In her 1977 novel "Blood Red Roses," Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, who died Wednesday at 85, described her vivacious heroine Marie Boozer this way:
"She was independent, clever, bold, and yes, she would face it, a bit depraved. Not excessively so. Just a little. And there was no reason for her to grow stale; nor to live like everyone else. She would live by her own rules."
Many who knew her thought Coker was providing a touch of autobiography, and the Darlington native -- once dubbed "South Carolina's First Lady of Letters" -- never bothered to deny it. Her life, in fact, was one of moving from convention to the kind of freedom that a novelistic heroine could easily understand.
While many women half her age rested, Coker, in her mid-50s and newly widowed, zestfully pursued the career of a writer and world traveler.
In her late 60s, she acquired a shocking yellow Corvette and drove herself delightedly around the Pee Dee, a pair of dice dangling from her rear-view mirror. Some neighbors were shocked. Most shared in the author's exuberance.
She told an interviewer in 1978 that when she died, she wouldn't mind having the words, "Mama, hit those wheels!" emblazoned on her tombstone.
She could engage students by reciting poetry and the words of the greatest writers. She could also startle them by reeling off the words to several bawdy limericks.
She spent long periods in Mexico and Latin America and became an expert on the Mayan culture. She also enjoyed sending back to friends color photographs of her journeys showing the writer relaxing, surrounded by a host of smiling young men. "I believe you ought to be friendly with the natives," she told an interviewer with a laugh.
Her last novel, 'The Grasshopper King" (1981), was the first of her books to draw on her love for Mexico, telling the story of two Confederate expatriates during the romantic, doomed reign of Maximilian and the Empress Carlota.
She wrote nine novels, most of them with a familiar South Carolina setting, and most of them falling into the category of historical romances. "India Allan" took place in the old Edgefield District, and the Lowcountry was the locale for "Blood Red Roses" and "Daughter of Strangers," the latter her first book, published in 1950.
Her other books include "La Belle," "Lady Rich," "The Big Drum," "The Day of the Peacock" and "The Bees."
"She was a writer at a time when there were few writers in South Carolina," said Steve Lewis, literary arts coordinator for the South Carolina Arts Commission and a former board member of the South Carolina Authors Academy, which honored Coker last year.
"She was this state's First Lady of Letters, and South Carolina has suffered a great loss. She was a generous and delightful woman, and I will miss her very much," Lewis said.
Elizabeth Boatwright Coker was born April 21, 1909, in Darlington, the only daughter of a Purvis Jenkins, a well-to-do banker/planter, and Bessie Heard Boatwright, a mother she recalled "wore ostrich plumes in her dark red hair." She had what she said was a happy childhood and recalled herself as "impulsive, gay, generous and excessively vain."
Her earliest ambition was to be a dancer, but at 18 her father insisted she give up dancing after she won a public "Charleston" dance competition in Myrtle Beach with her partner, a local undertaker.
She also had an early interest in poetry, and her first poem written at 15 won a prize from the prestigious Poetry Society of Charleston. She continued to pursue her literary interests at Converse College, and several of her poems were published in Harper's and The Saturday Evening Post magazines.
After graduation, she took a job in New York City, hoping to make her life in writing, but she had to settle for a job modeling hats.
"I loved the glamor of it all. It was exciting, and that was the way I was," she said. She met a young man from her home state at the Cotton Club in Harlem, and they would later be married.
The stock market crash of 1929 sent her back to South Carolina, however, and there she became the wife of industrialist James Lide Coker III from Hartsville.
Though she continued to write, her life was occupied with domestic matters. She helped raise two children and savored a full social life as the wife of the president of Sonoco Products Co. of Hartsville.
It was not until 1950 on her 20th wedding anniversary that her first novel, "Daughter of Strangers," adapted from a short story written some years before, was published. It spent several weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, was a book club selection and later appeared in a paperback edition.
After the death of her husband in 1961, she turned all her attention to writing and to helping others, particularly aspiring writers.
She taught creative writing at a number of schools in the region, including Converse, Appalachian State and Coker College, and she also gave many readings for college and high school students around South Carolina until declining health forced her to slow down in the past three years.
She was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 1991 in Charleston, joining such literary luminaries as James Dickey, William Gilmore Simms, Henry Timrod, Julia Peterkin and Pat Conroy.∼HARTSVILLE, S.C., Sept. 2— Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, a writer of historical novels, died on Wednesday in Byerly Hospital here. She was 84.
Her family said she suffered a stroke last weekend, her family said.
Mrs. Coker was the widow of James Lide Coker 3d, former president of the Sonoco Products Company. She was a 1929 graduate of Converse College in Spartanburg and was a life member of the college's board of trustees.
Critics described Mrs. Coker as a romanticist who found her plots, heroes and heroines in the legends and family histories of her native South Carolina. She was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 1992 for her contributions to the state and to American culture and history.
Her novels, all published by E. P. Dutton , included "The Day of the Peacock" (1952), "India Allan" (1953), "The Big Drum" (1957), "La Belle" (1959), "Lady Rich" (1963) and "The Bees: A Story of a Family" (1968). Her first novel, "Daughter of Strangers," was published in 1950.
She also contributed poetry, essays and short stories to various magazines.
Mrs. Coker was born in Darlington on April 21, 1909, the daughter of Purvis Jenkins and Bessie Heard Boatwright.
She is survived by a daughter, Penelope Coker Hall of Millbrook, N.Y.; a son, James L. Coker 4th of Stonington, Conn., and Charleston, and two granddaughters.
"She was independent, clever, bold, and yes, she would face it, a bit depraved. Not excessively so. Just a little. And there was no reason for her to grow stale; nor to live like everyone else. She would live by her own rules."
Many who knew her thought Coker was providing a touch of autobiography, and the Darlington native -- once dubbed "South Carolina's First Lady of Letters" -- never bothered to deny it. Her life, in fact, was one of moving from convention to the kind of freedom that a novelistic heroine could easily understand.
While many women half her age rested, Coker, in her mid-50s and newly widowed, zestfully pursued the career of a writer and world traveler.
In her late 60s, she acquired a shocking yellow Corvette and drove herself delightedly around the Pee Dee, a pair of dice dangling from her rear-view mirror. Some neighbors were shocked. Most shared in the author's exuberance.
She told an interviewer in 1978 that when she died, she wouldn't mind having the words, "Mama, hit those wheels!" emblazoned on her tombstone.
She could engage students by reciting poetry and the words of the greatest writers. She could also startle them by reeling off the words to several bawdy limericks.
She spent long periods in Mexico and Latin America and became an expert on the Mayan culture. She also enjoyed sending back to friends color photographs of her journeys showing the writer relaxing, surrounded by a host of smiling young men. "I believe you ought to be friendly with the natives," she told an interviewer with a laugh.
Her last novel, 'The Grasshopper King" (1981), was the first of her books to draw on her love for Mexico, telling the story of two Confederate expatriates during the romantic, doomed reign of Maximilian and the Empress Carlota.
She wrote nine novels, most of them with a familiar South Carolina setting, and most of them falling into the category of historical romances. "India Allan" took place in the old Edgefield District, and the Lowcountry was the locale for "Blood Red Roses" and "Daughter of Strangers," the latter her first book, published in 1950.
Her other books include "La Belle," "Lady Rich," "The Big Drum," "The Day of the Peacock" and "The Bees."
"She was a writer at a time when there were few writers in South Carolina," said Steve Lewis, literary arts coordinator for the South Carolina Arts Commission and a former board member of the South Carolina Authors Academy, which honored Coker last year.
"She was this state's First Lady of Letters, and South Carolina has suffered a great loss. She was a generous and delightful woman, and I will miss her very much," Lewis said.
Elizabeth Boatwright Coker was born April 21, 1909, in Darlington, the only daughter of a Purvis Jenkins, a well-to-do banker/planter, and Bessie Heard Boatwright, a mother she recalled "wore ostrich plumes in her dark red hair." She had what she said was a happy childhood and recalled herself as "impulsive, gay, generous and excessively vain."
Her earliest ambition was to be a dancer, but at 18 her father insisted she give up dancing after she won a public "Charleston" dance competition in Myrtle Beach with her partner, a local undertaker.
She also had an early interest in poetry, and her first poem written at 15 won a prize from the prestigious Poetry Society of Charleston. She continued to pursue her literary interests at Converse College, and several of her poems were published in Harper's and The Saturday Evening Post magazines.
After graduation, she took a job in New York City, hoping to make her life in writing, but she had to settle for a job modeling hats.
"I loved the glamor of it all. It was exciting, and that was the way I was," she said. She met a young man from her home state at the Cotton Club in Harlem, and they would later be married.
The stock market crash of 1929 sent her back to South Carolina, however, and there she became the wife of industrialist James Lide Coker III from Hartsville.
Though she continued to write, her life was occupied with domestic matters. She helped raise two children and savored a full social life as the wife of the president of Sonoco Products Co. of Hartsville.
It was not until 1950 on her 20th wedding anniversary that her first novel, "Daughter of Strangers," adapted from a short story written some years before, was published. It spent several weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, was a book club selection and later appeared in a paperback edition.
After the death of her husband in 1961, she turned all her attention to writing and to helping others, particularly aspiring writers.
She taught creative writing at a number of schools in the region, including Converse, Appalachian State and Coker College, and she also gave many readings for college and high school students around South Carolina until declining health forced her to slow down in the past three years.
She was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 1991 in Charleston, joining such literary luminaries as James Dickey, William Gilmore Simms, Henry Timrod, Julia Peterkin and Pat Conroy.∼HARTSVILLE, S.C., Sept. 2— Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, a writer of historical novels, died on Wednesday in Byerly Hospital here. She was 84.
Her family said she suffered a stroke last weekend, her family said.
Mrs. Coker was the widow of James Lide Coker 3d, former president of the Sonoco Products Company. She was a 1929 graduate of Converse College in Spartanburg and was a life member of the college's board of trustees.
Critics described Mrs. Coker as a romanticist who found her plots, heroes and heroines in the legends and family histories of her native South Carolina. She was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 1992 for her contributions to the state and to American culture and history.
Her novels, all published by E. P. Dutton , included "The Day of the Peacock" (1952), "India Allan" (1953), "The Big Drum" (1957), "La Belle" (1959), "Lady Rich" (1963) and "The Bees: A Story of a Family" (1968). Her first novel, "Daughter of Strangers," was published in 1950.
She also contributed poetry, essays and short stories to various magazines.
Mrs. Coker was born in Darlington on April 21, 1909, the daughter of Purvis Jenkins and Bessie Heard Boatwright.
She is survived by a daughter, Penelope Coker Hall of Millbrook, N.Y.; a son, James L. Coker 4th of Stonington, Conn., and Charleston, and two granddaughters.
In her 1977 novel "Blood Red Roses," Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, who died Wednesday at 85, described her vivacious heroine Marie Boozer this way:
"She was independent, clever, bold, and yes, she would face it, a bit depraved. Not excessively so. Just a little. And there was no reason for her to grow stale; nor to live like everyone else. She would live by her own rules."
Many who knew her thought Coker was providing a touch of autobiography, and the Darlington native -- once dubbed "South Carolina's First Lady of Letters" -- never bothered to deny it. Her life, in fact, was one of moving from convention to the kind of freedom that a novelistic heroine could easily understand.
While many women half her age rested, Coker, in her mid-50s and newly widowed, zestfully pursued the career of a writer and world traveler.
In her late 60s, she acquired a shocking yellow Corvette and drove herself delightedly around the Pee Dee, a pair of dice dangling from her rear-view mirror. Some neighbors were shocked. Most shared in the author's exuberance.
She told an interviewer in 1978 that when she died, she wouldn't mind having the words, "Mama, hit those wheels!" emblazoned on her tombstone.
She could engage students by reciting poetry and the words of the greatest writers. She could also startle them by reeling off the words to several bawdy limericks.
She spent long periods in Mexico and Latin America and became an expert on the Mayan culture. She also enjoyed sending back to friends color photographs of her journeys showing the writer relaxing, surrounded by a host of smiling young men. "I believe you ought to be friendly with the natives," she told an interviewer with a laugh.
Her last novel, 'The Grasshopper King" (1981), was the first of her books to draw on her love for Mexico, telling the story of two Confederate expatriates during the romantic, doomed reign of Maximilian and the Empress Carlota.
She wrote nine novels, most of them with a familiar South Carolina setting, and most of them falling into the category of historical romances. "India Allan" took place in the old Edgefield District, and the Lowcountry was the locale for "Blood Red Roses" and "Daughter of Strangers," the latter her first book, published in 1950.
Her other books include "La Belle," "Lady Rich," "The Big Drum," "The Day of the Peacock" and "The Bees."
"She was a writer at a time when there were few writers in South Carolina," said Steve Lewis, literary arts coordinator for the South Carolina Arts Commission and a former board member of the South Carolina Authors Academy, which honored Coker last year.
"She was this state's First Lady of Letters, and South Carolina has suffered a great loss. She was a generous and delightful woman, and I will miss her very much," Lewis said.
Elizabeth Boatwright Coker was born April 21, 1909, in Darlington, the only daughter of a Purvis Jenkins, a well-to-do banker/planter, and Bessie Heard Boatwright, a mother she recalled "wore ostrich plumes in her dark red hair." She had what she said was a happy childhood and recalled herself as "impulsive, gay, generous and excessively vain."
Her earliest ambition was to be a dancer, but at 18 her father insisted she give up dancing after she won a public "Charleston" dance competition in Myrtle Beach with her partner, a local undertaker.
She also had an early interest in poetry, and her first poem written at 15 won a prize from the prestigious Poetry Society of Charleston. She continued to pursue her literary interests at Converse College, and several of her poems were published in Harper's and The Saturday Evening Post magazines.
After graduation, she took a job in New York City, hoping to make her life in writing, but she had to settle for a job modeling hats.
"I loved the glamor of it all. It was exciting, and that was the way I was," she said. She met a young man from her home state at the Cotton Club in Harlem, and they would later be married.
The stock market crash of 1929 sent her back to South Carolina, however, and there she became the wife of industrialist James Lide Coker III from Hartsville.
Though she continued to write, her life was occupied with domestic matters. She helped raise two children and savored a full social life as the wife of the president of Sonoco Products Co. of Hartsville.
It was not until 1950 on her 20th wedding anniversary that her first novel, "Daughter of Strangers," adapted from a short story written some years before, was published. It spent several weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, was a book club selection and later appeared in a paperback edition.
After the death of her husband in 1961, she turned all her attention to writing and to helping others, particularly aspiring writers.
She taught creative writing at a number of schools in the region, including Converse, Appalachian State and Coker College, and she also gave many readings for college and high school students around South Carolina until declining health forced her to slow down in the past three years.
She was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 1991 in Charleston, joining such literary luminaries as James Dickey, William Gilmore Simms, Henry Timrod, Julia Peterkin and Pat Conroy.∼HARTSVILLE, S.C., Sept. 2— Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, a writer of historical novels, died on Wednesday in Byerly Hospital here. She was 84.
Her family said she suffered a stroke last weekend, her family said.
Mrs. Coker was the widow of James Lide Coker 3d, former president of the Sonoco Products Company. She was a 1929 graduate of Converse College in Spartanburg and was a life member of the college's board of trustees.
Critics described Mrs. Coker as a romanticist who found her plots, heroes and heroines in the legends and family histories of her native South Carolina. She was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 1992 for her contributions to the state and to American culture and history.
Her novels, all published by E. P. Dutton , included "The Day of the Peacock" (1952), "India Allan" (1953), "The Big Drum" (1957), "La Belle" (1959), "Lady Rich" (1963) and "The Bees: A Story of a Family" (1968). Her first novel, "Daughter of Strangers," was published in 1950.
She also contributed poetry, essays and short stories to various magazines.
Mrs. Coker was born in Darlington on April 21, 1909, the daughter of Purvis Jenkins and Bessie Heard Boatwright.
She is survived by a daughter, Penelope Coker Hall of Millbrook, N.Y.; a son, James L. Coker 4th of Stonington, Conn., and Charleston, and two granddaughters.
"She was independent, clever, bold, and yes, she would face it, a bit depraved. Not excessively so. Just a little. And there was no reason for her to grow stale; nor to live like everyone else. She would live by her own rules."
Many who knew her thought Coker was providing a touch of autobiography, and the Darlington native -- once dubbed "South Carolina's First Lady of Letters" -- never bothered to deny it. Her life, in fact, was one of moving from convention to the kind of freedom that a novelistic heroine could easily understand.
While many women half her age rested, Coker, in her mid-50s and newly widowed, zestfully pursued the career of a writer and world traveler.
In her late 60s, she acquired a shocking yellow Corvette and drove herself delightedly around the Pee Dee, a pair of dice dangling from her rear-view mirror. Some neighbors were shocked. Most shared in the author's exuberance.
She told an interviewer in 1978 that when she died, she wouldn't mind having the words, "Mama, hit those wheels!" emblazoned on her tombstone.
She could engage students by reciting poetry and the words of the greatest writers. She could also startle them by reeling off the words to several bawdy limericks.
She spent long periods in Mexico and Latin America and became an expert on the Mayan culture. She also enjoyed sending back to friends color photographs of her journeys showing the writer relaxing, surrounded by a host of smiling young men. "I believe you ought to be friendly with the natives," she told an interviewer with a laugh.
Her last novel, 'The Grasshopper King" (1981), was the first of her books to draw on her love for Mexico, telling the story of two Confederate expatriates during the romantic, doomed reign of Maximilian and the Empress Carlota.
She wrote nine novels, most of them with a familiar South Carolina setting, and most of them falling into the category of historical romances. "India Allan" took place in the old Edgefield District, and the Lowcountry was the locale for "Blood Red Roses" and "Daughter of Strangers," the latter her first book, published in 1950.
Her other books include "La Belle," "Lady Rich," "The Big Drum," "The Day of the Peacock" and "The Bees."
"She was a writer at a time when there were few writers in South Carolina," said Steve Lewis, literary arts coordinator for the South Carolina Arts Commission and a former board member of the South Carolina Authors Academy, which honored Coker last year.
"She was this state's First Lady of Letters, and South Carolina has suffered a great loss. She was a generous and delightful woman, and I will miss her very much," Lewis said.
Elizabeth Boatwright Coker was born April 21, 1909, in Darlington, the only daughter of a Purvis Jenkins, a well-to-do banker/planter, and Bessie Heard Boatwright, a mother she recalled "wore ostrich plumes in her dark red hair." She had what she said was a happy childhood and recalled herself as "impulsive, gay, generous and excessively vain."
Her earliest ambition was to be a dancer, but at 18 her father insisted she give up dancing after she won a public "Charleston" dance competition in Myrtle Beach with her partner, a local undertaker.
She also had an early interest in poetry, and her first poem written at 15 won a prize from the prestigious Poetry Society of Charleston. She continued to pursue her literary interests at Converse College, and several of her poems were published in Harper's and The Saturday Evening Post magazines.
After graduation, she took a job in New York City, hoping to make her life in writing, but she had to settle for a job modeling hats.
"I loved the glamor of it all. It was exciting, and that was the way I was," she said. She met a young man from her home state at the Cotton Club in Harlem, and they would later be married.
The stock market crash of 1929 sent her back to South Carolina, however, and there she became the wife of industrialist James Lide Coker III from Hartsville.
Though she continued to write, her life was occupied with domestic matters. She helped raise two children and savored a full social life as the wife of the president of Sonoco Products Co. of Hartsville.
It was not until 1950 on her 20th wedding anniversary that her first novel, "Daughter of Strangers," adapted from a short story written some years before, was published. It spent several weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, was a book club selection and later appeared in a paperback edition.
After the death of her husband in 1961, she turned all her attention to writing and to helping others, particularly aspiring writers.
She taught creative writing at a number of schools in the region, including Converse, Appalachian State and Coker College, and she also gave many readings for college and high school students around South Carolina until declining health forced her to slow down in the past three years.
She was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 1991 in Charleston, joining such literary luminaries as James Dickey, William Gilmore Simms, Henry Timrod, Julia Peterkin and Pat Conroy.∼HARTSVILLE, S.C., Sept. 2— Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, a writer of historical novels, died on Wednesday in Byerly Hospital here. She was 84.
Her family said she suffered a stroke last weekend, her family said.
Mrs. Coker was the widow of James Lide Coker 3d, former president of the Sonoco Products Company. She was a 1929 graduate of Converse College in Spartanburg and was a life member of the college's board of trustees.
Critics described Mrs. Coker as a romanticist who found her plots, heroes and heroines in the legends and family histories of her native South Carolina. She was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 1992 for her contributions to the state and to American culture and history.
Her novels, all published by E. P. Dutton , included "The Day of the Peacock" (1952), "India Allan" (1953), "The Big Drum" (1957), "La Belle" (1959), "Lady Rich" (1963) and "The Bees: A Story of a Family" (1968). Her first novel, "Daughter of Strangers," was published in 1950.
She also contributed poetry, essays and short stories to various magazines.
Mrs. Coker was born in Darlington on April 21, 1909, the daughter of Purvis Jenkins and Bessie Heard Boatwright.
She is survived by a daughter, Penelope Coker Hall of Millbrook, N.Y.; a son, James L. Coker 4th of Stonington, Conn., and Charleston, and two granddaughters.
Inscription
ELIZABETH BOATWRIGHT COKER/ DAUGHTER OF/
PURVIS JENKINS BOATWRIGHT/ AND/ BESSIE HEARD/
APR. 21, 1908/ SEPT. 1, 1993/
"Even now the silk in tugging at the staff;/
Take up the song; forget the epitaph."/
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