The secret links between Hilton Head, RBC Heritage golf and this Vidalia onion dip

Hilton Head Island entertains this week when the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage comes to town.

None did it finer than the foundation chairman’s mother.

In fact, the cookbook “Hilton Head Entertains” is dedicated to Carolyn Bexley “Becky” Fraser, mother of Heritage Classic Foundation chairman J. Simon Fraser and wife of the founding chairman, the late Joseph B. “Joe” Fraser Jr.

I’ll share one of Becky’s favorite recipes for entertaining.

But the ingredients in her remarkable but short life that helped form the tartan fabric of today’s Hilton Head Island are more important.

We can look back now and see that in her time as a full-time islander from 1964 to her passing in 1987, she fulfilled the stated purpose of the foundation that was created that year: “To inspire the people in our region to elevate the long-term economic, social and cultural life in South Carolina.”

For Becky, you’d have to add the life of faith.

The Rev. W. Frank Harrington, who considered Becky a lifelong friend and confidante as he grew his Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta into the largest Presbyterian church in North America with 11,000 members, said, “She had the Christlike quality of giving herself away to friends, her family and to strangers who might need her help.”

And Dot O’Quinn, whose husband Donald built the Harbour Town Golf Links, where the RBC Heritage will be held from April 13-19, said, “… no matter how frustrated the rest of us got, she was always calm and soothing.”

Hilton Head institutions

The cookbook was a fundraiser for Hilton Head Preparatory School in 1991. In its dedication, the committee, headed by editor Nancy Pruitt, said they wished to produce a cookbook that would “reflect the elegance and beauty of this very special person and would be a tribute to her selfless and generous contributions for the betterment of Hilton Head Island.”

So in addition to rearing five children – with surprise baby Carolyn arriving 18 years after firstborn Joe III with Simon, West and Charlie in between – Becky Fraser gave herself to others.

She was like many islanders in her era. When she saw something that was needed, she rolled up her sleeves and got it done.

Institutions with her imprint include Providence Presbyterian Church, where she was a charter member; First Presbyterian Church, where she was president of the Women of the Church, Sunday school superintendent, teacher and elder; The Seabrook, the island’s first retirement community, where she was a founding board member; the Christian Women’s Club, which she co-founded and chaired; and Sea Pines Academy, where she was a board officer for this forerunner to Hilton Head Prep.

A good example of how her generation rolled came kicking to life one night at the old Community Playhouse. It was a fundraiser for that starving-artist forerunner to the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. It was called “Garry Moore and Friends,” sort of an islandwide talent show spiced by the humor of the radio and television star who retired to Sea Pines.

At one point in the festivities, Becky was one of 14 Orangeaiders (volunteers at the Hilton Head Hospital) who rocketed across the stage.

A siren could be heard as they exited and Garry Moore came back on. “There they go,” he quipped, “back to intensive care.”

The Frasers of Hinesville

Becky Bexley was reared on a dairy farm in Moreland, Ga.

She went to the University of Georgia with the intent of becoming a doctor. But she met Joe Fraser there, and as Joe III says, “Dad took first place for the doctor idea.”

They were married in 1949. It wasn’t an easy assignment for Becky to ease into this family of achievers and leaders in Hinesville, Ga. Her father-in-law, Joseph B. Fraser, was a military general as well as church and business leader. Her mother-in-law, Miss Pearl, had a prodigious garden highlighted by daylilies of every description. And brother-in-law Charles E. Fraser was of the bubbling mind that would create Sea Pines in 1957, and later the Heritage golf tournament, and thereby cast the die for a new Hilton Head.

“Two weeks after our marriage, my new husband left me for the first time to go with his father, and Fred Hack and others to look at Hilton Head Island,” Becky wrote in 1982.

They came to look at the island’s timber. And the Fraser, Hack and Olin T. McIntosh families ended up buying about 20,000 acres on the island, which they would timber, then try to fashion into a new community.

Soon, Becky said, she and Joe moved to Bluffton to live at Brighton Beach in a rented cottage just down the street from Stiles Harper’s grandmother and grandfather, the Tom Lawtons. Architect Ed Wiggins’ family were summer neighbors.

Joe commuted by boat to work at the Fraser Lumber Co. sawmills on Hilton Head.

“In Bluffton I learned about crabbing, shrimping, flounder gigging, oystering and, with my fisherman husband, we explored to find many fishing banks,” Becky wrote.

“Preparing these wonderful treasures of the sea was another learning experience and I was skillfully guided by a master teacher, neighbor Julie Ulmer Rhodes, who shared the secrets and skill of a long-time Bluffton family.”

‘Becky’s favorites’ and ‘Vidalia Onion Dip’

Joe and Becky moved back to Hinesville after the timbering was done. But after Charles Fraser’s wacky ideas for Sea Pines started to take off, he pressured Joe to come help.

Joe and Becky would build a home on Calibogue Cay, on the site that he and his father spent their first night on Hilton Head in an abandoned caretaker’s house.

Becky died from breast cancer in 1987 at age 58. The island has come a long way since she first saw it. Perhaps these secrets and skills of a long-time Hilton Head family can serve as our master teachers today.

The “Vidalia Onion Dip” included in the “Becky’s Favorites” section of “Hilton Head Entertains” is certainly no secret.

The ingredients are: 1 cup white vinegar; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup water; 1 tablespoon celery seed; 1 tablespoon celery salt; 3 or 4 Vidalia onions, chopped; 1 cup sour cream; 1 cup mayonnaise.

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Add the onions. Marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Drain the onions. Add sour cream and mayonnaise; and mix well.

Happy Heritage.

Get tickets for the 2026 PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage

Go online to https://rbcheritage.com/tickets.

David Lauderdale may be reached at laurderdalecolumn@gmail.com.

This story was originally published April 12, 2026 at 5:00 PM.