It almost seems as if it were predestined. After being away for decades in Columbia, Louisville, Detroit and Philadelphia, she returned in 1979 to the Old Village to live in the house just next door to the cottage she grew up in. And it’s still her home, surrounded by the beauty of Charleston Harbor and the many mementos of her amazing life. Ann Darlington Edwards, the wife of former South Carolina Governor James B. Edwards, is a remarkable woman.
Edwards was born prematurely and weighed just under 4 pounds. Her mother was visiting relatives in Edgefield, South Carolina when she unexpectedly went into labor. Edwards said she owes her very life to an African American woman named Sally Diggs. “It was a cold house and it was November. Sally Diggs was a hefty woman and she sat in front of the fire and held and rocked me.”
Edwards’ story took lots of twists and turns from there. “My father was a mechanical engineer, so we moved around a great deal. My first recollection was on Blossom Street in Columbia. I was little. Mr. William Spencer Murray who was the engineer for Murray Dam had bought 8,000 acres in Eastover, outside Columbia. Most of it is Fort Jackson now. He told my daddy, ‘I want you to dig me a pond and I want a power plant and a sawmill and three or four houses. So, we were there when I started school. From there, we went back to Columbia and then we moved to Mount Pleasant when daddy worked for Santee Cooper. I was in the fourth grade.
That’s when we lived in the little cottage. At the time, I think there were 1,300 people – and one policeman. We all got along fine and had an appreciation of each other. It was a lovely little town.”
“Then Dec. 7, 1941 came and everything changed. Daddy was called to the War Production Board in Washington, D.C. They wanted to produce as much energy as they could,” Edwards recalled. “He was assigned Utah, Colorado and Washington State and made a lot of trips out there. So, we were in Washington until the end of the war. At that time, everybody wanted to do what they could for the war effort, so when I finished high school in Washington, I wanted to be a nurse. My brother was with Patton’s 3rd Army and said there was a place for me in Washington, but I said, ‘No — I’m going back to South Carolina. So, I went back to Columbia to study nursing.”
Edwards said she became interested in nursing when she was a teenage candy striper. “I met a beautiful girl who was ill — a patient. You walked into her room and she would say, ‘How are you? Do come in. Very gracious. Well, she was born with no hands. Her toes were long, almost like fingers, and she would pick up a pen and write. She was so wonderful that they asked her to go to Walter Reed Hospital so she could teach the servicemen who had lost limbs. I know she was helpful to those people. I’ll always remember that. When I graduated nurses training, the war was over and the polio epidemic was going on, so that took precedent. So, we took care of polio patients wherever the Red Cross would call us.”
As a twist of fate, during this time, Edwards’ brother had a chance encounter with Jim Edwards, who was serving in the Merchant Marines. The men had known each other as children when living in the Old Village. That’s how Ann and Jim Edwards began a lengthy courtship which led to a 63-year marriage. The pair had actually gone to elementary school together, a couple grades apart.
Early in her marriage, Edwards worked as assistant chief nurse at Louisville Regional Blood Center. When her husband later became president of MUSC, she pushed for the renovations of the school’s College of Nursing facilities. Her portrait hangs in the drawing room there, and in 1999, the school established the Ann Darlington Edwards Endowed Chair of Nursing. The couple also became a staple in local and state politics. It all started when the couple hosted a cookout to raise money for Barry Goldwater’s presidential run in 1964. Then, Edwards served as Committeewoman in the East Cooper Republican Women’s Group when her husband was chairman of the county’s Republican party; he was eventually elected governor in 1974.
“I had never been in the governor’s mansion when Jim was elected governor. So, I didn’t know anything about anything,” Edwards admitted. “Mrs. West, the outgoing governor’s wife, asked my daughter Cathy and me to lunch. At that time, inmates from the prison served as butlers and maids and cooks in the governor’s mansion. They did a really fine job. It was a new experience. I told Mrs. West, I need to meet your secretary so she can help me, and she said, ‘Oh, she’s going home. She was a personal friend” So, we had to start with a new crew. But I didn’t ask anything of anybody that they didn’t try to help me. I treasure the people I met. Each one brought me something, do you understand? Different things. It was a learning experience for me. And I enjoyed that.”
One person whom Edwards met – and became one of her favorite people — was a doctor in Anderson. “Dr. Ann Alston Young was something else. She graduated in 1915 from medical school and was valedictorian of her class. She was the only woman to sit for the South Carolina State Medical Board Exam and practiced obstetrics until the age of 94 years old in 1983, delivering over 11,000 babies. Somebody that worked on our campaign called me and said that I must call Dr. Ann and have her to the mansion – and that she was somebody special. So, I called her and said, ‘This is Ann Edwards at the governor’s mansion? And she hung up on me! So, I had my secretary call her back. When we finally spoke, she said, ‘Mrs. Edwards, I thought it was someone playing a joke on me!’ I asked her if she could come to the governor’s mansion for lunch when it was convenient for her because she still had patients. She was inspirational. I recommended her to the South Carolina Hall of Fame.”
Edwards also has fond memories of her husband’s campaign for governor. “I had to campaign all over the state, so I saw South Carolina like I never would’ve seen it otherwise. Different cultures. Tobacco in PeeDee and the peach culture… and to go and visit those places and talk to the people and find out what was going on. It really enabled me to know my state. The people were genuine, wonderful people. And they were proud of their state. It was a learning experience and it was wonderful.”
One of the most memorable occasions Ann had while serving as First Lady was meeting Queen Elizabeth in Philadelphia when the royal yacht visited in 1976 for our country’s bicentennial. “She invited all the governors and their wives. That was quite an occasion. It was a beautiful yacht and a wonderful experience. When we were there, Jim asked the queen if shed come to Charleston. He told her, ‘You know, it is named for your forebear. She knew all about it. But she said, ‘I can’t – I’m booked up. But I’ll tell you what. I’ll send Charles. And you know, he came.”
Edwards acknowledged, “It was a privilege to be in the governor’s mansion.” And she thinks every South Carolinian should visit it. “Take your child or daughter,” she urged. While living there, Edwards decided to tell the story of the mansion, and she co-authored the book, “The Governor’s Mansion of the Palmetto State” with South Carolina historians Walter Edgar, George C. Rogers, George Terry and Augustus T. Grayden in 1978.
Another of Edward’s legacies is her effort to save the Mount Pleasant home of founding father, Charles Pinckney, from real estate development. “I was on the board of the Historic Charleston Foundation. We needed to raise money to buy it so we could develop it as a historic site. We had people – boy scouts and all – from throughout South Carolina donate. And I went to talk to the people in Washington about it. It is a wonderful place. It would be awful if we didn’t have that.”
Edward’s has given back to Charleston area time and time again. However, she feels it is Charleston and her home in Mount Pleasant which keeps giving back to her. “One of the most wonderful things is I love where I live. I lived next door as a young girl and coming back, I try to walk a mile every day on my dock. I just marvel at the resources we have with nature right here and how wonderful it is. And I see the sunset and see the ships coming in. It’s just a privilege to live here in the village. I count it a real blessing.”
By Mary Coy
