Heartbreak in 'Paradise': A new look at old Hilton Head

When Nelle Smith moved to Hilton Head Island in 1963, it didn't look like a great idea.

"With only my immediate family and no friends here, I felt lonely and a little abandoned," she says in a new book.

The island had no doctor, hospital or bank. It had few residents and even fewer paved roads.

That immediate family included three small children, ages 6, 4 and 2.

Her husband, the late John Gettys Smith, had been hired by Sea Pines founder Charles E. Fraser to be head of marketing and public relations, with little experience in either, for a company with a lot of dreams but not much cash.

Her parents back in Winnsboro were worried. So were his parents in York.

It didn't help when John's mother called and the eldest child, Gettys, answered. She asked the first-grader if his mother waited outside with him for the school bus that came at 6:30 a.m.

"Oh, no ma'am," he said. "Me and Brad just throw rocks at the alligators until the bus comes."

That would be Brad Durham, now a well-known dentist.

Through it all, Nelle remained her upbeat self.

From the outset, she writes, "I, of course, was enchanted with the island and prayed that John would get the job."

Now she and her youngest child, Ora Elliott Smith, have written a book: "Paradise: Memories of Hilton Head in the Early Days."

On its 161 pages, stories of alligators at the bus stop mingle with Nelle's recollections and her late husband's writings on the first Heritage golf tournaments, the formation of a private school and a public library, the advent of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, the story of how Hilton Head became a mecca for all the greatest names in men's and women's tennis, and the nascent business community where Nelle opened the first shop in Harbour Town — Nell's Harbour Shop. It's still there. (She spelled it "Nell's" so it wouldn't always be called "Nellie's.")

The Smiths sold the shop and moved to Beaufort in 1996. John indulged his love of gardening and history as a leader in the Historic Beaufort Foundation and the Old Commons Neighborhood Association. A plaque honoring his leadership was rededicated last month on the neighborhood association's 15th anniversary.

Nelle works one afternoon a week at the Lulu Burgess shop on Bay Street and records goofy Facebook posts with owner Nan Brown Sutton called "Filmtastic Friday."

Nelle said she promised her husband that she would write this book. He died in 2009, a year after a debilitating stroke. She said he had boxes of notes and recordings to document the era.

She calls the people who took a gamble on Hilton Head in the 1960s courageous.

She tells how they aimed high and pulled together. It was a heady era when everyone made a difference, and ideas and dreams of paradise could seemingly sink or swim with each new day. She said they saw it as a chance of a lifetime, and she wouldn't trade it for a million dollars.

The wonderful times included the Fourth of July beach parties at Beach Lagoon Road, where a statue made of chicken wire and old newspapers painted in the likeness of the Statue of Liberty or, maybe Tammy Faye Bakker, set an annual theme.

But Nelle doesn't gloss over the hard times for her family, including financial reversals and tragic death.

She writes about the loss of her middle child, Spencer Smith. He grew up to be a lawyer and father of three when at age 47 he suffered an aortic aneurysm and died two days later.

"My faith was tested, but thankfully it is stronger than ever now," Nelle writes.

And then, as the book was arriving from a publisher in Chapel Hill, N.C., the unthinkable struck again.

In March, Spencer's son, Cotter Smith, died of an aortic dissection. He was only 17. His mother, Ellen Smith Carney, had moved to Summerville following Spencer's death. She had remarried and experienced the death of her second husband as well.

Cotter was healthy as a horse, doing 50-mile hikes. But after playing pickup basketball in the driveway at home, he complained of severe pain and lived only a few more hours.

Cotter was three days from completing his Eagle Scout project. His troop made the news in Charleston when it finished the job for him.

"I'm almost out of tears today," Nelle said when we talked last week. "It's one of the most difficult things I've ever faced. You don't understand it. It's out of order. You have to try to find your faith again."

She repeats Psalm 34:18: "The Lord is closest to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit."

She and Ora Elliott repeat Psalm 118:24 each day: "This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

In this odd and painful way, the book on "Paradise" has helped Nelle cope with tragedy. Book distribution and book signings have given relief from tormenting thoughts.

She said she has learned in life that eventually you will be comforted by good memories.

Like the one that closes her book. They are words by John Gettys Smith about Hilton Head of 1963, when they took their life's biggest plunge.

"The beach was virgin and so were the forests, and those who came to Hilton Head came to fit into this format, not to dominate it. They were all people with dreams, and they felt they had found them in the reality of sunny days and crystal clear nights when the billions of stars twinkled unmarked by the interfering lights of man's intrusion."

Book signings

Nelle and Ora Elliott Smith will sign copies of their new book, "Paradise: Memories of Hilton Head in the Early Days" from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 7, at The Greenery, 960 William Hilton Parkway, Hilton Head Island.

Also scheduled is a talk and book-signing at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 8, at the Heritage Library, Suite 100 of the Professional Building, 2 Corpus Christi Place, Hilton Head, 843-686-6560, but space is limited and Nelle Smith said there is a waiting list for seating.

Where to find the book: Local stores selling the books include LuLu Burgess and the Beaufort Bookstore in Beaufort; Markel's Card & Gift Shop and The Store in Bluffton; and Pretty Papers, Grayco and J. Banks Design Group on Hilton Head Island.

This story was originally published April 5, 2018 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Heartbreak in 'Paradise': A new look at old Hilton Head."