Saying Goodbye To A West Ashley Legend

This West Ashley Flashback is dedicated to Cecil B. Kearse, who passed away on May 14 at the age of 95. He was a huge presence in St. Andrew’s Parish and influenced the development of the West Ashley community.
So many residents trusted in him because of his friendly, engaging nature, his knowledge of banking, and his strong character. I recently wrote a Flashback inquiring about the young man who interviewed Kearse for the Byrnes Downs News many years ago. I was able to learn from Kearse, before his passing, that the young man was Jimmy McElveen who has also passed away.
The West Ashley Branch of Citizens and Southern National Bank opened in the Avondale neighborhood of West Ashley on Feb. 15, 1950 with Cecil B. Kearse as the branch manager. On a cool November afternoon, while I enjoyed his wife Belva’s delicious coffee cake, Cecil told me the story of how the idea for a bank on this side of the river got started. Mr. I.D. Peek, a prominent developer, member of the state house of representatives, and resident of St. Andrew’s Parish approached Mr. Hugh C. Lane, the president of the Citizens and Southern National Bank, about the need for a bank in the Parish.
Mr. Peek told Mr. Lane that he was giving Citizens and Southern National Bank the first right of refusal to open a branch office in Avondale along Savannah Highway. Mr. Lane took this offer seriously and after the weekly bank officers meeting Mr. Lane asked Mr. Milton Appleby, Cecil’s boss at the time, “How fast can you replace Cecil?” Mr. Lane had identified Cecil as the man he wanted to open the new Branch office in St. Andrew’s Parish.
The first bank was in the bakery building, one of several storefronts along Avondale that no longer exist. One day a customer asked Cecil, “Isn’t this the bakery?” to which Cecil drily responded, “Yes, just different dough.”
The bank grew as rapidly as the surrounding community and soon there was need for a bank building with a larger vault and drive-up windows. Today South Coast bank occupies this building, which was constructed in the early 1950s. In addition to his job at the bank, Cecil was an active member in the various civic organizations that formed in the Parish, raised his family, and continued to find himself in unusual and humorous situations, like the time he was mistaken as the robber of the bank and almost arrested because of the overcoat he was wearing. The police were in pursuit of a robber and had been given a description of the coat he was wearing when he committed the crime. The police spotted Cecil, wearing a similar looking long overcoat, as he was returning to the bank after hours to take care of some business. One of the police officers was ready to cuff him when the other officer recognized him as the branch manager and said: “Let him go! He runs the bank.”
Prior to his career in banking, Cecil served during the Second World War and was awarded the WWII Victory Medal. Cecil was drafted into the Army Air Force in June of 1942 and soon found himself in the training school in Maryland. Immediately after training Cecil and a couple of his classmates boarded the USS West Point, a converted cruise liner, for assignment in North Africa. When they arrived in North Africa the need for personnel had changed so they followed the British to India for three weeks and then to Cairo. Cecil found wandering around the world doing nothing unfulfilling and requested a new assignment with some action.