One part determination, one part alpha personality, a lifetime of experiences and a heavy dollop of humor make up Barbara Ardis, the Little Old Lady columnist for Manning Times.
Born in Eutawville, Ardis grew up in Hickory, North Carolina. After graduating high school, Ardis attended what is now William & Peace University, although it was a junior college for women at the time.
Ardis wanted to study journalism. However, her father felt she would never make a living with writing, and he insisted she choose another path.
“In those days, you did what your parents told you. You said ‘Yes, ma’am’ and ‘No, sir,’ so that’s what I did,” said Ardis. Although she had no desire to be an English teacher, she studied English, because it was the closest her father would let her get to journalism.
Her family returned to South Carolina, where her father worked as a dry kiln engineer for lumber companies. Through his work, she met the president of Stuckey Lumber Company and accepted a position as his assistant.
Through the years, she worked as secretary to eight men at Farmers Cooperative Society (FCS) in a branch office for 26 stores. When they sold out, she returned to Manning and went to work with General Business Services, a bookkeeping and general business counseling service. After a few years, she operated a bookkeeping service of her own.
Her bookkeeping abilities earned her a position with Warner Bros in Charlotte. While there, she was in charge of supplementary contracts, ensuring theaters were billed correctly based on contract terms for film bookings.
After the dissolution of her first marriage, Ardis returned to Manning. Not one to be idle, she opened a business called Home Service Supply.
“I had two young men who went out and made house calls to little old ladies who needed a burner put on their stove or a commode unplugged, and all the little things little old ladies need done around their houses,” said Ardis.
When Ardis retired, she still wasn’t one to stay idle. She pursued her two life goals: to teach someone to read and to volunteer at the hospital. She worked with the literacy council for two years teaching a man to read, finding it a very rewarding experience.
Having met that goal, she moved on to the hospital, where she worked for the next 25 years as a volunteer. Most of that time was with human resources, where she maintained the filing system for all personnel files.
The hospital recently chose to go paperless, and Ardis was instrumental in the preparation work for inputting the personnel information into the computer system. With the process finally completed, Ardis once again retired three weeks ago, after 9,500 volunteer hours with the hospital.
Though not officially volunteering anywhere, Ardis still reaches out in the community. She visits a local shut-in lady on a daily basis, and she visits another shut-in weekly after church. Although she is no longer an officer with the Clarendon County GOP, she is still an active member and attends meetings regularly.
“My husband never did like for me to be idle. When I got married, I had visions of being like my mother, being home fixing flowers and cooking a meal. But that was not the picture of the wife in the modern age,” said Ardis.
Ardis firmly believes God has supported her throughout her lifetime. Through the loss of her brother, her older son four years ago, and her husband three years ago, Ardis has leaned on her faith to keep her going.
However, she has felt God’s protection as well. She has survived severe injuries and health scares, healing when doctors thought it improbable, and has overcome a late-life bout with cancer.
“I feel like God has had his hand on me,” said Ardis. “I made up my mind some years ago that I would give my whole life to God, because it was His to begin with.”
While her doctors suspect her ability to heal rapidly must come from good genetics, a lack of smoking and a healthy diet, Ardis isn’t so sure. “Only if healthy eating is eggs and grits. I live on eggs and grits,” said Ardis of her favorite meal.
Over the years, Ardis and her husband raised goats and ducks, raised thousands of quail to sell to hunters and restaurants, and ran five trot lines for catfish to sell. Ardis also played keyboard for McDowell Presbyterian Church in Greeleyville for seven years after they lost their pianist.
While Ardis misses her keyboard and wishes she could find another good one, her favorite non-writing pastime was fishing. Ardis misses the trips to Florida to fish for wild Oscars.
“My husband told someone once, ‘My wife could catch fish out of a dry bucket,’” said Ardis. She would continue to fish but states she doesn’t currently know anyone with a pontoon boat.
Ardis’ heart, however, is in writing. She began writing as a child. As she had no journal, she would hunt for books with blank pages in the back and fill them with her poems.
“It made me feel like I had a book, because my writing was in a book,” said Ardis. Her first encouragement as a writer came in fifth grade when she won a prize, a piece of candy, with one of her poems.
“I thought, ‘oh, if I can get candy, I’ll write some more,’” said Ardis. She continued to write poetry, sending them out to family and friends.
In the early 2000s, Ardis met a young volunteer at the hospital for whom Ardis wrote a couple of poems. The woman encouraged Ardis to publish her poetry and mentored her through the publishing process. Ardis’ published her book of poetry, Remembered Days, in 2007 through Publish America.
“My signature poem is still my favorite,” said Ardis, who quoted the poem from memory.
“Will there be new sandy shores to stroll
Warm sunny mornings for our lover’s gaze
Or has the luster of the world been dimmed
And are we lost in our remembered days.”
Inspired by a memory of a tire repair, a hubcap mishap and a muddy ditch, Ardis followed her poetry book with a collection of memoir stories. If You See an Old Lady was published in 2011 by Publish America. Both books are currently out of print, and Ardis is unsure if she will publish another book.
Out of a desire to continue writing and sharing her memories, Ardis submitted a column piece to the Manning Times ten years ago. Soon she had her own regular column, Little Old Lady. She gathers ideas from life experiences, both in the past and in her daily life.
“I still had things to say, and my book was finished,” said Ardis. “But nothing will ever be as funny as the story about the hubcaps.”
Each year, she takes a trip with her daughter, traveling to places like San Francisco and Savannah. This year, they will stay closer to home, going to New Bern, North Carolina. With every trip, Ardis gathers more fodder for her column, coming home to share her thoughts and humor with Clarendon County.
“It’s been very gratifying,” said Ardis, who loves the support and encouragement she gets through comments on her columns.
At almost 91 years old, Ardis still feels she’ll be around a long time. Her mother lived to be 97 and her grandmother 102. To keep herself motivated and encouraged, Ardis keeps her favorite motto quote framed on a shelf. “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
