Sylvia Bates
Sylvia Bates may well be the individual who has lived here
for the longest period of time, in the same house on Kiawah
Island. She first came to live on Kiawah Island over half
a century ago in 1967 when she married Walker Bates, a
Charleston physician. Walker had purchased the house in
1957 from the Royal family. Sylvia lives in that house on
Eugenia Avenue today. Hers is one of a small group of homes
tucked in at the end of the road that still looks much like the
day they were built. Of course, larger dwellings have been
constructed throughout the area that overlooks the Atlantic
Ocean, but there is still much there that harkens back to a
bygone era when development had just started. Sylvia admits
to feeling ambivalent about all the growth she has witnessed
over the last five decades—happy not to have to drive to
Charleston to buy a loaf of bread or a box of nails—but
sad to watch the impact on the habitat and wildlife. With
development came paved roads, a real blessing for the Bates
who had to keep boards and shovels in their yard because
getting out was often tricky, and tourists were always getting
stuck in the mud. Sylvia also appreciated the advancement in
telephone service. When they first lived on the Island, there
were no phone lines. Dr. Bates had a mobile phone in his car,
but when it rang in the middle of the night, it caused the horn
on their car to blow, much to the chagrin of their neighbors
(the C. C. Royals). When service finally came, the Bates were
on a party line that included their neighbors and two families
they did not know who lived on Johns Island. The “wild
horses” (actually owned by Arthur Ravenel) and feral pigs
(2,500 of them according to Aston Cobb’s Kiawah Island – A
History) no longer roam the Island, but she still finds plenty
of wonders. Sylvia has loved having a bobcat saunter by her
screened-in porch and stop to “visit” for a while. She even
named the two deer who came by for years, one (who sported
a numbered ear tag) she named Momma 10 and one she
called White Nose who brought her twin fawns to rest and
nurse in her back yard. In the beginning, she and her family
also owned a house in West Ashley but spent every weekend
and the entire summer on Kiawah. Sylvia rejoiced every time
she came across the causeway and could “breathe the fresh
air” of the Island.
Jackie Bennett
Jackie first came to Kiawah in 1978 when her family bought a Greenslake cottage
on the first tee of Marsh Point (which later became Cougar Point). She and her
husband Steve moved to Kiawah full-time in 1999. Like many Kiawah residents,
their family are repeat buyers, having done some 20 real-estate transactions over
the years.
Among her family’s favorite memories is a fun Halloween hay ride on the dirt
road to the haunted Vanderhorst Mansion—obviously before the Darby renovation
of the home! Another favorite family story is the time her sister was bike riding
and what felt like a 20-pound sandbag dropped on her head. It seems a hawk had
mistaken her blonde ponytail for a squirrel and was attempting to pull her off of the
bike! After a tetanus shot and some bandages, she later returned to the bike paths,
but without a ponytail from that time forward.
Finally, Jackie’s personal favorite was the time a mama bobcat and her two
kittens were playing on the Cougar Point Golf Course green behind her home. The
mama snatched a marsh rat and brought it to each of the kittens in turn, teaching
them how to hunt (although the rat was larger than either of the kittens!), Talk
about nature in action!
WINTER/SPRING 2019 • VOLUME 41
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