This week’s Spotlight is on Sue Keith, The Colleton County contact for the Legislative Delegation. Keith was born and raised in Ohio, got her nursing education in Washington, DC, where she met her husband who was in the Air Force. They got married and moved to Walterboro in 1971. Her husband Wayne’s family owned a restaurant in town called Keith’s Red Barn. Keith says moving to the area was a little culture shock, “It was interesting. I constantly said, ‘Excuse me, what did you say?’ I didn't understand the accent. I left a large teaching institution to take a job at a small Colleton County Hospital, which was an adjustment, but it was kind of fun. I got to know new people. I worked at when the hospital was at 219 South Lemacks St. and then helped move the hospital and worked at the current location of 501 Robertson Boulevard. Even though the hospital on Robertson Blvd. has been there 40 plus years, it will always be the new hospital.”
Keith continues, “I was in nursing. I was in management for a long time in my career, over the operating room, and then later post-acute care. We had a skilled care unit and rehab unit. I was also responsible for our admissions unit, the care unit, and the rehab unit which is phenomenal. The work that they do with our clients, our patients here, in the county is very important. When you have something bad happen, like a stroke, you kind of feel like a ton of bricks fell on you. The therapy staff and the nursing staff, take those bricks away. As one therapist summed it up, rehab teaches you to live smarter, not harder.” Keith retired from the medical field about 15 years ago.
Although retired, Keith did not slow down, “About eight years ago, I got a call from Senator Bright Matthews, and she offered me a position at the Legislative Delegation. I started out working with David Smalls who got the position over at the Artisans Center. It's just me at the Delegation Office, but it's been phenomenal. I had to learn a whole bunch of new stuff that I had never even heard of, but it's still helping folks. A lot of people will come in here looking for help, and there is nothing that the delegation can do legally, but over the 54 years I've lived here, I've made a lot of smart friends, and so I got a lot of people I can call and say, ‘what do we do’? I believe in this community. I believe in Colleton County and Walterboro. I attend the council meetings, and all of them understand the growth that will come to Colleton County, but they are all dedicated to make sure that where the growth happens the infrastructure is there. They're doing their job, bringing in clean industry and maintaining what's going on and maintaining the rural feel of the county. One of our greatest blessings is the Ace Basin, and it's nice to watch people we've elected keeping Colleton County the way it is but still looking out to provide jobs. We're talking about jobs for my kids and your grandkids and their kids.”
The next Legislative Delegation is on September 29th at 6pm in the Colleton County Library Main Conference Room. The Press and Standard will have more about the meeting in Mid-September.
One of the fixtures of Colleton County was Keith’s Red Barn, Sue has great memories of the barn, “The Red Barn was started by Wayne's dad, W.L. Keith. He and a couple of workers build on Edgewood St. near the H&D Supermarket. The building was built out of heart pine. If you want to get in an argument in the South you say x, y, z, barbecue is the best. You know, we have vinegar barbecue with pepper. Up in North Carolina they have a mustard-based sauce. There is also a sweet sauce. Then in Alabama, they're a little odd. They use a mayonnaise-based sauce. The Barn had a red sauce, a ketchup-based sauce, but it had some vinegar and a little kick to it. So, it was different. They were open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and it was a buffet. I think back in the 70s, it was $9 for all you could eat. There were some folks, I think they lost money, but it got to be a tradition. Wayne had a vision of selling it. At one point he was selling barbecue from Binghamton, New York, down to Jacksonville. Wayne's father became ill, and the barn, the original barn, had burned down, and it was just time to change. The last few years of his life, he was a barbecue judge, and he started the annual Smoke In the Burrow BBQ Festival and Competition. The event ran for about seven years until Covid put a stop to it. The contest that raised money for good activities here in the town, and it was fun.”
Keith also had a passion for theatre, “There was an adult theater group in town, and in my professional position, a little wonky and ditzy was not allowed, so I wound up playing the ditzy roles, and I loved it. We did the plays that were very easy to produce and had very low royalties. The shows were the older ones like “Harvey”, “Moon over Buffalo”, “Lend Me a Tenor”, and “Arsenic and Old Lace”. A number of those folks have been lost, they were talented, talented people, but it was fun. Some people say, ‘Why do you do it’? And I said, because I get to be somebody different. It’s just fun and it’s good relaxation.”
Keith also serves on the Keep Colleton Beautiful Board and says, “I think the most rewarding thing I did was serve and chair the Colleton County Board of Disabilities and Special Needs.”
Sue says people need to be involved in the community, “Staying home and complaining is like saying I'm overweight, but I really need a donut. You got to get out there. You got to help. I would like to see is the 35- to 60-year-old folks getting involved. Yes, I know you are working. You are raising a family. You probably have at least two people in the house that are working, and you got to get the kids to school and events. But do you have one night a month? Can you volunteer this delegation meeting coming up, we have a position open on the board of voter registration and elections, probably one of the most important boards around they ensure that all the voter registration is correct, and then they supervise the elections. You don't have to do 40 hours a week. Sometimes just an hour would make a difference. If you have something to complain about, get involved and fix it.”
