Lowcountry star writes his ticket into the S.C. Journalism Hall of Fame

The Lowcountry has a new star in its crown, and it’s from the other side of the tracks.

One of the Lowcountry’s finest was inducted this month into the South Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.

Our new star is Ken Burger.

I hope you’ve heard of him. He spread a lot hope in these parts before he died in 2015 from prostate cancer complications two weeks short of his 66th birthday.

Ken Burger was a writer. He wrote newspaper columns and novels.

And he was from Allendale, our Gateway to the Bomb Plant. It’s unfortunately known less for its men of letters than the Corridor of Shame symptoms that plague the Lowcountry: poor school performance, low income, not enough good jobs and a long list of health problems.

Ken Burger seemed to glide through it all, but he didn’t.

He always looked dapper. Nobody, but nobody has ever said that about a newspaper guy.

He looked at ease. His words were at ease. They did not come across as if they’d been fashioned with sledge hammer and anvil. They flowed like the Edisto River, just as Ken Burger himself flowed out of the press tent, probably to make a tee time, while we Non Hall of Famers were just settling in to stare at our notebooks, the ceiling and empty laptop screens while digging around for that bottle of Pepcid.

Ken Burger’s bona fides are well documented. He covered news and sports from Allendale to the capital of the United States of America. But most of his words came rolling out of our own capitals of Columbia and Charleston.

And when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer six years before his death, he wrote a weekly column specifically about that journey.

In the gallows humor that binds ink-stained wretches, he pitched the prostate column to his editor this way: “It’s a helluva story if I live, and an even better story if I die.”

His column saved lives by spreading warnings, and comfort. He raised thousands of dollars through a golf tournament on Kiawah Island.

On Hilton Head Island, Ken Burger won the Arnie Burdick Media Award for his columns from the RBC Heritage golf tournament that always hit the sweet spot.

Ken Burger’s life was not all that smooth.

As he put it on the back cover of one of his books: “Born and raised in Allendale, S.C., Burger graduated dead last in his class at the University of Georgia, has been married five times, is a gratefully recovering alcoholic, a cancer survivor, and a happy man.”

He writes more about that on his Hall of Fame plaque: “Don’t forget to be happy. It’s the only measurement of success that really counts.”

Ken Burger’s words made a lot of people happy. They’re available in a collection of his columns that celebrate the South called “Baptized in Sweet Tea,” with wonderful photography by David Gentry.

It’s really a celebration of South Carolina.

It’s a celebration of the Lowcountry. The very existence of the book is a refreshing look up from the pine barrens for all who’ve been written off by statistics and addictions and various cancers of the body and soul.

“Truthfully,” Ken Burger wrote, “you haven’t lived the lower end of life until you’ve bought used tires, wrapped duct tape around a carburetor or tied up the muffler with Christmas tree lights.”

But his was a story of recovery, and dancing into the Hall of Fame with the talents God gave you.

If Ken Burger can do it, you can too.

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

This story was originally published April 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM.