Today, we'll look at six more authors and books that have ties to Kingstree and Williamsburg County.
John Clark is another author who grew up in Kingstree. Capitol Steps and Missteps tells the story of former Sixth District Congressman John W. Jenerette, for whom John Clark was a top aide. Both John, and his co-author, Cookie VanSice, worked for Jenrette during his tenure in Congress, and the book details Jenrette's life from his birth in Horry County, through his campaigns for Congress, and finally through the ABSCAM scandal, which engulfed him, ultimately ending his Congressional career. The subtitle, The Wild and Improbable Ride of Congressman John Jenerette, accurately describes his career and the telling of that story in this book. John Clark now lives in Columbia and is the author of two other books: Scenic Driving South Carolina with Patricia Pierce, and Hiking South Carolina.
John Clark's younger brother Marion is a Presbyterian minister and is also the author of several books. In Telling the Story of Jesus, he shares that story from the viewpoints of 29 different people, including John the Baptist, the woman at the well, Pontius Pilate, Simon Peter, Zacchaeus, and Mary Magdalene. These accounts vividly bring Jesus' early life, ministry, death, and resurrection into focus from multiple points of view, providing a broad range of what the people involved must have thought Marion is also the author of To Know Wisdom: Meditation on Proverbs, The Problem of Good, The Death of Jesus, Jesus Our Conquering King, Speaking the Truth in Love, What Matters and Biblical Precepts of Marriage. He has also compiled two volumes of daily devotions.
Sulondia Hammond, also known as Sue Ham, Baby, grew up in Williamsburg County and knew from any early age that she was "put on this earth to entertain." However, she was not encouraged to think outside the box and soon realized that if you pursued a creative profession, you were thought to be crazy. Her book, Don't Quit: Follow Your Dreams, looks at her life and how she was able to pursue creative endeavors despite those who felt that she should follow more conventional routes. She has written and produced several stage plays and been the host of her own variety show on local television station WBTW. She has also been a presenter at TEDx Andrews. She is the CEO of Sue-Ham Entertainment (SHE) and in January will become a member of the Williamsburg County Council.
Although this story is set in New York City in 1968, its author, Don Fulton, was greatly influenced by his childhood in Kingstree. His aunt owned Elsie's Grocery just outside town on the Hemingway Highway, and his memories of the 1959 Wurlitzer jukebox in the store that contained many great R&B records, including the Charles Brown version of "Please Come Home for Christmas," sparked this story which follows sisters Jane Owens and Pearl Johnson as they confront many trials and tribulations leading up to Christmas, including a "falling-out" betweeen the two of them. As mishaps and events continue to pile up, it looks doubtful that anyone will be coming home for Christmas this year. But as with all good Christmas stories, things do work out in the end.
Another Kingstree native, Bob Spearman, is the author of three published novels with a fourth one soon to come. His first novel, Turf and Surf, was inspired by summers working as a lifeguard in Myrtle Beach during the 1970s. The story tells a tale of a Myrtle Beach not seen by most who visit as it looks at the raunchy underbelly of a town in which locals, summer workers, a few tourists, and drug-dealing gangsters all fight for their turf in the sun. A couple of characters in this gritty novel are, like Bob, natives of Williamsburg County. Bob's other novels, Hard Road and Shrimpin' Gold are also set in South Carolina. Bob spent 38 years working as an engineer and in management at high-tech companies throughout the United States. He now makes his home in Mount Pleasant.
Bubber Jenkinson, now a retired family court judge, builds this mystery on the real-life murder of Frenchy on the banks of the Black River in 1926. In Bubber's story, though, the timeframe has been moved to 1978, when Boston-born Elizabeth Chase comes to Weenee, South Carolina, to attend her grandfather's funeral and, to her surprise, stays on to work as a public defender. Weenee is nothing like Boston, and Elizabeth find herself trying to unravel the secrets of the small Southern town, while mounting a defense for the man accused of decapitating a local resident. Bubber is also the author of the novel, Live Oaks, and two books of local history, A History of the Homes and People of Williamsburgh District, and a history of St. Alban's Episcopal Church.
Next week will mark the 94th anniversary of Frenchy's still unsolved murder, and in the next post we'll be taking a deep dive into the circumstances surrounding it, including some information with which I was unfamiliar until very recently.
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