Anemone Garden Club honors Veterans

Four members of the Anemone Garden Club, Gwen Harden, left, Betty Harden, Sunny Turner and Lea Weed, stand in front of the Fairfield County World War II memorial with a basket of Daffodil bulbs they are selling to raise funds for a brick memorial to Fairfield WWII veterans.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY – Fairfield County veterans, past and present, will be honored with an engraved paver stone in the Garden Club of South Carolina Memorial Garden in Columbia. Sheree Welsh, president of the Anemone Garden Club said the club members will be selling daffodil bulbs this fall to fund the project.

“Winnsboro has a close connection to the historic memorial garden through Sarah Porter Smith Boylston (1871-1963) who donated the land for the memorial garden in 1946 from her personal garden,” Peggy Little, Memorial Garden, trustee chair, said. 

Sarah was married in 1909 to Samuel Shoemaker Boylston, a Winnsboro businessman.  They made their home in the Caldwell-Hampton-Boylston House in Columbia.  Both Sarah and Samuel are buried in Sion Presbyterian Cemetery in Winnsboro. 

Famed landscape architect, Loutrel W. Briggs designed the garden to give the impression of a cathedral.  “This was the first garden in the United States to honor World War II veterans,” Little said. 

The garden provides a place of dignity and serenity for the citizens of South Carolina.  Additionally, the garden hosts ceremonies, weddings and special events.

For more information on honoring your veteran, contact Peggy Little at [email protected].

Contact us: (803) 767-5711 | P.O. Box 675, Blythewood, SC 29016 | [email protected]