 1956, the South Carolina General Assembly passed a law requiring state workers who were members of the NAACP to either revoke their membership or resign their jobs.
Later on, in 1956, this group filed a suit against the state. The case was headed to the United States Supreme Court. In 1957, the General Assembly decided not to fight the case and repealed the law.
Because of the brave stance this group took, every African American teacher in the state did not have to wrangle with a question on their contract that violated their constitutional rights.
This fearless group of women included Elizabeth Cleveland, Betty Smith, Ola Bryan, Jestine DeLee, Betty C. Green, Rosa Davis, Laura Prickett, Ernestine Dawkins, Rosa Haigler, Mary Jackson, Hattie Fulton, Vivian Floyd, Lelia Mae Summers, Deloris Davis and Rutha Ingram.
Karen ‘Kay’ Crawford
Kay Crawford became an instrumental leader in promoting the cultural arts in Orangeburg County for many years. She was the founder of the Junior Part-Time Players and a longtime member and director of the theatrical troupe, the Orangeburg Part-Time Players.
Working as the director of the group, this theatrical organization developed into one of the best community acting groups in South Carolina. For that accomplishment, Kay became a recipient of the Jeffery P. Weaver Award for Excellence in Theater.
She served as the minister of music at Swansea United Methodist Church, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church and pianist for Rivelon Baptist Church.
For many years, Crawford was a piano teacher for countless piano students both young and old. Because of her extraordinary musicianship, she was selected to serve as an adjunct professor of Music at South Carolina State University.
Crawford became widely known as “the Mother Superior of Musical Theater in Orangeburg.”
Winnie Davis Edwards
In September 1920, Winnie Davis Edwards became the first woman to register to vote in Orangeburg County. When the registration book was first opened to women, Edwards was at the head of the line to sign her name. She soon held a certificate allowing her the privilege of casting her vote in the November elections thereafter.
Marion B. Wilkinson
In September 1920, Marion B. Wilkinson was presumed to be among the first Black women of Orangeburg County to register to vote. During this period, Black women who lived in the city were more progressive and knowledgeable of the events that affected the Black community.
Daisy G. Oliver, Rose Zeigler Rush
Daisy Oliver and her daughter Rose Rush became pioneers and transformed the world of health care for the aging, physical, mental and handicapped Blacks in Orangeburg County.
In 1956, Oliver opened the South Carolina Home for the Aging and Handicapped in Orangeburg. This facility operated successfully for nine years and greatly improved the quality of life and living conditions of the Blacks in Orangeburg.
A woman of impeccable visionary insight, Oliver recognized the need to make her health facilities for needy Blacks in Orangeburg second to none in the world of elderly and handicapped health services.
In 1966, Oliver and Rush mapped out a plan to construct their new health complex and named it the State Eureka Sunshine Memorial Manor Inc. It included a 49-bed nursing home with extended care. It was opened in January 1967.
Knowing that her mom would need health professionals in operating the new facility, Rush received a scholarship through the National Health, Education, and Welfare Office and attended the University of Oklahoma, where she was awarded a certificate as a nursing home administrator.
Through the vision of Daisy Oliver and the leadership of her daughter Rose Rush, The State Eureka Sunshine Memorial Manor Inc. became the first Black-owned nursing home facility between Charleston and Columbia.
Martha Rose Carson
Martha Rose Carson is better known to some as Marty Rae. On March 16, 1958, The T&D announced, “City’s Newest Ladies’ Apparel Shop Draws Flocks of Customers by John Whalen — Customers have flocked into the Marty Rae, Orangeburg’s newest ladies apparel shop to such an extent during the first two opening days that the management has had to wire for more stock. Miss Martha Rose Camp said the large number of hats she had for the opening are almost gone.
“The official opening of the store was held Friday and Miss Camp said that she is very pleased with the results of the first two days. She said that, besides the many customers from Orangeburg, visitors have come in from practically every other town in the area.”
In October 2006, Thomas Langford wrote in The T&D: “She was a local expert who has been in the business since 1958, nearly 50 years. She still yearns for the day when she rode train, plane or automobile to the wholesale markets in Atlanta, Charlotte and New York. There, four times a year, she bought daytime dresses, all-day suits, cocktail and Sunday dresses.”
In February of 2008, Marty Rae lost her husband George Fersner Carson Sr. at the age of 72. They had two children, a son, George and a daughter Marty Anderson.
In September in the year of 2012, she said, “With the dress business waning in 1972, I decided to open a furniture store. She also said, “I love what I am doing … and I probably will be working at 90.
“I love making things pretty.”
Andrea Bowers
Andrea Bowers made Orangeburg history in the year 1990 when she became the first woman to be elected as a member of Orangeburg County Council. At the time of her election, she said she was “most interested in improving education and the industrial development of the county.”
She also became the first Republican to be elected in Orangeburg County in over 100 years. Bowers served from 1990 until 1994. She was married to Ronald Bowers, an engineering manager at the former Hughes Aircraft, and they had two children.
Bowers had been living in Orangeburg for five years when she won her position.
Janie Cooper-Smith
Janie Cooper-Smith of Orangeburg, a woman of great perseverance and determination, became the first black woman to be elected to Orangeburg County Council in 1994.
A woman of immense vision and community leadership, she has served as a board member of the Wil Lou Gray Adult Reading Council, Tri-County Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Dawn Center), the Orangeburg County Democratic Women’s Club, president and organizer of the Bonneville Community Improvement Organization.
Cooper-Smith has dedicated an enormous amount of time and effort to improving the education of the students who will become our leaders in the future. She has taught school in Bowman and at Denmark Technical College. She was named Outstanding Educator of the Year. In 1983, she was elected president of the Orangeburg County Education Association.
Liz Zimmerman Keitt
Liz Zimmerman Keitt in 1988 became the first Black woman to be elected to Orangeburg City Council. Keitt is a woman of great visionary insight in serving our community, social, civic, business, religion and education. She always acknowledges God and has always believed everyone was put on earth for a specific purpose.
Zimmerman Keitt was honored as the top Orangeburg County Young Democrat in 1981. In 1982, Keitt became the spokesman for The Concerned Citizens of Orangeburg for Better Government.
In 1984, she coordinated the Voter Education Project of Atlanta in a statewide voter registration conference at Claflin College. Zimmerman Keitt received an Outstanding Advisor Award for her work with youth in South Carolina in 1986. Also in that year, she was named “Kappa Woman of the Year.”
Liz Zimmerman Keitt became the first woman president of the Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1992. Also in that year, she became the founder of “Project Life: Positeen,” an after-school program to tutor and counsel young people.
With the visionary conception of that program, she has had great success in filling the gap in the educational needs of many students in Orangeburg County.
Cathy C. Hughes
On May 1, 1999, The Times and Democrat announced the first woman to become the leader of Orangeburg’s daily newspaper. Cathy C. Hughes became the new publisher after Dean Livingston retired after serving 37 years in that position.
At that time, Hughes had been in the newspaper business for 27 years. Over the years, she held many positions with The Times and Democrat, including general manager, advertising director and business manager.
She is today also president of the Community Media Group for Lee Enterprises, parent company of The Times and Democrat.
Without a doubt, Hughes is a people and community person who has provided her talents and abilities in all of the works that she does for our local newspaper. She is a native and still a resident of North. She is married to Randy P. Hughes and they have two daughters, Kelley and Holley.
A long list
The list of outstanding women in Orangeburg County can go on and on. Others are: Lucile Sims, Dr. Clemmie Webber, Joyce Rheney, Dee McLafferty , Octavia Jennings, Gerry Zimmerman, Mary Williams, Florella Fordham, Bernice Tribble, Kay Estes Hughes, Jeanne Gue, Lois Lusty, Jeanna Reynolds, Karen Tourville, Willie Berry, Jane Covington, Betty Lane Gramling, Mildred “Skip” Mutch, Marion Salley, Helen Sheffield, Annabel Summers, Lilly Mae Tyler, Lilla Wannamaker, Rachelle Jamerson, Annie Jamison, Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, Judge Karen Williams, Diane Ferrier, Pat Holman, Becky Ulmer, Harriet Hutto, Sylvia Hiers and many, many others.
Happy Women’s History Month!!!
Richard Reid is president of the Orangeburg Historical and Genealogical Society. His mission is researching Orangeburg history, with a particular emphasis on the role of African Americans in that history.
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