Charlie Mangum House
Will Knight House
W. O. Spencer, Jr. Law Office
W. O. Spencer, Jr. Law Office
Knight Family 1957
Will and Clara Knight 1965
Clara's Crape Myrtles
Clara's Roses
Will and Clara Blackwell Knight's
50th Anniversary Celebration
50th Anniversary Cake
Clara and Will
Mr. Will in 1991
My parents, Will and Clara Blackwell Knight, moved to Chesterfield in 1941 just in time for me to start first grade. We first rented the downstairs of a house which was diagonally across the street from the Baptist church. Once while we lived there, my folks picked up a soldier who was hitchhiking, and he spent a night on our living room sofa. Some other war-time memories came when we were renting a house on East Main Street from the Hendersons. During that time there were blackouts when the sirens went off, and we turned off all the lights for practice air raids. Mother and I went to the high school gym and stood in line for rationing coupons, and Daddy rode his bicycle to work to save gas. I took piano lessons from Mrs. Henderson, and when I was eight and my mother had just brought home my new baby sister, Mrs. Henderson had a birthday party for me and gave me MacArthur, one of their baby Persian kittens, all of whom she had named after American generals. My dad worked for the Farm Security Administration, which later became the FHA. He was too old for the draft, and after the war was over, he willingly relinquished his FHA job to a veteran and started to work for Rivers Gin and Fertilizer Company. Daddy had studied Agriculture at Clemson, and he really enjoyed working with Calvin Rivers and the Chesterfield County farmers. While I was still in the elementary grades, we bought the house at 301 Main St. from the Mangums. My dad remodeled the house, putting in bathrooms and eventually tearing down the small barn and other outbuildings behind the house and building a garage in their place. We loved the scuppernong vine in the yard, and my folks made delicious preserves with fruit from the pear tree. I often sat in the porch swing listening to the woodpeckers hammer away at the pecan trees. My mother cooked many delicious meals, with my dad coming home from work for dinner at one o’clock. My Grandmother Knight, who lived with us until she died in 1945, usually made the biscuits. We seldom ate out, but we often visited with relatives who lived in Chesterfield County. Our family’s life revolved around home, work, school, and church. My folks were very involved in the activities and organizations of the Baptist church even though we lived just between the Presbyterian and Methodist churches; I was allowed to join the Methodist Youth Fellowship which many of my friends attended. Both of our parents sang in the choir, and I was thrilled when Daddy taught me to sing alto and I was allowed to join them. When my sister Sarah was old enough, she sang in the choir, too, and the choir members were practically family to my folks. My big moment of teenage rebellion came when I stated that I no longer wanted to attend Wednesday night prayer meeting. After that I was allowed to stay home on Wednesday nights, but I could not walk downtown to a movie instead! I can remember when the price of a movie ticket was only 9 cents for children under 12; after that birthday the price shot up to 50 cents. Even so, you could have a very nice evening, going to the drugstore for a coke float before having popcorn and a candy bar at the movie, all for less than $1. Times were changing even then. While I lived in Chesterfield, we went from a telephone system operated by Daddy’s cousin Mary White (we had telephone # 9) to a dial-phone system; Belk's became the first air-conditioned store in town; and Chesterfield families bought their first televisions. We could get a driver’s license at age 14. Teenagers met at the Wayside Grill and the Chat 'n Chew. In the summer we swam and picnicked at Cheraw Beach, and we had many great house parties at the Little River home of our next-door neighbors, the Brittons. We attended all 12 grades on the same school grounds. The first four grades each had a big room with a windowless “cloakroom” where we waited out air raid drills. The school library, which served as the study hall for high school, was upstairs over these four rooms. The Sanders sisters taught us to read in first and second grades; Miss Darca Hooks taught us to sing “Anchors Aweigh” and other service songs as well as “Shortnin’ Bread” and “Maresey Dotes and Doesey Dotes” in third grade; and in fourth grade Miss Kathleen Ellis brought us back down to earth with geography and homework. I remember a Memorial Day celebration during my fourth-grade year in which we marched to the town cemetery where we sang “Tenting Tonight” and placed flowers on Confederate soldiers’ graves. We finally became “big kids” and moved into the newer part of the building where the fifth-and sixth-grade rooms were uncomfortably close to the office of Miss Mertin Hursey, our superintendent. Mrs. Theo Smith started our band program in the forties. The fifth-through-seventh grade students played right along with the high school band. We got our first band uniforms, marched in parades, and went to district festivals. Band became my favorite part of school right through high school band with Mr. Douglas and Mr. Oehlert. We had a lot of school spirit and totally supported our football and basketball teams. Our girls' basketball team was particularly good, winning the district championship at one time during the early fifties. Looking back, I think that good teachers were far more important to our education than buildings or extra-curricular opportunities. A few of our excellent teachers who come to mind were Mrs. Clancy Burch, Miss Dorothy Ratliff, and Mrs. Kathryn Harmon. From my viewpoint, Chesterfield was a very supportive, caring community. My sister and I agree that we were most fortunate to grow up with our wonderful parents during that particular time, in that particular place.
Elizabeth Ann Gaddy Rivers: Betty Knight Baldwin was a very good friend of mine and an extremely accomplished musician. She was the star piano pupil of Marian Glookasin Assef, a former concert pianist, who lived in Cheraw. I spent many an afternoon at Betty's, swinging on the side porch and playing duets on the grand piano in the living room. My grandmother, Arie Parker Gaddy, lived in the house behind the Knights on Mangum Street. Mrs. Knight opened a small cloth and notions shop in the small building between the two houses.