A Look into Legend

The people who make up Charleston’s illustrious and often infamous past are not always the ones that get into history books. Take Ralph Johnson, for example, the person for whom the Veteran’s Hospital downtown is named for. Johnson was a 17-year-old African American kid, born and raised in Charleston, who threw himself on a grenade during the Vietnam War, saving his entire regiment.
It’s these types of people whom Mary Preston Foster chose to write about in her new book, Legendary Locals of Charleston.
And there couldn’t be a better person to write about Charleston’s historical figures, both from a literary standpoint and from her own lineage. Foster is an honest to goodness, dyed-in-the-wool South Carolinian. While her mother’s side is mainly from the Charleston area, her father’s family is from the upstate.
“South Carolina history is in my veins. We had South Carolina history around the clock at my house. So when I went to take the tour guide exam in Charleston, I already knew it all. I didn’t have to study; it was already a part of my bone structure,” says Foster.
A school teacher at First Baptist High School in the 1960s and later an elementary school librarian, Foster decided to become a tour guide downtown when she realized that she needed to start saving up for her children’s college education.
“I started doing tours on the weekends and in my spare time I would look up stories about Charleston and read just about everything I could find. Then I just got tired of walking the streets of Charleston for money so I decided to put everything I learned into a book,” says Foster, smiling.
That book was Charleston: a Historic Walking Tour, which was released in 2005 through Arcadia Publishing.
“Legendary Locals just fell out of that. I told about houses and architecture in A Historic Walking Tour, but not really the people, so for this book I was able to find out more about the people of Charleston. It was really fun for me to research; I would take the name of a house and run it down to find out who it was and what it was,” says Foster.
And while all of the founding families of Charleston are represented in Legendary Locals, there are also a lot of lesser known names who had just as much influence in the shaping of Charleston.
From the story of Isaac Hayne, who was hanged by the British for treason, to a nurse named Mary Moultrie who led a strike of hospital workers for equal pay and fair treatment, to a photo of three boys in second grade who went on to become a mayor, an admiral and the grandfather of a senator, Foster poured not only through Charleston’s recorded past but also through the memories of Charlestonians for whom family stories are as treasured as any precious family heirloom.
Legendary Locals doesn’t just stop with those who shaped Charleston’s past, however. It also shares the stories of those who are shaping its present and future.
“For me, the hidden treasures came in the finding of contemporary people to include. I already know most of the historical figures, but it was the young people alive and contributing today that surprised me,” says Foster.
Among those are such figures as Stephen Colbert, Shepard Fairey and Tim Scott. But for all the people she included in the book, there are many that she wishes she could have included but couldn’t because of length restrictions.
“There were some wonderful people who were left out and I want to give my apologies to all of them. There is definitely another book out there,” says Foster.
Legendary Locals of Charleston was officially released on Monday, Oct. 28, and is available through Amazon.com and ArcadiaPublishing.com, as well as the Preservation Society bookstore at 147 King Street and Barnes & Noble in West Ashley.
 
On Saturday, Nov. 2, Foster will be featured in a book signing event at the West Ashley Barnes & Noble from 2-4 p.m. Barnes & Noble is located at 1812 Sam Rittenberg Blvd. in West Ashley. For more information, visit www.barnesandnoble.com.
 
Would you like to be featured in an upcoming A&E story? Get in touch with Kristin Hackler at kristin.hackler@gmail.com.