October 18: Harvest Festival in Downtown Latta

June 28th: Family Comedy Show hosted by James Stephens III in Latta

June 28th: Carolina Youth Explosion at the Performing Arts Center in Latta

June 14th: The Latta Community Singers to perform at the Marion Opera House

The Arts Council Marion County

will present The Latta Community Singers
at  the Marion Opera House

The concert is free and everyone is invited to enjoy the 28-member community

choir in this historic theater setting. The singers and musicians will perform

such favorites as "Home Is Where the Heart Is," with words and music by

Carl Strommen and featuring the duet of Rachel Caulder and Cheryl Stubbs;

and "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)," words and music by Irving Burgie and

William Attaway and arranged by Alan Billingsley., which features soloist

Gerald Berry. Other songs sure to entertain and please will include "Bill Bailey,

Won’t You Please Come Home?, "I’m Going Home," and "Home."

Director of the group is Cindy LeGette and musicians include Susan Johnson, piano; James Caulder, fiddle; William Hayes, guitar; Eddie Hayes, banjo; Frank Easterling, string bass; Carol Stoops and LeGette, flute; and Anthony McCall and Travis Power, percussion.

Doors open at 6:30 and seating is first come, first served. Reception follows.

The Marion Opera House is at 100 West Court Street, just off Godbold Street in Marion. The brick multi-purpose community building was built in 1892 and served as a police station, jail, fire department, meat market and town council meeting room, with a large auditorium upstairs. The two-story rectangular brick structure is a simple classic-revival design.

For more information about the concert, call the Arts Council at 843-423-0355.

Wink Prince discusses 'The Great Harvest' on Coastal Today

The Great Harvest: Remembering Tobacco in the Pee Dee is a book written by Dr. Wink Prince and featuring photographs by Benton Henry.  

About The Great Harvest:

For much of the twentieth century, flue-cured tobacco culture dominated the Pee Dee economy. On farms throughout the region, families labored to plant, cultivate, harvest, cure, and ready the crop for market. In the market towns of Mullins, Lake City, Darlington, Timmonsville, Conway, and Loris, warehousemen turned the crop into cash. Between 1988 and 1993, faculty and students—mostly from Coker College—conducted interviews among Pee Dee tobacco growers and warehousemen. Many subjects had been involved in tobacco culture throughout their lives and spoke knowledgeably of producing and marketing the crop. Their stories are here, woven into an engaging and highly readable narrative. The brilliant photographs of Benton Henry, shot on the country roads and city streets of the Pee Dee, provide a poignant visual commentary on the agrarian architecture of another time.

October 6th & 7th: Tour of Historic Churches in Dillon County

The Dillon County Historical Society will sponsor its second "Tour of Historic Churches in Dillon County" on Saturday, October 6 from 9am-5pm and on Sunday, October 7 from 2-5pm.

Thirteen historic churches will be on the tour. Maps will be available at each church and also two weeks before the tour at the Dillon County Chamber of Commerce and the Dillon, Latta and Lake View Libraries. To request a map, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Dillon County Historical Society, PO Box 1806, Dillon, SC 29536.

Churches on the Tour are:

• Latta Presbyterian, Latta
• St. Barnabas Episcopal, Dillon
• St. Louis Catholic, Dillon
• Manning Baptist, Dillon
• Hazy Grove Baptist, Hamer
• Kentyre Presbyterian, Dillon
• Carolina Presbyterian, Little Rock
• Dothan Bethea Family Methodist, Dillon
• Main Street Methodist, Dillon
• Latta Baptist, Latta
• Pee Dee Presbyterian, Dillon
• Catfish Baptist, Dillon

Area artist releases prints, painting of Marion's Courthouse

Marion County's Courthouse has been repainted. Painted by Latta native and artist Glenn Hayes, that is.

Hayes was in Marion recently at the Marion County Museum to unveil his most recent artwork at a Wonderful Wednesday event, sponsored by the Friends of the Museum as a fundraiser.

Hayes also has his art exhibited in the museum through the end of April. Various prints and paintings are available for sale, with a percentage going to support the Museum, Hayes announced.

"Rural Reflections," as Hayes' works are named, do reflect his love of nature and the region. He told the folks gathered at the unveiling and luncheon that 

Though he served in the U.S. Army and with the FBI and worked with RJ Reynolds, it is his passion for painting that makes him happiest. His loves, in their order of priority for him, are God and family, he shared, with those passions shining through in some way in each of his works. For instance, his painting of a cotton field has his grandson's dog, several family members and a Bishopville cotton patch as his inspirations.

Deer, egrets, rivers, streams, moonlight and sunrises are a few of his subjects, along with the Nichols Methodist Church, and now the new "Light of Justice," as the Marion County Courthouse painting is named.

The Courthouse is depicted lit from within, with street lamps and moonlight in a night scene. It was the vision of his wife's he said, calling his best critic. His wife, Priscilla, also named the artwork.

As a third grader Hayes was a doodler and his school teacher reprimanded him for drawing because having a "good handwriting was more important than drawing" and drawing was thought to mess up your handwriting, he explained. By the fifth grade, however, the art teacher began encouraging him and he started working on the school's annual staff and newspaper, drawing art.

"It got me out of a lot of classes," he joked.

After retiring from Reynolds Tobacco Company, Hayes said it was time to try to paint more seriously and sell the art through signed, limited number edition prints.

From his start at drawing and painting watercolors on the backs of calendars to today's paintings, Hayes also instilled a love of arts in his children. He explained that his son is a graphics arts teacher and his daughter "paints in any medium, does anything..."

The "Light of Justice" was a challenge, Hayes said, especially with getting the details just right. He always starts with photographs and works from there.

As for the other works of art, just ask him: Each piece has a story. "I always had a reason for each one of them." And some of his pieces of art are just not for sale.

Benton Henry Awarded Grant to Assist in the Publication of a Book on Tobacco Culture

 Latta's Henry Receives Grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission

The South Carolina Arts Commission has awarded a grant to photographer Benton Henry to pursue the publication of a book uniting his photography of tobacco culture and the writings of Dr. Eldred “Wink” Prince.  This new endeavor arose from the highly successful traveling photography exhibit, Tobacco Barns of the Pee Dee.  The exhibit was featured in several cities throughout the Pee Dee in 2008-09.

The new project will explore in words and images the historical memory of the Pee Dee tobacco culture by those who lived it.  “Wink and I are extremely excited to be working together again,” said Henry.  “This is something that we have talked about for some time and it’s a great feeling to know that the Arts Commission supports our project.”

The images featured in the book will come from all over the Pee Dee and will showcase several aspects of tobacco culture.  Much of the text is derived from historical research and interviews conducted in the 1990s by Dr. Prince, Director of the Waccamaw Center for Cultural and Historical Studies at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, and Dr. Robert Simpson, former Chair of the History Department at Coker College in Hartsville. 

Henry, a resident of Latta and graduate of Francis Marion University, has been a professional photography for 25 years.  Prince, a native of Loris, is the author of Long Green: The Rise & Fall of Tobacco in South Carolina.  Joining Henry and Prince in the project will be Bruce Douglas of Pee Dee Arts as editor and Nate Gulledge, a native of Chesterfield, as designer.

About the South Carolina Arts Commission:

The South Carolina Arts Commission is the state agency charged with creating a thriving arts environment that benefits all South Carolinians, regardless of their location or circumstances. Created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the Arts Commission works to increase public participation in the arts by providing services, grants and leadership initiatives in three areas: arts education, community arts development and artist development. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the Arts Commission is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources. For more information, visit www.SouthCarolinaArts.com or call (803) 734-8696.

About Pee Dee Arts:

Pee Dee Arts is dedicated to promoting the Arts and cultural activities in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina.  Pee Dee Arts is made possible through a unique partnership between the Florence Regional Arts Alliance, the Florence Convention & Visitors Bureau and Pee Dee Tourism.