Note: If you’re wondering what this is all about, start from the beginning: part 1, part 2, part 3.
I’m doing two sections this time because one of them is so short.
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Close Family
In the closely-knit McMaster family — unbroken by any death for more than 32 years — there were 14 children, or whom Virginia Lee was the 10th.
Older sisters and brothers were Mary Elliot, Catherine McGregor, Rachel Buchanan (later Mrs. Douglas Mckay, grandmother of Columbia’s present Douglas McKay), Fitz William Jr., Helen Graham, James Macfie, John, Thornwell and Agnes Rice, one of Columbia’s great and most beloved long-time teachers.
After Virginia Lee came George Hunter, Benjamin Palmer, Samuel Buchanan (”Buck,” who operated the famous sporting goods store in Columbia and also was owner of the noted Good Will plantation) and the youngest, Porter Alexander.
A Full Life
Today, Virginia Lee is the last of them. And the 100 candles that blazed in her honor at Saturday’s “open house” at the old family home signified a life that has been full:
—As the nurse who gave 12 years of active service in Baltimore, Md.
—As the Red Cross volunteer over 50, beyond the age for active nursing duty, who paid her own expenses to serve in France with 25 special volunteers requested by the U.S. Government during World War I.
—As the wife and mother whose only child, a son, died in infancy and whose husband was buried on the second anniversary of their marriage.
—As the compassionate woman working with Columbia’s Society of Orphan and Destitute Female Children, and the King’s Daughters, which organized the Columbia Hospital Association in 1892. (”Because of that,” she laughs, “I’m written down in black and white as one of the founders of the Columbia Hospital. That was one of the wonderful things that happen in life—when a little spark starts a big fire.”)
—As a long-time, loyal member of Columbia’s First Presbyterian Church whose records show her baptism there on April 25, 1868.
—And as a vital human being whose zest for life has kept her so active and interested in the world that, even in her 98th year, there was the energy to enjoy a shuttlebus ride on The Carolina Queen, and even to go to the movies. She likes “The Sound of Music” so well she saw it twice!
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Gin-Gin’s wedding photo, from the article:
There will be either one or two more installments, depending on how I decide to break things up!
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