Recently, the Harvin Clarendon County Library hosted a book signing for author Jim McKnight, who wrote a book about his grandfather, Willie Holliday, Sr. His book, My Story of a Sharecropper’s Life Lived in Three Centuries, can be checked out at the library.
Holliday was born in Clarendon County in November 1893 to April Holliday and Sarah Jane Bowman Holliday. Attending school in Clarendon School District One, Holliday studied until third grade. While there, he developed a love of reading and found joy in reading his Bible and the newspaper.
After growing up in Clarendon, Holliday became a sharecropper and lived in a three-room house on a farm in Summerton with his wife, Maggie McFadden, and their ten children.
As a lifelong member of Taw Caw Missionary Baptist Church in Summerton, Holliday served in many capacities with the church. At differing points, Holliday was a bell ringer, gravedigger, janitor and Senior Deacon. Holliday was also one of the original members of Brotherly Love No. 99, a Manning lodge, which was founded in 1948.
Upon his death, Holliday was the second oldest individual in the United States and the oldest living individual in South Carolina.
“The County Council had done back in April, and Mr. McKnight couldn’t make that meeting,” said Dwight Stewart, the Clarendon County Council Chairman. “So I presented it to him.”
Stewart has known McKnight for some time. Stewart states McKnight has worked around the Summerton community, although he lives in the northeast U.S. at this time.
“Now, therefore, be it resolved that Clarendon County Council does hereby recognize and honor Mr. Willie (Caldwell) Holliday, Sr., for making history in Summerton, South Carolina, for being the oldest individual in South Carolina, who died on December 19, 2004, at the rich age of 110,” read Stewart from the plaque.
According to Charlotte Johnston, the Harvin Clarendon County Library Director, about a dozen people attended the signing and plaque presentation.
“Folks enjoyed meeting Mr. McKnight and asking questions about his family and his writing of the book,” said Johnston, who stated McKnight’s co-author and researcher, Sahara Bowser, also attended the event.
