My grandmother graduated from Columbia College in 1895, and taught school for three years before marrying my grandfather.
Her father had been an Assistant Pastor at the Methodist church (Washington Street) by the capitol building, and they married there in 1898 with him officiating.
At Columbia College, she had won the coveted Music Medal, and her youngest daughter, Aunt Betty, won it, too, when she graduated there. My grandfather graduated from Wofford College, and all seven of their children graduated from college.
I used to love to visit them in the summer growing up, each child required to recite a Bible verse before eating, and when I was at Parris Island in the Marine Corps, I went to see them one weekend in 1952 (Korean Conflict). They insisted I wear my uniform and sit up front, and it was such a joy to have my grandmother playing the piano, a cousin singing a solo of Bless This House, and listen to my grandfather's sermon.
An oddity is the fact my two sisters and I all ended up living in South Carolina - each one in a town where our grandfather had pastored a church. The one here is just off the Circle in the center of the town by the County Courthouse, and I actually often feel their presence....quite comforting, knowing of all the prayers they sent forth for their grandchildren, some now felt surrounding me...
Hate to relate this, but the heat is off again, and the repairman has returned and is outside.
Need more prayers, methinks...
Oh, no. Well, don't let him leave until it is fixed. It would be awful to be there without heat all night.....can't even go shopping to warm up.
Brother graduated The Citadel with honors. Two cousins graduated Columbia Summa Cum Laude. Two male cousins graduated USC, and another two from Clemson.
Mom and her two sisters all graduated from Winthrop. Her oldest sister graduated with the highest GPA in school history until my Mom beat her record. The youngest sister said "They spent a lot of time studying, I had fun."
The oldest of my Mom's sisters willed her home to the Methodist Church in Barnwell to be used as a parsonage. It was the first private home I ever was in that was air conditioned. Early 1050's.
Whenever their two sons and my brother and I were punished we were sent outside into the HEAT and HUMIDITY.
It was a wonderful house. Everything was built in and could not be moved. Only moving furniture was the dining room and kitchen table and chairs. Glass tile windows. It was a kid's dream house because you couldn't break anything! It even had an indoor grill so my uncle didn't have to go outside to grill steaks.