 I am Charmaine Clowney. I am the chair of the South Carolina African-American Heritage Commission, and I'd like to welcome you to the history-making Columbia, South Carolina, marking and veiling, celebrating the life and legacy of acclaimed Gilded Art Model, Gilded Age Art Model, Ms. Hedy Eugenia Anderson. I'd also like to introduce our vice chair, Dad Daze, who is also here. Rich hand, Dad. Dad and I would like to especially thank Ms. Karen Strickland, our former chair for making this happen. I hadn't a clue about Ms. Anderson until I read about her in the New York Times, and Karen did a lot of research for that. Many thanks to Dr. Breeden, who is here from the South Carolina Department of Archives, Dr. Eric Emerson of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, and much thanks to Mayor Rickerman. I'm a big fan, and the ladies at Greenview just adore him, including my 95-year-old mom, and Mayor Pro Tem Edward McDonnell Jr., and a special shout-out to Ms. Lashia Yuzzi-Boys. Did she do a lot of work of the city's PR office and Kenya Lane? They made this marker. She and her aunt made this covering for the marker. Thanks for your assistance. Thank you also for Father Raphael for being here, any other dignitaries, and Woe Gregg, I just met you, of the Columbia Coin Club and Elizabeth Johnson of the Archives and History, and if I miss anybody else, I'll have to take you to lunch. So, thank you for being here. We're gonna follow our program, and Karen Strickland is a genealogist who really made this happen. Before I became chair, she's gonna give a brief history of Ms. Anderson. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Karen Strickland. I'm a professional genealogist and the former chair of the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission. Even though our primary purpose is to promote public awareness of building sites and structures that reflect the state's African American heritage, we also recognize historical figures associated with them. Harriet Hedy Eugenia Anderson was the most recognized artist of the Gilded Age. Now, this was a time in history known in part for the immense wealth of the few. Born in Columbia, she was the first female African American artist of her generation. Hedy also became popular and to well-known sculptures, such as Daniel Chester French, who created the Lincoln Memorial. He used her for the spirit of life. And Augusta St. Godin, who created the William Tecumseh Sherman Monument and the $20 Gold Coin, used her as a model as well. Now, these artists and more hired Hedy as a model for much of their work. She was in great demand as a model and for a time could choose which artist she wanted to avail. However, somehow time forgot about Hedy. Although unknown by many today, she made a significant impact in the world of art. She was known as Hedy in most historical documents, but the family called her Cousin Tooty. I feel like I've known Hedy all of my life, even though it was formally introduced to her in 2020, when Eve Kahn, an art journalist from New York, asked me for research assistance. Under where then, Hedy and I had similar parallel with upbringings in Columbia. Belonged to the same church as her family who organized St. Lucificable Church, located in the historic Waverly neighborhood, I knew of friends and had family living in her community here in Arsenal Hill. As a matter of fact, I have a lifelong friend whose grandfather lived just one block away from Hedy's home. Hedy probably attended the same grade school as my mother and my great uncle, Howard School. And that was just steps away from where we are. Hedy lived in this block with her mother, Caroline. It was a seamstress before moving to New York City. While there in 1899, Caroline Scott, Hedy's mother, gave her the property where she grew up as a child. And social ills may have caused Hedy and her family to move to New York City in the late 19th century. But we feel once you're Colombian, always a Colombian, right? Now, the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission has worked towards this South Carolina historical marker, and that would make Hedy proud. Her descendants, Wallace McCamble, Cathy Vance, and especially Willow Hagans, appreciate your efforts. Now, also want to thank Will Greg of the Midlands Coin Club. He's the president and the South Carolina Numismatic Association for their support. So thank you everyone for coming. Well, I guess it is afternoon. So good afternoon, everyone. What another great day. You know, it's incredible as we look at the history. And first of all, I wanna start off thanking the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission for making sure that we're constantly bringing forth the history and sharing with our community. I think one thing that I love about Colombia, South Carolina is that we have a beautiful history and we talk about it and we celebrate it. If it's SC63, it's the revitalization of the Waverly Hospital as Reverend McDowell and I are working on trying to redo the Royal Motel and create and preserve these opportunities here in our community to depict our history. But to celebrate a woman like Ms. Hedy Anderson for who she is and letting make sure that our community doesn't forget who are the true Colombians. As you said, everybody is a Colombian and they stay a Colombian. But it's a great opportunity for us to continue to celebrate these histories, make sure that the stories aren't forgotten. As Dr. Donaldson, every time I run into him, I learn another fact about Colombia, South Carolina. I learn more about the history and the fact that we're starting to make sure that we're taking both the oral history and the written history and make sure it's documented and being part of it. I hope that we have more and more markers so that we can continue to celebrate the lives and the traditions and the accomplishments of people that were here in Columbia, South Carolina and especially in this community. And with that, I'd like to turn over the microphone to Edward McDowell, representative of District 2 right here, Mayor Pro Tem, my friend, former Reverend. The list goes on when you're doing the Introducing Ed but thank you. Thank you, man. What a delightful day it is in the city of Columbia to look at this and to look at this marker. About six months ago, my friend, Mike Smith, called me one day and said, Ed, I need you to Google Hedy Anderson. I said, who is that? He said, just Google that and read something about her. And of course I did. And I was tremendously amazed at what I read. I am extremely excited about what we're doing here today. One of the things that I read about this sister of ours was that she was often called the most beautiful person in the United States, isn't that right? And of course when I viewed pictures of her, it was amazing. I sat there and I asked my wife, look at these pictures. She said, why are you looking so hard? I'm excited about this for this city of ours to unveil this historical marker. And of course, a member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church right around the corner from my house. Isn't it amazing that this woman, this sister of ours, wore many hats. And of course, one of those hats was to come back home and to reside in this city. This city of ours is filled with African-Americans and the history that is embellished and rooted in this city of ours. So we celebrate the day. We celebrate her beauty. We celebrate her modeling activities and we celebrate her being in Columbia. Thank you so much, thank you so much. It is amazing. Thank you. Hey, thank you. Boy, that's a hard act to follow. Don't ever follow a preacher, right? I guess now we will have the unveiling. What's that? Edward, oh, Edward, Edward, how can I forget you? Edward, there you are, you make things happen. I'm just overwhelmed. I'll do my best to follow that. Good afternoon, my name is Edwin Breeden. I work for the South Carolina Department of Archives and History where I serve as the coordinator for the state historical marker program. And I'm extremely grateful to the African-American Heritage Commission for inviting me today to help celebrate this latest addition to our program. The South Carolina Historical Marker Program began in 1936 and since then, there have been just under 2,000 of these markers approved by our agency and erected all across the state. Now our office, we oversee this program, we approve all new markers, but pretty much any marker that you see standing up along the side of the road somewhere, it was originally proposed, it was funded, it was installed, and it's being maintained, not by us, but by outside sponsoring organizations, groups all across the state who choose to participate in our program and really take on the lion's share of the work that goes into making one of these markers a reality. So we're constantly indebted to those sponsors for seeing value in our program and choosing to participate in it and really making it what it is. Cause it's really only through their proposals that we're able to teach people about South Carolina history through these markers. And so today we are specifically grateful to the South Carolina African-American Heritage Commission for putting forward this really wonderful proposal for a new marker here at the site of the childhood home of Hedy Anderson. And this is really an exciting addition for our program and it was an extremely just well done proposal. For our program, it really all comes down to place. There are lots of topics out there that are important and worthy of greater attention and that are worthy of greater public awareness. But if they can't be tied back to a specific location, a specific place, then it can be difficult to make them fit with our program. Cause our core mission is really to use South Carolina as historically significant places as a tool for teaching people about its history. And so the proposal that we received from the commission, not only had they identified a compelling story in terms of Hedy Anderson's life story, but they had documented her connection this place so clearly that it was just an excellent fit for our program. And really for us, it gives us the privilege of being able to help tell her story through this marker. So we're extremely grateful to the commission for all of their work on this, especially Ms. Strickland for all of her diligent research as well. So on behalf of the Department of Archives and History, I'd like to express our gratitude to the South Carolina African-American Heritage Commission for putting up this marker and bringing attention to an important piece of South Carolina history. So thank you all very much. Thank you. All right, and now for our unveiling. It is beautiful. And we all can look at it, view it, and I have some closing remarks. We have concluded our unveiling. I'm not gonna read it. I want everybody to go up and read it. And I'd like to really thank everyone, each and every one of you people I haven't seen here. Dr. Donaldson is here, Judge Strickland's here, and thank everyone for coming to this wonderful and marvelous historical event. Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it.