The Isle of Palms Garden Cub had a meeting on Thursday, Sept. 19 at the Exchange club on Palm Blvd. They began with a social gathering at 6:30 p.m. with small appetizers and beverages. The meeting began at 7 p.m. with Lorraine Evans as the guest speaker.
Evans is also known as Happy Rain, where she hosted a famous children’s program on Channel 5 for many years in the 1960’s. She was raised in Charleston and began her love of flowers from her parents. When she was in the 4th grade, her school had a flower show. Her father grew sweet peas all over their picket fence so she and her mother cut several stems and put them in a vase where Evans placed them in the school cafeteria for the show. Unfortunately she did not even place in the show. As she got older she started tumbling classes where she blossomed. After she graduated from high school her friend told her about a job at Channel 5.
In 1959 she went to work in the promotions department where she stuff feathers in Robin Hood hats to mail to the grocery stores. She stuffed a feather in her hair and put a scarf around her neck and said “how”. When her boss saw her with the feather in her hair, he asked her if she wanted to start a children’s show, and that is the beginning of the Happy Rain show.
After she retired from her show, she volunteered in the fund raising department at the Ronald McDonald house. In 1996 she retired from volunteering and began planting, as she said, not gardening. In 1997 her husband passed away and she bought a house downtown. The lady she bought the house from was a master gardener, so she now she said she was forced to become a gardener. She has grown numerous avocado trees, jasmine from Spain, citrus trees, and pear trees. The only plant that she has not mastered is growing sweet peas like her father.