By Luke Frazier
The Island News
The idea of being a “pillar of the community” is more likely to be associated with an elected official, someone who owns a lot of local real estate, or perhaps a person with a high profile position at a large institution. What might be called big wigs.
Consider instead that it might mean a person who has proudly served many thousands of military and civilian customers for decades as a provider of a specialized service. This specialized service not only makes things fit but helps individuals feeling positive, even joyful, at Marine Corps ceremonies and special events of all kinds.
That is also being a pillar of the community.
The case in this point is tailor Linda Ferguson, 70-years-young and operator of Laurel Bay Tailor Shop for the past 30 years. To get to her shop from downtown you’ll pass by high-end businesses, expensive homes, City Hall and county offices and eventually make a left at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort onto Laurel Bay Road.
Follow that road for about three miles, past the storage units, two modular home communities, a gymnastics academy, and there it sits, part of a one-story concrete block building and right next to Pastor Josephine Brown’s House of Deliverance.
Linda started her sewing career at a textile plant in Walterboro, where she was born, raised, and still lives. She learned to sew because her mother needed help.
“You’ve got to have the passion to want to do something, if you love something you’re going to do it.”
“I’m the oldest of seven girls, and my mom had to figure out something about how she was going to clothe [all her] girls,” she said.
That solution was Linda, and after lessons from an aunt, she took to sweing quickly.
After the plant work and brief stints at Parris Island and MCAS Beaufort, she opened the business and started building it up to the community anchor locals know it as today.
Inside there are at least four sewing stations, racks of military uniform pieces, a few fancy gowns, and piles of clothes just about everywhere. A glass case serves as a counter and is filled with artificial flowers. But make no mistake, this is a workspace where things get done and people leave happy. And that’s why Linda does it.
“I love it, that’s why I’m still here … it’s just me doing the service and then seeing the happiness on [customer] faces and knowing that they love the work that I do,” she said.
Linda says she used to sew various kinds of things, such as matching Walterboro Rice Festival costumes for her three sons (so she could spot them in the crowd) but has gradually moved away from personal projects.
Now she primarily sticks to custom alterations, though she is still up for challenges that curtains, leather fabrics, or zippers might present.
Of her three boys, the oldest and youngest (Vernon and Christopher Maurice, respectively) both served in the U.S. Army for several years. She enjoys her six grandchildren — four girls and two boys — and one great grandbaby.
When asked what she liked to do when not working, she mentioned having gone to local fashion shows in the past and swing dancing.
“Well, I love to dance … disco a little bit but mainly swing to the old school [music]”
Linda says she plans to continue working as long as her health holds up, turning that into advice for others.
“As long as you can work, keep going, cause that’s the part that energizes you to keep moving.”
As Linda reflects on her decades as a tailor, she recognizes that it is not a career many young people pursue. She wraps this thought into a larger philosophy about life.
“You’ve got to have the passion to want to do something, if you love something you’re going to do it.”
What Linda Ferguson has managed to do all these years is sew that love and passion right into the clothes satisfied customers wear with pride.
Luke Frazier is a writer and award winning media producer who moved to the Lowcountry in 2024. He runs NOW Communications and can be reached at nowandfuturecomms@gmail.com.
