Old Gullah ways of Daufuskie rooted in the land

Janie Simmons said you could cry all you want at her funeral, but then go pay your property taxes.

Her funeral will be held at noon Saturday at the First Union Baptist Church on Daufuskie Island, where she was born 85 years ago.

She died March 22. This week, her baby, Clarence Simmons, dug by hand her grave at the Maryfield Cemetery.

And her son, Ervin, one of Pat Conroy’s Daufuskie students who earned a college degree in California, told stories about his mother and the fading Gullah life she knew.

Janie Elizabeth Wiley Simmons’ main message was the keep the land.

She was one of 10 children born to Richmond and Geneva Bryan Wiley on Daufuskie, the island off the southern tip of Hilton Head Island that is still accessible only by boat.

Her life was dictated by the ebb and flow of the tides.

Her father had an unusual job with the city of Savannah. Billie Burn tells us in her history, “An Island Named Daufuskie,” that Mayor W. Lee Mingleforff Jr. referred to Janie’s father as the “Commodore of the Savannah Navy.” He patrolled the harbor in a 12-foot bateau, clearing logs and flotsam from the shipping channel.

Janie’s husband was a waterman as well. But Willis Simmons Sr., like most local folks before tourists discovered the Lowcountry, did a lot of things. He hunted and fished and tilled the soil to keep his six children fed.

“My mother pushed my father to buy land,” Ervin Simmons said. “She was very good with money. She was a saver. She was very frugal with money. She taught us by opening an account for each of us at the C&S bank in Savannah.”

She was an entrepreneur, selling deviled crabs, homemade wine, eggs, grapes, plums, whatever she had. Her husband trapped animals and sold the fur. When electricity came, she had two long freezers on the porch filled with venison, vegetables and fish. She would give to those in need, but she was also a seller.

The yard was full of chickens and guinea hens, and they had hogs and cows. Clarence Simmons still has a special way with animals. They call him the bull whisperer.

She sold goods to people on the “picnic boats” run by Capt. Sam out of Savannah, bringing in gawkers at regular stops on Daufuskie.

Janie was a devout Christian, and believed in community involvement. She was active in the PTA and the Daufuskie Island Community Association. She helped found Daufuskie Day, which she thought would help islanders raise money to pay property taxes.

She was a strict disciplinarian.

“She believed children should have good manners and parents should have complete control over their children,” Ervin Simmons said.

“She reminded us that she wasn’t raising kids for the chain gang or the penitentiary. But she was loving, too. She could punish you and turn around and cook something special for you.”

Ervin got deep into social justice and thought his mother wasn’t with the times.

“We used to go back and forth,” he said. “She was a very stubborn person and she told me I had things mixed up. She was a person who never focused on race. She said to treat everyone right, to be industrious with what we had, to get a job and work hard.”

She knew the taxes had to be paid by Jan. 15, but she had the money stashed away before Christmas.

She thought losing land is something worth crying about.

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Old Gullah ways of Daufuskie rooted in the land."