Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden

Miss Whaley was a charming woman so it is no surprise that her memoir would be charming as well. One episode I remember her description of the teen dances where an elderly woman raucously played on piano "60 Minute Man," a popular R&B song that is still a Carolina beach music classic. She was oblivious of the song's meaning. Miss Whaley was famously opinionated. So is her book. Though I am a Charlestonian on my father's side I did not know Miss Whaley from Charleston, but as a summer resident in North Carolina's "Little Charleston," Flat Rock where she was a member of our congregation at St John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. Very fond of her and her lively memoir. She is missed.

Miss Whaley was a charming woman so it is no surprise that her memoir would be charming as well. One episode I remember her description of the teen dances where an elderly woman raucously played on piano "60 Minute Man," a popular R&B song that is still a Carolina beach music classic. She was oblivious of the song's meaning. Miss Whaley was famously opinionated. So is her book. Though I am a Charlestonian on my father's side I did not know Miss Whaley from Charleston, but as a summer resident in North Carolina's "Little Charleston," Flat Rock where she was a member of our congregation at St John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. Very fond of her and her lively memoir. She is missed.

Miss Whaley was a charming woman so it is no surprise that her memoir would be charming as well. One episode I remember her description of the teen dances where an elderly woman raucously played on piano "60 Minute Man," a popular R&B song that is still a Carolina beach music classic. She was oblivious of the song's meaning. Miss Whaley was famously opinionated. So is her book. Though I am a Charlestonian on my father's side I did not know Miss Whaley from Charleston, but as a summer resident in North Carolina's "Little Charleston," Flat Rock where she was a member of our congregation at St John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. Very fond of her and her lively memoir. She is missed.

The garden is rather incidental to the rest of the memoirs of Mrs. Whaley. A pleasant, possibly rather rose-coloured vision by a woman who by and large was extremely fortunate in her privileged life. The endflap claims that five million visitors a year pass through Mrs Whaley's small garden; even if this is an exaggeration it boggles the mind completely. One hesitates to condemn a book of this kind as a "vanity project" - the subject was, after all, eighty-six when it was written and therefore entitled to some respectful allowances - but there is a bit of that atmosphere...

Was able to view her garden on a walking tour of Charleston. Jewel of a garden. Very small garden but very well designed. Lovely little book!