Center's New Exhibit Shares Details About Jewish Merchant Life
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Clarendon Hall takes different approach to practice B1 LOCAL Center’s new exhibit shares details about Jewish merchant life SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 A2 SUNDAY, JULY 7, 2019 $1.75 A lover of life BRUCE MILLS / THE SUMTER ITEM Bob’s Appliance Sales and Service co-owner John Dollard displays a KitchenAid five-door configuration French door refrigerator last week at the store. Still local after 50 years in Sumter Bob’s Appliance Sales and Service surpasses 5 decades in business PHOTO PROVIDED BY BRUCE MILLS [email protected] Joey Geddings doesn’t sell many avocado green refrigerators these days or microwave ovens built “like a monster and weighing a ton,” but he and John Dollard are still going strong with Bob’s Appliance Sales and Ser- vice. The local, independent sales-and-service appliance store recently passed the 50-year mark in busi- ness, and the BOB’S APPLIANCE two co-owners SALES AND SERVICE discussed last PHOTO PROVIDED PHOTOS BY MICAH GREEN / THE SUMTER ITEM Address: 1152 Pocalla Road, week how they Clockwise from top right: Dorothy Louise Evans Elliott, known as “Mrs. Dot,” was recently honored by Pinewood Baptist Sumter have stayed Church for her service as the church’s organist for six decades. competitive in Hours: 8:30 to 5 p.m. Elliott is seen at the church organ in the 1970s. The Hammond Organ in the photo was the church’s first organ, which was pur- Monday-Friday and the ever-chang- appointments made for ing appliance chased in 1957. Elliott bought the organ from the church in 1990 and continues to use it to practice weekly in her home. after hours and Saturdays industry and Elliott, seen with her grandson Kade Elliott in 2002, practices music for PBC’s Vacation Bible School. Elliott has played for for new appliance sales growing high- VBS since 1959. Phone: (803) 773-8016 tech economy. When Ged- Elliott practices the organ at her church last week. She was honored and surprised with “Dot Elliott Day” on June 2. Online: www. bobsappliancessc.com dings started working for his ‘Mrs. Dot’ Elliott recognized for serving as Pinewood church organist for 60 years father, founder Bobby Geddings BY BRUCE MILLS Christian faith-filled spirit and logged approximately 10,000 hours Sr., 42 years ago as a teenager, the industry [email protected] good health, she continues to live in service in playing at countless was coming out of the 1960s and early ’70s life to the fullest. worship services, revivals, choir and “was getting wild with colors,” includ- INEWOOD — Tucked in As a typical, proper Southern practices, funerals and weddings. ing avocado and Coppertone brown. At that lady, she doesn’t reveal her age — She says she’s played probably time, the first microwaves also hit the mar- Pa small, historic town all we know is her birthday is June 500 to 600 hymns during that time ket. They were a high-end item, and “most that many may not 14, and she is a grandmother and and still practices about two hours people were scared it was going to zap great-grandmother. per week on average at home on them,” he said. know much about is one She was recently honored by her her organ in preparation for Sun- Smaller-owned appliance stores were also woman who is hard for anyone church, Pinewood Baptist, for her day worship services. competitive in the marketplace. musical talents and dedication, On June 2, Pinewood Baptist Now, fingerprint-resistant stainless steel to forget. culminating in 60 years of service marked her anniversary with “Dot is the color of choice, and “smart” Wi-Fi She’s Mrs. Dorothy Louise as the church organist dating back Elliott Day” to her surprise. Evans Elliott, better known as to June 1959. SEE BOB’S, PAGE A7 “Mrs. Dot,” and thanks to a strong, Church leaders estimate she’s SEE 60 YEARS, PAGE A3 South Carolina’s first black surgeon earns recognition BY JERREL FLOYD burn on his hand while work- for blacks. his little-known legacy has recognition. The Post and Courier ing at a McDonald’s. This led “There was a time, if some- garnered more attention since “When I first came across him to the medical office of one black got sick, they had his former medical office re- it, it was a beauty shop,” she COLUMBIA — Dr. Burnett Dr. Cyril O. Spann in Colum- nowhere to go,” said Gallman, cently was added to the Na- said. “I really didn’t know Gallman remembers getting bia. who today works in the Co- tional Register of Historic that much about the history treated by the first black sur- Spann treated the wound lumbia VA Health Care Sys- Places. myself.” geon in South Carolina when so well that there isn’t even tem. Catherine Fleming Bruce, The building is two doors he was around 20. an indication of a burn, Gall- Dr. Spann spent more than a researcher who highlights down from the old Good Sa- It was either 1968 or ’69 and man said. But in the era be- five years in the 1960s and ’70s South Carolina’s black histo- maritan-Waverly Hospital, a the now-gastroenterologist fore Spann, getting a wound as the only trained black sur- ry, has been instrumental in had received a second-degree treated often was a challenge geon in South Carolina. Now, getting Spann’s office that SEE SPANN, PAGE A7 VISIT US ONLINE AT DEATHS, B6 WEATHER, A10 INSIDE Preston Mack Wilson Eloise Knight Brown Billy Kent Edgeworth STORMY SUNDAY 4 SECTIONS, 24 PAGES Mae Alanda Jeffers Hestelle Brunson Dingle Sara Martha Campbell VOL. 124, NO. 182 the .com A shower and thunder- Elizabeth Catherine Brian O’Neal Amerson C4 C1 storm around today; a Classifieds Outdoors Maier Rygalski Lee Donald Fifield James E. Thompson D1 A5 storm early and mostly Comics Panorama Peter Nelson Marilyn Smith Barnhill Ruth Ann Wilson cloudy tonight History C2, C3 Sports B1 Blanche Bradley Joe Mariah D. S. Murray Gloria Brank Teseniar Opinion A9 Television A8 Samuel Marvin Lowery Ann Foley Seal David Carroll Driggers HIGH 93, LOW 76 Emma Jenkins Purnell Lucius Marion Gulledge A2 | SUNDAY, JULY 7, 2019 THE SUMTER ITEM Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: [email protected] New exhibit details merchant life Book signing to site featuring an interactive map, il- counter more than 100 years later. feature Scottish Jewish History Center will lustrated narratives and the exhibi- “That is why it is an important present part of project at tion. goal of the Jewish Merchant Project “For more than 300 years, Jewish to connect with the memories of the historical fiction Ackerman Exhibition Hall people have made their homes in descendants of those pioneering South Carolina. Originally wel- families in order to capture a fuller BY KAYLA ROBINS comed as traders and merchants, understanding of Jewish life in our novel on July 11 [email protected] they settled first in Charleston, state,” she said. BY KAYLA ROBINS Georgetown and Beaufort but soon The Jewish Historical Society of A new exhibit coming to the Tem- looked beyond these cities for op- South Carolina was founded in 1994 [email protected] ple Sinai Jewish History Center will portunities to sell goods and set up to encourage the collection, study detail the merchant experience in shop,” Robertson said. “After 1865, and interpretation of the state’s Jew- The Sumter County Museum is South Carolina. Jewish merchants — many of Ger- ish history and to increase aware- hosting author Signe Pike for a “A Store at Every Crossroads: Doc- man origin — filled the commercial ness of that heritage among Jews book signing for “The Lost Queen” umenting the Stories of South Caro- gaps on main streets left by the eco- and non-Jews. To date, more than on Thursday, July 11, at 6:30 p.m. lina’s Jewish Merchants” will pre- nomic upheaval of the Civil War. 500 oral histories pertaining to that A talk is free and open to the mier in the center’s new Ackerman Beginning in 1881, the mass immi- goal have been recorded. public, and books will be available Exhibition Hall at 15 Church St. on gration of East European Jews to “The impetus for the JHSSC came for purchase at the event at 122 N. Thursday, Aug. 1, with a talk given America brought these newcomers from the late Sen. Isadore Lourie Washington St. Pike’s historical by exhibit curator Lynn Robertson at to the South, as well. Many, sup- who realized the small-town life of fiction novel, which is being com- 6:30 p.m. followed by an opening re- plied and guided by regional whole- South Carolina’s Jews was quickly pared to “Outlander” and “The ception. salers, began their life in America disappearing,” said Rachel Barnett, Mists of Avalon,” is the spellbind- The exhibit, a component of The as peddlers. By 1900, Jewish-owned program director. ing debut introducing Languoreth, Jewish Merchant Project, is present- stores were fixtures on downtown The project is supported by the a forgotten historical queen of ed by the Jewish Historical Society streets in cities as well as in small Norman and Gerry Sue Arnold sixth-century Scotland and twin of South Carolina and the center and towns across the state.” Foundation and the Stanley B. Farb- sister of the man who inspired the documents the merchant experience Robertson said few of the founding stein Endowment at the Coastal legend of Merlin. through a statewide survey, a web- families remain behind the store Community Foundation.