Beloved Huger resident Henry Carson celebrates 90th birthday

When Henry Carson grew up in the Huger area of the Cainhoy peninsula in the 1930s and ’40s, life was different — and a lot simpler. On a recent steamy summer morning, Henry, now 90, reminisced about his years as a young boy in rural Berkeley County.

 

“This area has come through a lot,” he said, as scores of cars and trucks whizzed by on Cainhoy Road in the distance. “Back in the day, we had no electricity, no running water. This was a dirt road.”

 

And only about five community members had cars at the time, he recalled. Most folks walked where they needed to go or rode in horse-drawn wagons. 

 

Dressed in a blue checkered shirt, tan pants and a ball cap, Henry sat pensively at a picnic table under a covered pavilion, a handsome wooden cane in his hand. You could almost see the scenes playing out in his mind as he sifted through memories of days gone by. 

 

“And Highway 41?” Henry continued. “Kids used to play on that road.”

 

Herbert Hoover was president when Henry was born in 1931 and the country was in the midst of the Great Depression. Times were tough, but the Carson family didn’t suffer as much as others. Henry’s parents, Ed and Lillian Carson, and their 11 children, learned to live off the land. 

 

“When he was younger, he certainly wasn’t cash rich,” said Henry’s daughter, Gail, who remembers her grandparents jarring and canning produce, and curing their own meats because there was no refrigeration. “But they were resource rich ... His mom had pigs, cows, chickens, turkey and geese ... They lived off what they cultivated and what they grew.”

 

Henry’s grandmother died in the early 1940s, and “being the man of the family,” his parents asked him to go and stay with his grandfather. The move took him farther away from his school and he had to walk 13 miles a day to get there and back. 

 

“It was 5:30 a.m. when I left the house, so it was dark,” Henry recalled. 

 

At age 15 he was able to move back in with his parents. He worked at a logging camp for about a year and eventually signed up to serve in the U.S. Air Force, a decision he calls one of the best in his life. 

 

“I was the first in this area to do that,” Henry said. 

 

He was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and later spent time serving in Korea. Henry returned in 1955 to marry his longtime sweetheart and former grade school classmate Mary Louise Baldwin, whom he describes as the only girl he’s ever loved.

 

“She waited for me,” he said fondly. 

 

Carson continued his military service at Charleston Air Force Base, and he and Mary would go on to have three children — James, Gail, and Henry Jr. 

 

Henry left the service in 1959, but finding work wasn’t easy.

 

“There were no jobs to be had for men of color,” his daughter Gail said. 

 

So the family packed up in the early 1960s and left Huger. They settled in Philadelphia, where Henry got a job at a Navy yard. 

 

“It was the best job I ever had,” he said.

 

Putting his children through school was his next mission. To Henry, education was paramount to success. He worked three jobs to help fund their college education, and they all went on to earn degrees, including his niece, who was living with them at the time, and his wife, Mary. 

 

After spending more than 20 years up north in Philadelphia, Henry and Mary returned to their beloved Lowcountry in the early 1980s to start a new adventure. Mary’s degree in social welfare led the couple to start a daycare center in Huger. They were licensed for 60 children. 

 

“Thirteen of those first students went on to graduate from college,” Henry said proudly.

 

A Head Start program launched at their daycare center in 1985 (the program was later housed in Huger’s Baldwin Carson Community Center, which is named after Mary). Henry served as a bus driver, picking up and dropping off students. The experience opened his eyes to the poverty in his rural community.  

 

“I saw two room houses, houses that were falling down, with lots of people living in them,” he said. “Only a few had septic tanks.”

 

Henry wished he could do something to help. He would get the chance in 1989, after Hurricane Hugo hit, devastating the Charleston region — especially the Huger and Cainhoy areas, where homes already in disrepair suffered greatly. He joined forces with the United Methodist Relief Center to assist in a widespread effort that resulted in repairing over 200 damaged homes. They were also able to provide more than a dozen new mobile homes in just eight days to residents in need. 

 

He would give back in other ways, too. The family had a catering business on the side and would routinely prepare and deliver food to those in need. In 1983, Henry and a group of about 16 other community members started meeting about the need for a place for local kids to gather for recreation and other activities. 

 

“It was really important to him growing up that children had a place to go to have fun and be safe,” said Gail, who has fond memories of the time her father would set aside weekly to spend with his kids, despite his busy work schedule. 

 

The group committed to a plan to create a new Huger Community Recreation Center and each chipped in $3 to start a fundraising campaign to make it happen. Henry’s aunt would ultimately sell them two acres of land for the project off Cainhoy Road for $2,500. The site has been host to a number of youth enrichment activities over the years and remains an active place for kids and families to gather today. 

 

And Henry, who now has four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, continues to help and give back. He’s been part of a food distribution program with the Daniel Island Rotary Club for more than two decades now, with no sign of stopping anytime soon.

 

“At 90, he still shows up!” Gail said. “He still goes to deliver food to seniors’ front doors.”

 

Last month, family and friends hosted a 90th birthday celebration for Henry with more than 200 guests, some traveling from other states to attend. The good-natured gentleman with a heart for serving clearly has made quite an impact. 

 

“Henry Carson is a person who has devoted his life to helping others in many ways,” said Daniel Island Rotary Club member Bill Stevens. “In these sadly too-divisive times, our communities, country, and world need more people like Henry.”

 

Gail credits her father’s kindness and generosity for his longevity. And his strong work ethic clearly was a big motivator for his kids. James is now a chemical engineer, Gail works for Charleston County government, and Henry Jr. is a paralegal. 

 

“My father has never been one to want to acquire things or possessions,” Gail said. “He lives a very quiet life. He doesn't need extravagant vacations. He finds joy in watching his chickens, watching his kittens play, finding some vegetables or fruits that we didn't realize were growing. He finds joy in the simplest of things.”