Manning resident Nancy Smith Cave was born in the Southwest corner of Virginia and moved with her family to Baltimore County, Maryland when she was 18 months old. The family spent close to 20 years in Maryland with numerous trips back and forth to Virginia, visiting family. In 1970, Cave moved to the Charleston, South Carolina area and went to work for the Department of the Navy at the Charleston Naval Shipyard.
In 1974 the family moved to Moncks Corner. While at the Shipyard, she worked in Administration and in the Human Resources Department as a Management Analyst. She left there in 1988 as an Employee Relations Specialist. During this timeframe she met and married her husband, Gene.
In late 1990, after her husband retired from the Naval Shipyard, they moved to Clarendon County. They bought a home on the backwater of Lizzies' Creek. Gene fished and spent as much time on the lake as possible while Nancy enjoyed riding on the boat and reading as much as she could. In 2001, her mother came to live with them. Unfortunately Gene passed away in 2003.
Following the loss of her husband, Cave became much more involved in the efforts to build an animal shelter in Clarendon County and eventually became a member of their Board of Directors. She became the first operational Executive Director of the Animal Shelter during construction of the facility and after the grand opening. She then decided to take some time off and travel with her mother during the summer of 2007. After a cruise to Alaska, a trip to England and a tour to Niagara Falls Canada she became aware of a job opening at the Clarendon County Archives. For her, working at the Archives was pure joy as she loved helping people research their family history, She also thoroughly enjoyed researching and working on the many different projects that came up, like "Hometown Teams, How Sports Shaped America." Her mother passed away in May 2017 and she decided it was time to start thinking about retiring and traveling again. Cave loves to travel and see new places. She already has a trip planned to Ireland, a trip to Germany and a trip to Canada along with lots of "road trips" around the United States.
Cave has lived in Clarendon County longer than any other place she has ever lived. She has been here since October 1990 and this is where she now calls home. Cave has two sons, one in Florida and one in North Carolina and a total of seven grand children, ages 3 to 22.
On March 3, 2018, Clarendon County Archivist Nancy Smith Cave retired, after serving in this capacity since Dec. 1 of 2007.
She plans to continue to serve on the Clarendon County Voter Registration and Elections Board and on the Design Committee of Main Street Manning.
Meesha Witherspoon is succeeding Cave. Witherspoon was born and raised in Clarendon County and is a recent graduate of Claflin University.
