Notable Women of 20th Century Beaufort County: Part 3

As we entered the 21st century, two authors undertook separate projects interviewing residents of 20th century Beaufort County to explore what it was that made the lives they were born into and/or carved for themselves here so noteworthy.  Only two women, Dr. Eleanor I. Barnwell and Grace White, are featured in both Beaufort Through the Ages by Gloria Singleton (2010) and one of the three Remembering the Way It Was volumes by Fran Heyward Marscher (2005, 2006,and 2007).

Grace White, a Marine Corps brat and the only woman in the George Washington School of Law graduating class of 1934,  lived in the same house at 802 Carteret Street in downtown Beaufort from 1937 until her death just shy of becoming 100 years old in 2010.  Ms. White was Beaufort's first woman attorney,(and therefore the first Beaufort woman attorney to swear that she would never engage in a duel).  She specialized in legal, monetary, and "heirs property" matters --  mostly because the other seven lawyers  in town (all male) did not. During World War II she helped young men fill out the required selective service paperwork and watched for Axis incursions into the Beaufort River from the Pigeon Point Watchtower.

(Our Lucille Hasell Culp Collection. All Rights Reserved)

Read more about the life of Grace White in Beaufort Through the Ages, pp. 202 - 205 Call # 975.799 SIN, (BDC and Local History sections); and, Remembering the Way It Was at Beaufort, Sheldon and the Sea Islands, pp. 12 - 16 Call #975.799 MAR, (BDC and Local History sections).

Take a video tour of her house, now a dormitory for women attending USC-B on the Historic Beaufort campus. 


Please note: We posted entries about Dr. Barnwell on March 14 and about National Women's History Month Project nominee Kate Gleason on March 8.