Personal Background
I was born and raised here in Walterboro. My grandparents, are originally from Walterboro. There were the Rhone’s. My grandfather was Richard Rhone, and my grandmother Edna Rhone. Their oldest daughter is my mom, Margaret Rhone, and she married a gentleman from Holly Hill, South Carolina, and his name was Walter McQune. So, my mother had nine children, but out of the nine, I’m the only one born in Walterboro. So, a little bit about me. I married here. I have five children, but I just lost a daughter in December. I have five kids who all were educated here. Jade Davis was the on the 1990 team. That was so great. Bryan Davis was the quarterback for the high school. I have a daughter, Ivey Johnson, and she works in Berkeley County. She’s the counselor there, and my baby boy, Marcus Johnson is in Atlanta, and he has four karate schools. He teaches Taekwondo. But, I live in the middle of Walterboro. I was on Paul Street next to Parker Roden, and after raising my children, at age 50, I decided to go back to college. I went back to college at Southern Wesleyan up in Clemson, South Carolina, and received my master’s from there, opened my business here in Walterboro, Johnson agency, and I go to Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Walterboro. So, I have a lot of friends here,
Why are you running for City Council?
I don’t know if you knew, but I ran for mayor twice here and lost to Mr. Bill Young, and I ran for council once. So, most people know me here because I’ve ran before, and I just want to leave a part of myself to the community. feel like I can have a hand on bringing this community together on one accord.
In the community. We’ve had some discussion on violence. We’ve had discussion on infrastructure. What are some of your priorities?
My first priority is safety. We have seven communities in the city of Walterboro, so what would you think happened if everybody took a lead in their own community and created a neighborhood watch service, and therefore they can help law enforcement? Because, what happens when a murder or some type of violence happens? Everybody keeps their mouth shut so, law enforcement is pulling and saying, “if you see something, say something”. So, I think if we have a block captains and representatives, maybe four, I think they’ll have a good impact on helping law enforcement, which will help our city.
Yes, now on infrastructure. Where do you see us going? There are times you’ll see complaints that someone wants to bring a business here, but there are a lot of roadblocks put in the way. Where do you see the city going with having to follow the laws, but here’s what we can do to help you?
When you think of that, you think of growth, and everybody around us is growing, believe it or not. One thing about growth is it’s going to come they’re coming closer. So, we need to prepare for that. One of the ways, several ways, that we can do that, is we are sitting right off I-95. We are in a good spot. We have a low tax base compared to the other places, and our small town charm. So if you concentrate on growth, because if you look at it we are sitting right in the middle of the Charleston port and the Savannah port, why not? `Why can’t we have the southern charm, the small town charm, and also bring in business? It’ll be good for downtown. It’ll bring people here who will buy homes. It will help with our tax base and everything. You have people year after year after year, I’ve dealt with this for 12 years saying Walterboro is nothing. Walterboro is this, but Walterboro is a great city. We just have to have a meeting of the minds. You might not agree with me, I might not agree with you, but we agree we live in the same city. So, if we can focus on growth, because we’re right there at I- 95 and everybody’s going around us, why we can’t reap the benefits like everybody else?
Conclusion
One thing I would like to see is collaboration. Not for the rich, not for the politicians, but everybody. Every community coming together on one accord and saying, You know what? We need to stop fighting. Come together. We need to stop talking down our city. I think there are great things here. There are great people here. Those people downtown, are good business people. So, stop fighting. Come together and collaborate. You might not agree with my ideas. I might not agree with your ideas, but there is a common thread that everybody can come together and make the same world, but as long as we are in seven different communities fighting, and the last thing I want is for the people to know their council members. I don’t want to go on council and sit around the table once a month. I want to be in the communities, going and meeting people every community, so they know who I am. That if you live in Forest Hills, they should know your name. They should know who their council member, and we don’t have that. And it has been said the reason we don’t have it is people don’t come to the council meeting. But, I totally disagree with that. I think people want to help, and the only thing I’m asking is for is for them to give me a chance to be the councilwoman and a councilwoman for everybody, not one group of people, but everybody, and that’s who I am.
https://youtu.be/wVnB5YFh59w
