By Mike McCombs
The Island News
“There must be something very controversial on the agenda tonight, because there’s never this many people in the chamber,” Billy Keyserling joked at the Beaufort City Council meeting Tuesday night, June 10.
Keyserling knew it wasn’t true when he said it. By that time, he’d already been presented with the Order of the Palmetto, the state of South Carolina’s highest civilian honor, by S.C. Rep. Shannon Erickson.
Before presenting Keyserling with the award, Erickson related the impact he once had on her now grown child.
“I remember when he visited our then second grader at Lady’s Island Elementary School and told stories about growing up on the water and playing in the pluff mud,” she said. “And they came home and said, ‘We don’t know who he was. He was really important and his name was Mr. Billy. But he loves this area and we can’t cut down trees.’ Those things stick with children.”
Erickson then touchd on some of Keyserling’s impact on the community in business, the arts, real estate and especially education.
“I don’t know how many lives you’ve touched with your good works and common sense, but it’s been extraordinary,” Erickson told Keyserling.
Then Erickson got down to the nitty gritty.
Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling poses with City Council and others for a photo. Amber Hewitt/The Island News
“Billy, it’s an honor that I got the opportunity to do this for you,” Erickson told him at the podium in front of a packed City Council chamber. “I asked the Governor, and it was Henry (McMaster) and I know he’s a friend (of yours), and it meant a lot to him that he got to do this. The state of South Carolina is better because of you. The Beaufort community, our entire region is better because of you. Your work, your personal touch and your big heart, they have carried so many incredible lessons for all of us.”
“These guys all feel how big your shoes are.,” Erickson said, gesturing to the sitting City Council. “You left a big legacy but also a lot of people who want to live up to what you set the stage for.”
Then she officially presented him with the framed certificate.
“William Keyserling, The Order of the Palmetto,” Erickson read. “This is the state’s highest civilian honor given by Henry McMaster, … and I’m very honored that you allowed me to be the one to present it to you and to be with you tonight in a special place. From all of us, Thank you.”
As Keyserling prepared to speak upon receiving the honor, he joked that he was taking his hearing aids out for Edie Rodgers, the former Republican state representative from Beaufort, so that he would talk louder so that she could hear him, purportedly always a problem.
“This is the first time I’ve been in the Chamber since I left because I thought, … and I haven’t been back to the, [Shannon Erickson] invited me to the House and I haven’t been back in the House because I think you don’t look over your shoulder and you admire people for what they do rather than use your experiences to criticize them or to direct them. So when you move on you move on,” Keyserling said. “But when I was asked where I wanted to receive this and who I wanted to present this, it was Shannon, and it was in this chamber, because we built this chamber when I was mayor and this chamber really was my second home. This chamber and this city have been the love of my life.
“George O’Kelley, Gary Fordham, Mike Sutton, Nan Sutton … Mike McFee is still praying … but this was my family … I see Bill Prokop here, I could go through so many names. This was a great honor for me, and this will always be my home because I think we have, and I’ve always said, the best hometown in the world, and we can continue to do that.
“My old roommate from 45 years ago, the former Mayor of Charleston, John Tecklenburg came down, who was a fabulous mayor there, and then [Scott Richardson], this man, and Ms. Rodgers, was really a turning point in my life. When I first went to the legislature, Scott had just been elected. He was from Hilton Head and he was chair of the Republican Party. And to that point, I was pretty much identified as a Democrat, as a progressive Democrat. But we decided that it was best for Beaufort County, even though I think we were both very … we planned to distrust each other, we planned not to get along with each other, but we decided to sit together. And I must say that the four years that we were there together, we had dinner together almost every night. And he got in trouble, because he was hanging out with me, and I got in trouble because I was hanging out with him, but what we found as we got to know each other, there wasn’t much we disagreed on when it came to Beaufort. There’s some philosophical issues tied to parties, but quite frankly, particularly today, I think parties have become so irrelevant. And that two people who planned on not trusting each other became lifelong friends and were able to accomplish things for Beaufort County is a lesson about where we are in this world today.”
Keyserling is the son of two prominent Beaufortonians – Dr. Herbert Keyserling and Harriet Keyserling, the first woman to serve on the Beaufort County Council and a 16-year member of the S.C. House of Representatives. He was the Mayor of the City of Beaufort for three terms, from 2008 to 2020.
He is the founder and was interim director of Second Founding of America: Reconstruction Beaufort, a nonprofit organization and philanthropic partner of the National Park Service. Its goal is to assist in uncovering, telling, and celebrating the untold stories of the Reconstruction Era.
A two-term member of the S.C. House of Representatives, Keyserling spent 16 years in various positions in the offices of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
