I first met Robert Bailey in the summer of 2019, when he was fact checking for his book, and he stopped into the Poe Branch Library to ask questions about a grisly murder on Sullivans’s Island in the 1950s. He explained that he was collecting stories of his mother’s early life in Downtown Charleston and on Sullivan’s Island for a book, and the murder was one she recalled vividly. The murder was news to me, and I was immediately intrigued and happy to help scour the Charleston newspapers of the time for more details. In October 2023, I was delighted to meet Mr. Bailey’s mother through her son’s words.
Mary Margaret Knight was born in Charleston in 1921 and experienced a tumultuous childhood that included five years at the Charleston Catholic Asylum run by the Sisters of Charity before she and her sister Nora were reunited with their parents. They moved to Sullivan's Island in 1935, where they experienced some excitement and opportunities of the Fort Moultrie and Isle of Palms social scenes, although their lives were far from glamorous. Eager to escape a volatile home situation, Mary Margaret met John Billy Bailey at a dance on Labor Day weekend in 1938, and they married after a five-day courtship. A brief stay with his family in Tallapoosa, Georgia, revealed that Mary Margaret had traded one set of troubles for another. They returned to Sullivan's Island where they raised their family of six children from 1938 to 1952, before moving to Georgia permanently.
As Mr. Bailey writes in his prologue, “Mama told stories that were the truth — her truth. But sometimes truth is gossip, a fantasy even, or a fable. However, to the witness of the truth, it is grounded in fact. What I tell you here is my honest transcription of my mama’s truth. Here, I will let Mama tell her story.” Told in the voice of his resilient mother, Mr. Bailey paints a vivid, complicated, unsentimental picture of life in Charleston and East of the Cooper from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Mr. Bailey will share story excerpts from his mother’s life on Sullivan’s Island, talk about how he collected her memories, and explore the challenges about telling difficult narratives about our family histories at the Edgar Allan Poe Branch Library on May 4, at 11:30 a.m. Mr. Bailey will also have copies for sale and signing at the event. Residents with Sullivan’s Island family histories to share are encouraged to attend. Copies of From White Sand to Red Clay can also be found at the Charleston County Public Library.
Delores Schweitzer is the manager of the Edgar Allan Poe Branch Library on Sullivans Island located at 1921 Ion Avenue. For information about this and other programs and other services, call 843-883-3914, email poe@ccpl.org, or visit www.ccpl.org.
