The Willises in South Carolina by Margene Willis

submitted January 2023

Following is a brief account of our lives after Iowa in South Carolina, with a focus on early days and the tests of homefront pioneering. Although Bill didn’t come as a pioneer, in fact his maternal grandparents were born into slavery within 60 miles of where we now live, we both had that attitude and certainly felt the distance from family and friends, and a change of culture. Although there were over 200 Bahá’ís on the rolls in Conway when we moved here and a Spiritual Assembly had become active a few years before, the need to help consolidate the community was great. South Carolina has been described by friends who have served as international pioneers as the closest thing you can find to that experience while being in the states.

Week before Labor Day, 1988 – Our little family, Bill, our children, 8, 4 and almost 2, and I packed into our station wagon and drove to Chicago on Sunday morning so we could visit the House of Worship on our way to our new home in South Carolina. We were looking forward to Bill working at Radio Bahá’í, WLGI, 90.9 FM and our service in that area.

We arrived on Tuesday evening needing to find a place to live by Thursday. Bahá’ís had been looking, but hadn’t found anything. Affordable rentals were limited, but we finally found a townhouse in a community just south of Myrtle Beach. It was an hour and fifteen minutes from the radio station, but it was important that our family be settled before Bill and Greg Kintz, another staff member, left for a Bahá’í Radio conference in Chile. They would be gone for two-and-a-half weeks, including a visit to Panama.

We had met Greg and Ginny Kintz during our time in Iowa; they had returned from a pioneer post in Tanzania so Greg could pursue a Master’s degree in Communications at the University of Iowa. They came with their young daughter to children’s classes in Marion, Iowa, which our children also attended. While Bill and Greg were gone, Ginny and her daughters came to visit us from Conway, about 45 minutes away; such a gift of a home visit and welcome.

While Bill was gone, I got Aliyyah enrolled in school, found a preschool for Greg and worked to get acclimated. Unfortunately, I became ill with an infection and needed to see a doctor. I went to a nearby urgent care clinic which prescribed antibiotics. But I continued to feel very unwell, so shortly after Bill returned, I went back to the clinic and received another course of antibiotics. The next thing I knew, I was riding in an ambulance to the closest hospital where I was admitted in anaphylactic shock. It turned out I was very allergic to the antibiotics I had been given and had to stay in the hospital for several days. This was my first test as a homefront pioneer.

In late fall we located a rental house in Conway, which is 30 minutes from Radio Bahá’í, so we moved again. We have lived in Conway ever since. It’s a diverse community, with nearly 40% people of African heritage, many now recognized as Gullah, and 58% white. Conway had a population of just over 10,000 in 1990, but today it is over 23,000.

We learned Conway had been a site of mass teaching in the late 1960’s-early 1970’s, with over 300 people registered as Bahá’ís. However, without the training institute process yet available and no “deepened” Bahá’ís living here until the mid-1980’s, most people continued their lives as before. With the passage of time, many of these souls are now in the Abha Kingdom.

Several of the friends who worked at LGBI and Radio Bahá’í also lived in Conway, where housing was available. Some had been international pioneers and left after a time to continue pioneering in other lands. A few native Bahá’ís lamented that “Bahá’ís always leave”; they experienced many challenges from family and friends for leaving their home churches, so we determined we needed to remain here.

In 1989, a year after we moved here, experiencing our first hurricane, and it was huge! (Hugo) leading to the Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute becoming a much-needed distribution site for food, clothing, etc., which helped break down barriers that existed because of the interracial gatherings held there. Everyone needs food, and Bahá’ís were happy to be of service. We also learned there were places that wouldn’t rent or sell to us because of our family, but that could have happened in Iowa, too.

One of the highlights of Bill’s service at Radio Bahá’í was broadcasting live from the World Congress in 1992; I was able to go and sing in the beautiful mass choir. Radio Bahá’í is a constant for many people, with its positive messages and music. When we meet people (then and now) and let them know we’re Bahá’ís, many mention how much they love Radio Bahá’í, 90.9 FM with its message of “love, peace and unity.” It’s been a special joy to be able to record announcements or programs for them. Radio Bahá’í is also streaming at www.radiobahai.us so please check it out!

Our time here has included bouts of the ever-lurking depression for Bill, leading to his leaving Radio Bahá’í, but finding a newly created job with a local newspaper and finally retirement. Thankfully better medical treatment has led to Bill’s health being more stable in recent years, in spite of an added Parkinson’s diagnosis.

We were an oddity as an interracial family the first years (outside the Bahá’í community, which has had several interracial families), but over the 32 years, that has changed. Living close to the Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute also provided nurturing educational and cultural opportunities for our children and family.

While prioritizing raising our children, I was fortunate to find part-time and eventually full-time work with a federally-funded community health center, a county-wide collaborative for nonprofit organizations, and finally the local school district and university. God surely answered prayers as each of these jobs didn’t exist until I was ready, and only the last one continues. And each one allowed me to serve our community with wonderful colleagues and friends.

In 1998 Bill and I stood in line together at our local elementary school polling place, surrounded by white and black community members, wondering how they planned to vote in the state referendum to remove the miscegenation law from the state statutes. What an experience to be able to vote to make our marriage of 18 years officially legal in our adopted home. Thankfully it was repealed! South Carolina was not the last state to do so, but it was close (Alabama in 2000).

Bill and I have now been retired for a number of years and are striving to continue serving the needs of our community and the Nine Year Plan.

In October 2022 we attended the 50th anniversary celebration of the Louis G. Gregory Bahá’í Institute, which is featured in the American Bahá’í (January/February 2023, v. 54, no 1). The cover photo includes several Bahá’ís with Iowa connections: David Springer, third row, center, next to his wife, Bonnie; Ginny Kintz, back row, right of the aisle (Greg took the photo and recently retired from Radio Bahá’í, which was located behind the main group); Aliyyah, Bill and I are on the back row, right side. Al Nesmith is sitting in front of Aliyyah; he graduated from the University of Iowa and returned to Charleston in 1981, became a Bahá’í and is now one of our Auxiliary Board members, and very involved with promoting the Louis Gregory Bahá’í Museum in Charleston.

Photos:

• Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Conway, SC, 1990
• Radio Bahá’í and Louis Gregory Baha’i Institute staff, about 1992? L-R (if you want it: Dan McCoy, Laurie (CJ) Cohen, Steve Koslow & Truitt White (Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute),
• Conway Bahá’í Center, dedicated at Ridván 1995
• Bob and Mahtaj James (NC) and Bill and Marge Willis, LGBI 50th Anniversary, Oct. 2022
• Raising Capacities Conference (our cluster’s global conference), May 2022 (held at LGBI)
• Bill and Marge Willis, Louis Gregory Baha’i Institute 50th Anniversary, Oct. 2022