The College of Arts and Sciences is proud to recognize Elizabeth H. "Betty" Stringfellow for her contributions to the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA) and the University of South Carolina. Betty first became interested in the field of archaeology during her childhood on Johns Island, where she enjoyed spending time picking up bits of history in the form of spearpoints and old coins. Although Betty went on to graduate from Winthrop College in 1942, she never forgot her Lowcountry roots and the area of the state she held close to her heart. While residing in the District of Columbia with her late husband in the 1970s, Betty transcribed the first documents of an extensive private archive on Johns, Seabrook, and Kiawah Islands. Now settled on Johns Island in the Seabrook-Andell House which she restored, Betty is a sought-after lecturer and an active participant in community affairs. She is the author of two books "A Place Called St. Johns: The Story of St. Johns, Edisto, Wadmalaw, Kiawah, and Seabrook Islands of South Carolina" and "Betty Stringfellow's Stories and Legends of Johns Island, South Carolina." She has also produced a CD that she narrates called "The American Revolution: Johns Island, Kiawah Island, and Seabrook Island."

Betty first became involved with the University of South Carolina and the SCIAA in 1988 when the Charleston Museum requested that archaeologist Tommy Charles visit her to assist with identifying artifacts that Betty had found on her Johns Island property. Since that time, she has become close friends with Tommy and very involved with SCIAA.

Through her involvement with SCIAA, Betty became intrigued by the archaeological research of Tommy Charles and Al Goodyear. After viewing artifacts and participating in several digs, she became even more supportive of their research and set up an endowment in 1999. Half of the earnings from the Elizabeth Stringfellow Endowment Fund have been used to support Albert Goodyear's Paleoamerican research, and the other half support Tommy Charles' research in the Piedmont of South Carolina.

SCIAA has had the pleasure of benefiting not only from Betty's generosity, but also from her delightful personality. She is often described as humorous, spry, independent, a true character, and an exceptional person. Tommy Charles had this to say about her: "Betty has contributed funding for my projects for some time, but if she had never given a dime, I would still think of her as one of the most caring and wonderful people that I have had the pleasure of knowing. She is a joy." The faculty and staff of SCIAA and the College of Arts and Sciences are certainly lucky to have found such a friend.

The other half of funds from the Endowment have been used in Albert Goodyear's research to help date the Topper archaeological site in Allendale, South Carolina, and, also, provide for travel and consultation of key scientists working on proving the antiquity of Topper. All of the OSL dates on the Topper sediments were paid for by this fund, including the preClovis dates of 14,000 and 15,000 KA, dates that showed that the preClovis occupation of Topper was at least that old. This Fund also supported obtaining a professional land survey of the Topper site for its site grid and topographic elevations that is critical to reconstructing the relative ages for the Pleistocene terraces. Funds were also used to OSL date the Clovis and preClovis age sediments of the Nipper Creek site near Columbia, a site that may potentially have preClovis occupations. The latter results showed through OSL dating that a thick layer of sediment accumulated some 16,000 years ago, a valuable finding since there was no charcoal preserved for radiocarbon dating. Most recently, funds were used to pay for digital microscope services at Texas A&M for a study on the proposed preClovis tools from Topper. This study is still underway and is providing very encouraging results on microwear evidence of the artifact edges as predicted if they were actually used as tools.

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