The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 31, 2005, Page 5, Image 5
Historians ask for repair, renovation
to former president’s childhood home
mS X
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Local historians say one of President
Woodrow Wilson’s childhood homes
needs a new roof and other renovations
or it might be forced to close to the
public. The nation’s 28th president,
born in Virginia, was raised in Georgia
and South Carolina and lived with his
parents and two siblings in Columbia as
a teenager during from 1870 to 1874.
The family moved into the home, which
includes Wilson’s birth bed, in 1872.
The Woodrow Wilson house is
furnished with period 1870s furniture,
but only two of the pieces belonged to
the Wilsons, including the bed. A variety
of repairs are needed to protect the
house. Windows need to be replaced and
outfitted with film to guard the furniture
and home’s interior from sunlight,
plaster ceilings are showing cracks and
electric wiring, especially on the second
floor, needs updating. Members of the
Historic Columbia Foundation, which
maintains the Woodrow Wilson house
and three other homes in downtown
Columbia, asked Richland County
Council last week for about $5,000 for
an assessment. Councilwoman Kit Smith
said the home “is a critical part of
Columbia because we have so little left of
our history compared to many other
Southern cities,” Smith said.
If the council approves the
assessment, the renovation funding
would likely come from private
donations and federal grants, said Robin
Waites, executive director of the
Historic Columbia Foundation. Waites
said work could begin as early as July.
“The house is at a stage in its life span
where it requires a great deal of attention
— it’s never received a wholesale
museum-quality restoration,” said John
M. Sherrer III, director of properties and
interpretation for Historic Columbia.
Sherrer said the house functioned as a
single-family residence between 1872
and 1928, when it was saved from
demolition. The house opened to the
public as a museum in 1932. An
estimated 20,000 people a year visit the
four historic homes maintained by
Historic Columbia. The Woodrow
Wilson house seems to attract more out
ofTtown visitors than the others, largely
because many people make presidential
landmarks a specific destination, he said.
“With the increased focus on heritage
tourism, we hope to draw more people
into Columbia, and a structure like this
has to be able to handle that,” Sherrer
said. “It’s important to do it right
because you get great returns when you
maintain cultural assets in the right
way.”
TIM DOMINICK/THE STATE
The Woodrow Wilson house, one
of Wilson’s childhood homes,
was built by Wilson’s parents in
1872 in Columbia and is in need
of repair. Members of the
Historic Columbia Foundation
asked Richland County Council
for about $5,000 to assess the
damages.
Biracial daughter
seeking inheritance
of Thurmond estate
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLESTON — A lawyer
representing the biracial daughter of
the late Strom Thurmond says a
challenge could be filed to claim part
his estate. When Thurmond, the
longest-serving member of the U.S.
Senate, died in 2003 at 100, his will
left nothing to Essie Mae Washington
Williams, his daughter from a
relationship with a black maid who
worked at his family’s Edgefield home.
Her lawyer, Frank Wheaton, said a
challenge could follow if documents
emerge that show Thurmond
intended to leave the 79-year-old Los
Angeles woman with a portion of his
estate.
“If in fact the late senator decided
not to include her, then so be it,”
Wheaton told The Post and Courier
of Charleston. But if he did wish to
include her, “we would want whatever
the senator’s intent was ... to be carried
out accordingly.” Thurmond’s three
other surviving children are in a will
that disposes of an estate valued at
$1.48 million. That’s just under the
level where federal estate taxes are
imposed, Wheaton said. In the past,
Washington Williams has said her
decision to come forward was not
related to making a claim on
Thurmond’s estate.
Thurmond, who became one of the
nation’s most visible segregationists,
paid for the Washington Williams’
college education and made numerous
loans and financial gifts that spanned
several decades. But he never publicly
acknowledged he was her father.
“Without question, the senator
provided for (Washington Williams)
for at least 62 years,” Wheaton said.
“He loved his daughter, and his
daughter loved him.” The two
infrequently met, but Washington
Williams often wrote her father and he
would help her monetarily or in other
ways. In her recent book, “Dear
Senator,” Washington Williams says
she was frustrated by the distance
between them that was never bridged.
“Yes, he had changed, and so had the
world, but he and I had never so much
as sat down together for a meal,” she
wrote, describing her feelings when he
died.
I
Marine with potentially fatal ailment
receives new liver in 12-hour surgery
By BEN FOX
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOMA LINDA, Calif. — With little
time left before his organs would likely
fail, a U.S. Marine received a new liver
Sunday for a mysterious ailment doctors
said would kill him if he didn’t get a
transplant.
Doctors operated on Lance Cpl.
Chris LeBleu, who had been in a coma
and on life support, for nearly 12 hours
Sunday after an unidentified donor from
New Mexico was found late Saturday
night.
Doctors said the procedure went
well, said Sgt. Jennie Haskamp,
spokeswoman at Twentynine Palms,
where LeBleu was stationed. He was in
critical condition late Sunday.
In the hospital lobby, his 21-year-old
wife, Melany, found comfort in photos
of her wedding last fall, shortly after
LeBleu returned from Iraq. Despite her
fears, she has remained optimistic since
her husband’s illness was discovered
earlier this month.
Several of LeBleu’s commanding
officers, fellow Marines and other family
members huddled with his wife Sunday
as they awaited the outcome of the
operation.
Burt Parham, who is related to
LeBleu by marriage, said he expected
bad news when he got the call that a liver
had been found.
“It was kind of a worried ring, but we
were glad of the news,” said Parham,
who lives in the family’s hometown of
Lake Charles, La. “It’s a shame
somebody has to die. But I mean, it’s
God’s will, I guess. We sure have been
praying for Chris.”
The cause of the infection is
unknown. Dr. Donald Hillebrand, a
liver specialist, said LeBleu most likely
caught a virus or was exposed to a toxin
or chemical in Iraq or after his return.
LeBleu, 22, was a rifleman in Iraq for
seven months as part of a 2,200-man
task force that lost 21 people and had
nearly 200 wounded in action. His
battalion commander, Lt. Col. Matt
Lopez, said he wasn’t aware of any other
members of the unit with similar
ailments to LeBleu.
Fellow Marines call him “Blue,” and
say the Marine kept a cool head as his
160-man company guarded a base near
the Syrian border.
“He’s a real resilient guy, the most
relaxed, confident person you’ll ever
meet,” said Lance Cpl. Rob
Whittenberg, 23, of Spring Branch,
Texas.
The infection developed gradually.
In mid-December, just months after
he returned from Iraq, LeBleu told his
new wife he felt tired, a little under the
weather.
Still, he was strong enough to drive
them home to Louisiana for the holidays
from his Marine Base in Southern
California, going for 36 hours straight.
On Jan. 2, he found the strength to go
wild boar hunting with relatives.
“We kept telling him to go to a
doctor, but he said it was just a sinus
infection,” Melany LeBleu said. “Of
course, we didn’t think it was anything
major.”
Days later, he felt much worse during
the drive back to the Marine base at
Twentynine Palms. In Texas, LeBleu felt
so nauseous he had to pull over. They
made it back to their home on the base,
but he didn’t get better.
On Jan. 10, she took him to a base
emergency room, which sent him to
Loma Linda University Medical Center,
about 50 miles east of Los Angeles.
“He couldn’t keep anything down,
not even water,” she said.
As recently as Thursday, he was
jaundiced and swelling but could still
answer questions, Hillebrand said.
Within 24 hours, however, he was no
longer coherent and had to be put on life
support.
Without a new liver, his other organs
would have started to fail, his doctor
said.
About 17,500 people are waiting for
liver transplants in the United States,
Hillebrand said. LeBleu’s family and
friends had sought a liver from someone
with O-positive blood as a directed
donation, outside the usual waiting
process.
“It’s hard to see your husband in that
situation,” Melany LeBleu said. “You
can’t even describe the feeling.”
Associated Press Writers Doug Simpson
andJanet McConnaughey in New Orleans
contributed to this report.
REED SAXON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Melany LeBleu, wife of U.S. Marine Lance CpI. Christopher LeBleu,
holds her husband’s portrait while sitting next to Lt. Col. Matt Lopez,
LeBleu’s battalion commander, at Loma Linda University Medical
Center in Loma Linda, Calif., Saturday.
■ MILLER
Continued from page 1
Miller said the film might also
borrow some from “The Rocky Horror
Picture Show,” a popular cult classic
from 1975.
Miller said that “The Last Horror
Picture Show” will have a bigger budget
than “Jolly Roger.”
We have Robert Englund attached
to that he said. Englund played the role
of Freddy Krueger in the popular movie
series “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
Miller started writing film scripts
during high school. When he graduated
from USC in 1992, he began a career in
film scriptwriting.
“I got my first writing job when I was
23 with a company out of Charlotte,”
Miller said.
While the film Miller wrote there was
not produced, Miller said he had
remained optimistic.
“I finally decided I would make my
own films,” he said. “The three movies
that I made in South Carolina, I did that
for myself.”
Still in South Carolina, Miller
collaborated with Paul Talbot and Bill
Cooke as an associate producer of
“Freakshow,” and as a co-producer and
co-writer of “Hellblock 13.” He also
worked with them to write, produce and
direct “Head Cheerleader Dead
Cheerleader.”
Miller sSid that even with his career
on the rise, he noted that he still has
time to watch USC football games with
a few other South Carolinians in the Los
Angeles film industry.
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