A Mother of a Different Kind

A Mother of a Different Kind

 

I hope all you ladies are having, or have had, a wonderful Mother’s Day. Much to give thanks for, isn’t there?

 

Here’s a deep bow to a good lady my mother knew at Sweet Briar. She never had children and never married but was, in fact, a generous mother to many: Sally Reahard.

 

“Who’s she?” you might ask. In the words of Gene Wilkins, her friend and advisor, “Sally cared.”

 

Although she lived in Indianapolis and did not visit Charleston after the 1930s, she kept apace with what was happening here and loved the place.

 

She was astute and humorous and did not like sycophants — and was set in her ways. She was also wealthy but only by her donations did she let it “show.”

 

Upon her death in 2003, her estate of c. $180M was completely given away to about 60 non-profits she had “mothered” over the years in the Midwest and South Carolina, those here being the SC Nature Conservancy, Drayton Hall, Lowcountry Land Trust, The Charleston Museum, Preservation Society of Charleston, and the Historic Charleston Foundation.

 

Appropriately, Drayton Hall’s new visitors’ center is named for her.

More about “Miss Sally” in my book; “Drayton Hall Stories: A Place and Its People,” due out in September, with at least 4 interviews with her friends and relatives. One is entitled, “She Cared.”

 

Like Bob Barker in earlier  posts, she was sui generis.

 

What a difference this mother of a different kind did make.