Mabel Claire Booth Chandler
100 years: November 1893 - October 1994

I was born in Sumter on November 14, 1893.

My parents were John Philip Booth and Hattie L. Fraser Booth. I was the oldest of seven siblings, four boys and three girls.

I graduated from the Sumter Girls High School in 1912. After high school I went to Winthrop College and graduated in 1916.

On October 18, 1919, I married my high school sweetheart, Frank Chandler. He graduated Sumter Boys High School in the class of 1910. Frank worked with his uncle, Mr. Joseph M. Chandler in the men's clothing business. We built our home on Harby Avenue and it was completed shortly after we were married.

I worked with the Red Cross during the World War.

Our daughter, Hallie, our first child, was born in October 1920, one year after we were married.

Our second child, a son Frank, Jr. was bork in May 1923.

Our third child, another son, Ladson, was born in March 1928. We call him Laddie.

All three of our children went to Sumter High School, graduated and went to college.

Hallie went to Winthrop then transferred to UNC in Chapel Hill where she graduated. While working on her Master's degree at University of Kentucky, she met and married a young lawyer who graduated law school at the same university.

Frank, Jr. went to the Medical College in Charleston, became a medical doctor and joined the Air Force during World War II.

Laddie went to USC and NY school of Fashion Design. Laddie Joined the Navy during World War II. After he retired he became a professional puppeteer and dedicated his life to the children of Sumter who enjoyed the performances.

I loved gardening, was a member of the Sumter Garden Club and won many awards with my prized Irises. I also founded the Gardenmakers and Poinsett Garden Clubs. My husband and I are both active members of the church.

My loving husband and the love of my life passed away in July of 1958. We were married for 38 years. Then the following year my son Frank, Jr. was killed in an Air Force helicopter crash in Greenland. My daughter, Hallie, passed away in 1985.

My children have blessed me with five grandchildren and they have bless me with six great-grandchildren. They are all my sunshine. My heart is happy and my life Has been full.

Mabel

Mary Ann Burgess Warren
104 years: September 1886 - July 1991

My parents were Dr. Warren Hamilton Burgess and Margaret Spann Pinckney Burgess. I was born on a Monday, September 20, 1886, in Stateburg, SC, just three weeks after the great Charleston earthquake.

Geronimo had just surrendered two weeks before I was born ending the Indian Wars and a new drink called Coca-Cola was just invented on May of that year.

The Statue of Liberty was completed the following month and was dedicated by Presdent Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886.

I was three years old when the city of Sumter first got electric power.

I graduated from Sumter High School and was the salutatorian of the Class of 1904 afterwhich I attended and graduated from Winthrop College. Those were fun times as I was being courted by a handsome young man, Guy Lewis Warren, who had just graduated from the Citadel, second in his class and had just started working as a bookkeeper at the Farmer's Bank in Sumter. We dated for a couple of years and were very popular in the social circles of Sumter and Stateburg. After accepting the position of cashier of the Farmers' Bank & Trust Company, Guy proposed marrage to me and we were wed on Tuesday, June 25, 1907 in the Episcopal Church by Rev. H.H. Covington.

A year later our son and first child, Guy Lewis Warren, Jr. was born on June 8, 1908. We made our home on Broad Street in Sumter and life was good as we were a popular couple in Sumter's social circles. Our daughter and second child, Margaret Hamilton Warren was born about 5 years later on September 25, 1914.

My husband's career in banking continued to grow. He became a director and the Secretary Treasurer of the National Bank of South Carolina and a director of People's Bank. Then while we were in church during the April 2nd Sunday services my husband started feeling ill. He had come down with pneumonia which steadily worsened and ten days later my beloved husband Guy died on April 12, 1916. Guy was only 32 years old when he died and I was a 29 year old widow with two children, Guy Jr. was 6 and little Margaret was almost 2. I never remarried, instead I raised my two children as a single mom. Times were tough then, World War I was still going strong and would not end until two years after my husband had died at which time I started teaching school in the public school system in Sumter.

Then the Wall Street Stock Market crashed in the fall of 1929 which started the Great Depression. The next four years were really tough and I was thankful to be employed teaching school.

After the depression ended things started getting better in Sumter. There were more jobs and Sumter started growing. In 1938 the Sumter Electric Membership Corporation was founded called the EMC. It was the first of it's kind, an electric company owned by the people, a co-op, to supply electricity to folks in Sumter County outside of the city limits. At the time only people in the city limits had electricity. Power lines were going up everywhere. Then the Santee Dam project started in 1939 to build a hydroelectric dam just south of Sumter which would create a huge lake and supply electric power to the whole state. That project created lots of jobs for Sumter and the surrounding area, all the while trouble was brewing as war broke out in Europe. The US was staying out of it until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and the United States was forced to enter World War II. A lot of young men from Sumter entered the war and never returned. It was a very sad time. The war finally ended in on September 2, 1945.

I eventually became the principal of the Washington Elementary School in Sumter and after 37 years I retired from the school system. I was appointed as the executive director of the YWCA in Sumter where I served for 25 years. In 1958, when I was 72 years old, I was was chosen as Sumter's very first Woman of the Year. In 1982, when I was 96 years old, I was honored as Outstanding Older South Carolinian by the Commission on Aging.

Education and service to my community has always very important in my life. Besides Winthrop College I have attended the University of South Carolina and Columbia University in New York. I am a member of the U.S.O., the Sumter County Tuberculosis Association and the Council of Church Women in Sumter County where I served as the group's first president. I am a charter member of the American Legion Auxiliary and a life member of the Men's Christian Organization. I am very active in the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter where I have taught Sunday school for 35 years and organized the Young People's Service League. I have been a volunteer member of the faculty of Kanuga Episcopal Camp in Hendersonville, N.C., for 20 years, having served as head counselor of the faculty.

I became a centenarian on my 100th birthday on September 20, 1986.

Mary

Emily Louise Cain Fraser
100 years: January 1920 - January 2020

I was born in Sumter on New Year Day, January 1, 1920.

My parents were William Odil Cain and Marguerite Nelson Cain. My Dad was the Sumter County School Superintendent.

I was next to the youngest of seven children, five girls and two boys. In order of age, oldest first, are Ida, Ruth, Margurite, William, Bunk, me, and Grace.

We lived on the corner of Winn Street and Highland Avenue in Sumter. Daddy also had a fishing bait business. We had several catalpa trees in the yard and my brothers and sisters would gather the catalpa worms from the catalpa leaves to be sold in Dad's bait business.

I graduated from Sumter High School in 1938 and started working as a stenographer. The war in Europe was a big worry. My boyfried, Abel McIver "Mac" Fraser of Oswego, enrolled at the C.M.T.C. (Citizens Military Training Camp) at Fort Moultrie, and was named the best basic trainee of Company G and of the entire battalion, I was so proud of him.

Mac and I announced our engagement in November 1941 and we married on December 16, 1941 in Sumter, nine days after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

On January 27, 1942 Mac was inducted into the Army and was stationed to Camp Wheeler in Macon, Ga where he was assigned to the Chemical Warefare Service office. In the fall of 1942 I moved from Sumter to Macon, Ga. to be with my husband.

On November 5, 1943, our daughter, Grace Ann, was born at Tuomey hospital in Sumter.

On October 13, 1949, our son, John Nelson, was born at St. Francis Hospital in Greenville.

Mac retired from the army as Captain and went to work at St. Francis Hospital in Greenville from which he retired as Personnel Dirctor.

Mac died on May 4, 1997, we were married for 56 years.

I have lived a very happy life.

Emily

Dorothy May Chandler Jacobs
100 years: October 1913 - July 1914

Me and my twin sister Edna were born in Bennettville, South Carolina on October 20, 1913.

Our parents were John Herbert Chandler and Geulieme Eulela Mellette Chandler.

There were 6 children in our family, five girls and one boy. Except for my twin, we were all one year apart in age until our baby sister Jean who was 10 years younger than brother Soule. In order of age, oldest first are Ellene, Gwendolyn, Me, my twin Edna, brother Soule and baby Jean.

We grew up in Wedgefield area of Sumter County where Daddy was the magistrate for 25 years. Daddy was also the Depot agent for Wedgefield.

I graduated from Sumter High School in 1931 and immediately enrolled in the Toumey Hospital School of Nursing where I graduated in 1934. I worked at Toumey Hospital as a nurse for next three years. Then in 1937 I accepted a nursing position at the Veterans Hospital in Columbia where I met a handsome young doctor named Dr. Paul Jacobs. Paul was from New Jersey but had moved to Columbia the previous year to work as a surgeon at the Veterans Hospital. The following year Paul and I married on June 3, 1938. We had a beautiful wedding which took place at my parents home in Wedgefield. My twin sister Edna served as my maid of honor (I was her maid of honor when she married Forest the year before) and her husband Forest Suber was the best man. After the wedding we drove to New York then sailed to the Bermuda Islands where we spent our honeymoon.

We returned to Columbia from our honeymoon as trouble was brewing in Europe over Germany's planned takeover. The following year war broke out all across Europe. It was being called the Second World War. Paul was inducted into the Army in 1943 where he served as a Captain in the Medical Corps with Merrill's Marauders in Berma.

After the war was over in 1945, Paul returned home and we moved to Ashville, North Carolina where Paul was accepted as a chest specialist at the Veterans Administration there and I continued my nursing career.

We attended Grace United Methodist Church in Asheville where we both are founding members.

We had four children; a daughter, Sarah and three sons, John, Paul Jr. and David.

In 1965 we retired and moved back to Columbia, South Carolina. Paul went back to work at the State Park Hospital in Columbia. Three years later in 1968 he finally retired-retired.

We attended Main Street and Windsor United Methodist Churches in Columbia.

Our children blessed us with eleven grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.

Paul and I celebrated or 50th wedding anniversary on June 2, 1988. Three months later my beloved Paul died at 83 years of age on September 27, 1988.

Dorothy

Margaret "Margie" Geraldine Compton Byrd Lawrence
104 years: May 1917 -

I was born in Sumter County on May 19, 1917.

My parents were Benjamin Richard Compton and Elizabeth Hasty Compton.

There were 5 children in our family so I had 4 siblings, two older brothers, Benjamin and Arland, an older sister Dorothy and a baby sister Elizabeth.

I grew up in Sumter and graduated from Sumter High School in 1934.

I married Robert Van Buren Byrd on June 28th 1935. Robert was from Atlanta. We spent our honeymoon in Washington, DC then made our home in Sumter.

Robert and I had two children, a son Robert Jr. in 1938, and a daughter Barbara Ann in 1945.

My husband Robert died on Christmas eve, December 24, 1957. We were married for 22 wonderful years.

Both my children graduated from Edmunds High School, Robert Jr. in 1956 and Barbara Ann in 1963.

I remarried to Hubert Lawrence on October 12, 1963. Hubert graduated from Sumter High School in 1921. Hubert died on August 19, 1975. We were married for 11 years.

My son Robert Jr. married Angela Woodcock on January 2, 1961. They had three children, a daughter and two sons.

My daughter Barbara married Lloyd Charles Merritt Jr. on April 17, 1965. They had three daughters.

My father died in 1966 and my mother died in 1991.

My son, Robert Jr., died on December 4, 1984.

My son-in-law, Lloyd, dien on February 14, 2018.

I have six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

I turned 100 years old on May 19, 2017.

Margie

Ida Elizabeth Ives
105 years: October 1891 - September 1997

My parents were Robert M. Ives and Ida Dinkins Ives.

I was born in Sumter on Friday, October 16 1891.

I graduated from Sumter High School in 1908. I married Mr. Ira A. Calhoun and we had 3 beautiful daughters. We eventually moved to Florence, S.C.

My husband Ira died in 1957 right before Christmas, I was 66 years old at the time.

I have experienced so many things in my lifetime. Here are a few of the most memorable ones...

I was 10 years old when the first automobile came to Sumter. It was called the "Locomobile" and was powered by steam. It was purchased by H.C. Bland from a company in Connecticut.

I was 12 years old when the Wright brothers made their first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

I was 17 years old when Ford started making Model T automobiles. That was when automobiles started replacing horse and buggies.

I was 21 when the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic. That same year the Girl Scouts of the USA was started.

I was 26 years old when the U.S. entered World War I.

I was 29 years old when women got the right to vote.

I was 36 years old when Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

I was 50 years old when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered World War II.

I became a centenarian on my 100th birthday on October 16, 1991.

Elizabeth

Bertha Jeanette "Net" Klarpp Brown
100 years: Febuary 1920 - August 2020

My parents moved from N. C. to Sumter with my father's job with the railroad.

I was born in Sumter on February 3, 1920 and I grew up in Sumter, such a wonder place to grow up.

Me and Bobby in 1940

I went to school in the Sumter school system and that's where I met my school sweetheart, a tall and incredably handsome R. T. "Bobby" Brown. We were both athletic. Bobby was on the Sumter Football team and I was on the Sumter Hockey and Basketball teams. We both graduated from Sumter High School class of 1937. We married two years later in 1939. We spent our honeymoon in Washington, D.C. A year later our son, Robert Tillman "Bob" Brown, III was born.

World War II was raging so in 1942 Bobby joined the U.S. Army. Three years later when the war ended Bobby was discharged and he went to work as a bank loan officer for the S.C. National Bank in Sumter. We lived at 123 Broad Street.

I went to work at the Sumter County Health Department where I kept track of all the birth and death certificates for Sumter. I retired from there after 30 years of service.

Bobby and I then moved to Tranquility Cove on Wyboo Creek at Santee and enjoyed our retirement socializing, sailing and fishing (Bobby's favorite pastime).

Bobby and I had been married for 70 years when he died in 2010.

Net

Ruth Elsie Outlaw Jackson
101 years: July 1918 - November 2019

My parents were Oscar and Blanch Baxley Outlaw. I was born in Georgetown on July 4, 1918 while the United States was still fighting World War I. The war ended four months later on November 11, 1918.

We had a large family with 6 children, me, four sisters; Barbara, Jacqueline, Violette and Lulabelle; and one brother, Oscar.

I was 11 years old when the Stock Market crashed and the Great Depression began in August 1929.

When I started high school in Sumter the girls and boys were schooled in separate buildings.

Our Superintendant, Dr. Edmunds died at the beginning of my senior year. High school only went up to the eleventh grade then. I graduated from Sumter High School in 1936. Three years later the girls and boys were consolidated into the boy's high school which was renamed to Edmunds High in honor of Dr. Edmunds.

After graduating from Sumter High School I enrolled in the Toumey Hospital Nursing School and graduated in 1940. The following year Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and World War II began.

I married my high school sweetheart, Joseph Alton Jackson who graduated Sumter High School in 1933.

We had three children, a daughter Susan and two sons, Joseph Alton Jr. and William Charles.

My children blessed me with five grandchildren and they blessed me with seven great-grandchildren.

I am a member of the Trinity United Methodist Church.

I became a centenarian on my 100th birthday on July 4, 2018.

Ruth

Elizabeth Cheadell Porter Robinson
105 years: December 1908 - May 2014

My parents were Lafayette Porter and Tamar Holmes Porter.

I was born in Sumter, S.C. on Thursday, December 17, 1908, the end of an election year and William Howard Taft had just been elected president of the United States. In the following year the US bought the world's first military airplane from the Wright brothers and the year after that the first public radio broadcast took place in New York.

I was 3 years old when the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic.

I started school when I was 5 years old.

I was 8 years old when the US entered World War I and 10 years old when it ended.

Then, the same year that WWI ended the Spanish Flu Pandemic began and everyone starting getting sick and dying. Everybody had to wear masks. It was a very scary time. I was 12 years old when the pandemic ended.

Public school only went up to the 11th grade and I was 16 when I graduated from the Sumter Girls High School in 1924.

The 1920s was a fun time. The pandemic was over. Everyone enjoyed socializing again and business was booming.

Then on November 29, 1929, 19 days before my 21st birthday, the stock market crashed. It was the start of the Great Depression. Money got really tight, businesses started failing, lots of jobs were lost and banks were closing everywhere. Life became pretty tough for the next ten years but we all pulled together.

Things started getting a little better in 1938 when the Sumter Electrical Membership Corporation was formed to provide electrical power to Sumter county which was still without electric power. Poles and lines were erected all through the county and by the end of the year they were energized and power flowed to the rural community.

Most homes by now had a radio set in the parlor and we would all sit around it in the afternoon to hear the news and listen to the musical shows and drama programs. Then one Sunday afternoon on December 7, 1941 the radio program was interupted to report that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. The next day the US declared war on Japan and entered World War II. I was 33 years old at the time.

That horrable war lasted about 4 years and during that time everthing was rationed, food, cloths, gasoline, everything. It was a very sad time because almost all of the men went to war and there were so many that never returned. It was so sad to read in the paper everyday about those who were killed. We were all so very patriotic then. We sacrificed and did all we could for the war effort. The children would gather scrap metal which would be collected to make tanks and bullets for the war. Then in the spring of 1945 Germany surrendered and the war in Europe was won but we were still at war in the Pacific with Japan. Then in August of 1945 the US shocked the world, dropping two "atomic" bombs, one bomb per city, on two Japanese cities. Each bomb was millions of times more powerful and any bomb known to mankind. The two cities were completely distroyed. Japan surrendered and World War II was finally over.

The only positive thing that one could say about the war was the effect it had on the economy. With all the sevicemen returning home from the war everyone was so happy. Families were growing with people having babies. New houses were being build everwhere. New roads. New subdivisions. New cars. New everything.

The world had changed. We were now in the atomic age. Nuclear power plants, Nuclear medicine, Nuclear missles, Nuclear war. Good and Bad, Exciting and Scary, all at the same time.

The next 20 years was amazing. So many wonderful electrical wonders became a reality. Television was a big thing, replacing the family radio set in the parlor. Commercial Jetliners, Transister radios, solar cells, microchips, computers, etc.

Then trouble started brewing again overseas. I was 56 years old when the US entered the Vietnam War. The worry and sorrow had returned of having our men fight and die in a foreign land, however, the young people were different this time. They were not as patriotic as we were. They grew their hair long, did drugs and protested. They disrespected our flag and our solders fighting that war to keep freedom in the world. It was a sad and shameful time.

I was 60 years old when the United States sent the first men to the Moon, what a truly remarkable accomplishment.

By the time that I reached 77 years of age most people had cellphones where they could make phone calls anywhere outside the home without having to put a dime in a payphone thus making phonebooths obsolete. So Dick Tracy!

Computers became the rage and everyone had to have one in their home to catalog their recipies and play video games. Then the internet came along and people stopped handwriting and sending letters through the post office as email on their computers became the way to send and receive mail. "You've Got Mail!".

I experienced the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century as the new millennium arrived and we passed into the year 2000.

Then computers became laptops and laptops became tablets and cellphones became smartphones which replaced radio, television, cameras, telephones, computers, social life, and even conversation. Smartphones became a necessity of life that people constantly stared into and tapped on with their fingers. That little slab of metal, plastic and glass became the portal of all information, communication and social interaction.

The world is changing very fast now. I have experienced so much in my 105 years. I have lived such a very long, full and wonderful life.

I am so grateful to God to have been blessed with a large and loving family.

I married Lespy Robinson. We had six children, three daughters and three sons; Eartha Lee, Rosa Lee, Annette, Lespy Jr., Charles and Ernest. Our children have graced us with eighteen grandchildren and they have graced us with thirty-eight great-grandchildren.

Lipsi and I had a long and wonderful marrage. We have been lifelong members of Antioch United Methodist Church. My dear Lipsy passed away in 1978. We were both 70 years old at the time. I know that Lipsy is waiting for me in Heaven.

I became a centenarian on my 100th birthday on December 17, 2008.

On November 17, 2013, I celebrated my 105 birthday with my loving family and many friends.

As I am confined to my bed now I know my time on earth is nearing an end. I have a profound love for all. I am happy and so grateful to our Load for my wonderful life, friends and family. I am looking forward to again being with my dear husband Lipsy, the love of my life. I continue to pray and praise God and sing my favorite hymn, "Jesus Is All The World To Me".

God is Good! My heart is full. Love to all.

Elizabeth

Evelyn Shirer
101 years: February 1904 - May 2005

My parents were William Hampton Shirer and Sallie William Shirer.

I was born in Sumter on February 28, 1904, 2 months after the Wright brothers made that first powered flight at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. I was five months old when the ice cream cone was invented in St. Louis. I was ten years old when World War I started.

I graduated from Sumter High School in 1921 as Class Valedictorian.

I attended Winthrop College where I earned my B.A. Degree. I started teaching in Walterboro, S.C. and taught is other areas of South Carolina. I was employed by the State of South Carolina's Vocational Rehabilitation Department until my retirement.

I became a centenarian on my 100th birthday on February 28, 2004.

Evelyn

Genevieve Smith Free
103 years: July 1903 - July 2006

My parents were Louis A. Smith and Genevieve McKinley Smith.

I was born in Abbeville, S.C. on Independence Day, July 4, 1903, 10 days before the first Ford Model A automobile was built. Five months later the Wright brothers made that first powered flight at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina.

Lawrence Welk, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope were all born in 1903.

I graduated from the Sumter Girls High School in 1921. I married Duncan Bellinger Free.

My life has spanned many traumatic times in America. I was 11 years old when World War I started and 15 years old when it ended. I was 26 years old when the Great Depression started and 29 years old when it ended. I was 36 years old when World War II started and 42 years old when it ended. I was 52 years old when the Vietnam War started and 71 when it ended.

I became a centenarian on my 100th birthday on July 4, 2003.

Genevieve