♪ Hello I'm Beryl Dakers.

Welcome to Palmetto Scene.

In this episode we continue our celebration of Women's History Month, as we take a look at a few amazing individuals.

Who made their Mark not only in this state, but Across the Nation.

First Dr. Linda Bell South Carolinas top epidemiologist.

Raised in El Paso Texas Dr. Bell earned her degree in medicine from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.

She then moved to Atlanta.

Where she met her husband.

Cardiologist doctor Marin Bell, before accepting a CDC position in Columbia.

Moving on to the South Carolina Department of Health and environmental control in 1993.

She quickly Rose to become the States top expert on infectious diseases, and in 2012 was Maine State epidemiologist.

Dr. Bell has been instrumental in helping our state navigate through the devastating novel coronavirus 19 pandemic.

Her guidance offered us hope and provided a sense of unity, in the fight against this dreaded disease.

Dr. Bell for many South Carolinians learning that we had a state epidemiologist came as quite a surprise.

It may be a little late to ask but what exactly does The state epidemiologist do?

Well yes the COVID pandemic has certainly brought a lot of attention to epidemiology and, what an epidemiologist does.

Epidemiology is the basic science of Public Health, what we see.

It's it's a study of how disease events health events affect populations of people.

So epidemiologist look at everything from where diseases occur geographically.

To who they affect.

The timing of diseases is often important, like when you think of seasonal flu outbreaks or things like that.

When we look at seasonality so we say in epidemiology.

We look at the who what when where of disease occurrences or health events.

It doesn't have to be communicable diseases, it can be chronic diseases, injuries all sorts of health events.

What is your background?

What led you into epidemiology, because in medicine you were actually intrunest correct?

That's right.

I did my training and internal medicine and my interest was to go into to an infectious disease specialty, and I actually had a couple of mentors where I did my training infectious disease specialist to encourage me to, to go to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention.

Telling me that I would get more out of my, I would get a better understanding of infectious diseases if I understood public health.

So I did a I had the opportunity to do a two-year appointment at the, at the CDC and that's what led me to stay in public health and epidemiology.

So did that experience working at the CDC actually come in handy now dealing with the covid-19 crisis?

It did so very much so.

My work at the CDC I, I was first assigned to the viral special pathogens Branch at the CDC, but it was in a program called the epidemic intelligence service.

So as an EIS officer, all the officers are trained in outbreak investigations.

Disease surveillance, some public policy, media relations things like that.

How to convey information to the general public about the things that we study disease threats, disease risks.

How to reduce your risk, and so my experience at the CDC was was extremely valuable.

I did one year at the CDC and then my second year with the CDC was here in South Carolina.

Was the COVID-19 epadimic predictable?

I don't know about this specific event being predictable.

But we've known and we've seen pandemics Through the Ages.

Previous flu pandemics you know we have we have witnessed those live those and in fact in public health officials have have made plans for many many years for the next pandemic, so we've known that that viruses can mutate that they can jump from one species to another usually an animal species.

They will undergo some genetic mutation.

So that they can they can be efficiently a transmitted from person to person and when a novel virus occurs.

That means no human has previous immunity to it and this is how pandemics occur.

So we plan for those potential events, how we would detect unusual illnesses, unexplained illnesses.

You run a test and you and no test is positive.

So that is a suggestion it's a novel virus and what efforts we can take two as much as possible to contain them.

Before they spread widely and we've had much more success with some previous outbreaks of Novel viruses keeping them from becoming worldwide pandemics on the magnitude that we're seeing now.

Did you anticipate that we would literally have what is it, some nearly 8000 deaths, in South Carolina?

Over 8,000 deaths yes.

Did you ever anticipate that it would go on that long, and reach that level of crisis?

I never anticipated that we see the disease levels that we saw.

I mentioned that we prepared for years for potential outbreaks what we would do how he could contain and, and I don't, I never dreamed that we would see a worldwide outbreak, a Nationwide outbreak.

What we experienced here in the United States different from what was it what you know they experienced in other countries.

No I never dreamed that we would see that here.

How has the COVID-19 virus changed your life?

The virus that causes COVID changed everyones life, and the change in my life is in in many ways was, was witnessing it unfolding from a public health perspective.

It also affected my life in a way that feeling sort of a certain responsibility, within a position with the public health authority with the state.

It meaning DHEC that there's always a sense that you felt a responsibility that there was so much more that needed to be done.

That this was an absolute urgent crisis and sort of living a crisis for, months and months on end.

Witnessing the the impact it had on different populations when we talked about the disproportionate impact of COVID on African American communities.

That personally had an impact on me being an African-American, but also having a maybe not just a sense of responsibility but an opportunity.

To, to be a different kind of voice for the African American Community, to sometimes being a position to convey messages from, you know we often talked about a trusted Source, you know wanting to hear a message from somebody that may have a similar background to you.

So that had a great effect in my life, and then just personally, the devastation.

The disease transmission, the deaths, the hospitalizations.

To see something rise to the point that it did it became a leading cause of death in our state.

What kept you grounded and what gives you cause for optimism today?

So many things kept me grounded.

The very first was my family.

My immediate family.

My husband, my children more so understanding of what I was confronted with, that what it just work hours what I was required to do the support for my immediate family was tremendous.

My mother.

Who is now deceased.

But in addition to that my public health family.

I know so many people who worked almost 365 days including and I mean every weekday every weekend Day 2 to create the data that was expected.

To do the outbreak response that was expected.

To do the investigations to just be there to respond to the needs in the community, and so, so many people gave so much, and what gives me cause for optimism is that continued Community spirit.

I think there's so many people showed up doing really making extraordinary contributions, unanticipated contributions, and I think we are seeing a renewal of maybe what we have seen in days gone by in terms of community spirit, and so that gives me optimism that coming through this hardship that we all experienced.

That I've and I'm optimistic that we will find ways to come together as a community and find out you know what we can do for the for the good of all, as communities and I'm optimistic that we are going to see those days again.

Let's play ball but as with most sports both baseball and softball May see a little delay, but former Gamecock softball great Tina Plew Whitlock who is also a former member of the US national team.

Is set to take her coaching talents to the big leagues.

Christy Mason Cox reports.

The better part of Tina Plew Whitlock's life has revolved around this bright yellow ball.

But that's about to change.

Whitlock, a Gamecock two time All American utility player with a crushing bat, helped her 1997 squad win the SEC tournament and a trip to the College World Series.

Now she's taking that big bat of hers and leaving yet another crack in the glass ceiling.

I've signed a contract to coach with the St Louis Cardinals.

That's right this former Gamecock great is picking up her bat and ball and heading into history, right into Major League Baseball, hanging with the big boys.

I would be what they call forth coach.

Yeah.

So that to me that's like a Mack Daddy coach.

You're going to be like a mom not to be a stereotype.

You're gonna be doing everything for them basically.

Right?

I think the fourth coach is a hybrid position that will allow me to do some field work.

Hit, throw pp, possibly stand under the bullpen but then also put on street clothes and go scout the game.

Whitlock was deemed a great fit for Major League Baseball as it seeks to bring more women into its ranks through a program called take the field.

A mother of two teenage boys, Whitlock grew up playing baseball in a family of boys and easily made the transition to softball, playing at the very highest levels including the U.S. national team and the pros before following her heart into coaching.

For her, sports has never been about gender but about greatness.

I think baseball just wants great minds in the game, good people, great minds and people who are experts in what, in the field and to be a part of that are considered you know one of the somebody that can be impactful in the game is a huge compliment.

If Whitlock is now the top of her game professionally, it comes after years of lessons in the wake of devastating personal loss.

He went to work and I got a call from his boss that he was taken to the hospital.

This is Tina Whitlock's only family photo with all her boys taken just before her husband Brian Kelley Whitlock suddenly died of an enlarged heart no one knew about.

In the space of just nine days, she buried her soul mate and delivered his namesake.

A woman of deep faith, Whitlock said she leaned hard into God.

I think there for a moment I didn't say anything.

I think I was there in a time of intercessory prayer.

I think a lot of people has sustained me through their prayer because I was in the moment.

And when you're in the moment, you're just, you're really just allowing God to be your strength during that time.

Left widowed in her 20's by a husband who had been her biggest fan on and off the field and now retired from pro softball, when she felt stirred to coach, she packed up her little boys and once again leaned on her faith.

You know it's funny because they were so young.

We had the chances to move to New York, I was like we're gonna be just like the birds.

God's going to take care of us.

We moved to New York, got a coaching job at Le Moyne College.

We lived in a little renovated barn.

Literally we lived in a barn.

So my kids can say they lived in a barn.

And you know I remember just telling like my adult friends, we're living like the birds.

And I never thought to think that my kids actually heard that and it was about five years ago, my son Brian said, 'Mom, remember we're living like the birds.

Don't worry!

Don't worry!

And so she didn't.

Whitlock's locks career path would lead her to coaching gigs at home and abroad.

Her little family would pack up and move as the opportunities came.

There would be a major health scare and the normal highs and lows that come with parenting.

And now the big leagues have come calling.

Though Cardinals Spring training in Palm Beach was cut short by COVID-19, for Whitlock it was just another pause during a crisis.

After all it's not the first one she's faced.

But with eyes set firmly forward and a heart fixed on faith, the past still holds tender reminders.

That's the one thing why I think I've been so emotional it's just that like I would really love to share that with him.

He would think it's so awesome.

Though he was a big Braves fan.

(laughs) Brian may have rooted for the Braves but Tina thinks it's no small coincidence, that she's coaching the Cardinals.

They say a cardinal represents a loved one who has passed, that when you see one it means they are visiting you.

As the thinking goes, cardinals usually show up when you need them or miss them most to let you know they will always be with you, that they've never really left you.

And if you're Tina Whitlock, they give wings to your major league dreams.

She is one of the nation's most successful Business Leaders.

Becoming the first woman on the cover of Fortune Magazine, and listed as one of Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business.

A testament to her achievements the University of South Carolina's Darla Moore School of Business was the very first business school in the nation to be named after a woman.

Ladies and gentlemen Miss Darla Moore.

Where we're sitting today was the happiest place of my entire life memories.

<O'Bryon> Darla Moore is one of the nation's most successful business women.

She made her mark in New York City but her heart is in Lake City, where she grew up.

<Moore> This was my grandmother's and grandfather's home.

It was originally the family's home place.

At that time it was extremely rural, all row crops and cotton tobacco, corn.

And they were educated people, which is very unusual at that time in particular in these parts.

And by that I mean college educated.

So they had a different, a little different take on the world and on life, but still very, very traditional.

And I loved the activity of farm.

It was so busy all the time.

<O'Bryon> But Moore set her sights beyond Lake City, as she moved into her teenage years.

<Moore> I started to feel rebelliousness and wanted to see the world.

I had as deep a desire to get out of the South as I had for anything else.

<O'Bryon> After the University of South Carolina, she moved to Washington DC where she worked for the Republican National Committee.

<Moore> The every two year cycle of politics became evident to me pretty quickly that, that was a pretty unstable way of living sort of feast or famine, every two years.

<O'Bryon> She made a dramatic life change.

<Moore> I didn't know what a balance sheet was when I went to business school.

So we're talking very rudimentary knowledge of what I was doing at the time, but it sounded good.

I figured I'd find something to do if I got an MBA.

<O'Bryon> And that she did.

With her MBA from George Washington University, she began in banking.

She was the first woman on the cover of Fortune Magazine and was listed as one of Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business.

They called you the toughest Babe in Business.

<Moore> Hmmm... What a Monica, right?

<O'Bryon> So, what led to that?

How did you get to that point?

<Moore> It was hard ambition, mainly luck.

Luck does play - I don't underestimate the value of luck.

<O'Bryon> America was in the era of the leveraged buyout.

<Moore> It was the most exciting place.

There was not a chance in this world a female was going to be in that play in that world.

And during this time, when they wouldn't let me play in the sandbox.

I went into an area which is almost the opposite of what the exciting part of that time was.

It was working with companies that were troubled.

I had developed a credibility in a product that was designed to work with the companies that went bankrupt.

<O'Bryon> She was also not afraid to stand up to the powerful, such as corporate raider T. Boone Pickens when his company, Mesa Petroleum found itself in financial trouble.

<Moore> One of the reasons I ended up on that cover is that deal.

Because I was the one that stood up to Boone and said, 'You gotta to go.'

<O'Bryon> After decades in New York, she began to shift her base to Lake City.

In 1998, she announced a significant donation to the University of South Carolina's Business School.

The Darla Moore School of Business became the first business school in the nation to be named for a woman.

As part of what she calls a 30 year plan, she is now leading an effort to transform Lake City.

<Moore> My hope is to help re-invent what was at one time a prosperous, southern small community.

<O'Bryon> And to do that she invested in the community and the popular Artfields that attracts 15 to 20 thousand people each year.

Her latest investment is a collaboration among her foundation, Francis Marion University, Florence Darlington Tech and school districts.

And for Darla Moore giving away money is harder than making money.

<Moore> The responsibility you feel towards the people you're trying to help, it shifts your whole mentality and your whole world view.

It's because philanthropy is investing.

I've invested massively in this state.

It crosses my mind sometimes whether, 'Oh boy!

Have I done the right thing?'

But that's what I mean by the sense of responsibility.

I've invested in my home town, in my home state, in my home college, university and other colleges.

I am long South Carolina.

A lot of...responsibility goes with that.

Enjoyed it.

♪ For more stories about our state and of course more details on the stories you've just seen.

Do visit our website at palmettoscene.org, and don't forget to follow us on social media for their Facebook Twitter or Instagram at SCETV hashtag Palmetto Scene.

We leave you tonight with the segment from our digital series From The Sky produced by Charles Dymock.

This series gives a picturesque view of South Carolina from far above the clouds.

You can catch this piece and more like it from the series by visiting our website at scetv.org.

For Palmetto Scene I'm Beryl Dakers.

Good night and thanks for watching.

♪ Towards the northwest edge of South Carolina in the county of Oconee, the Blue Ridge mountains aren't the only attraction to come across.

Lake Jocassee, a 75,000 acre reservoir outside of Salem, South Carolina is the blue jewel of the Appalachian Mountains.

The cold and pristine waters attract visitors from across the country that want to take in the predominately untouched landscape.

The enchanting peaks and serene basins are unlike anything else when seen.

From the Sky!

♪ The name Jocassee comes from an old legend about a beautiful Cherokee maiden.

Jocassee was a part of the Oconee tribe that lived on the Whitewater river.

It's said that Nagoochee, a young warrior from a rival tribe, crossed into the hunting grounds of Jocassee's tribe.

He fell and broke his leg, but Jocassee found him and nursed him back to health.

They would end up falling in love with each other but like something out of a Shakespearean play Jocassee's brother would later kill Nagoochee in battle.

Shocked upon discovering the death of her beloved, Jocassee walked into the river, but she did not sink.

Instead, she walked across the top to meet the spirit of Nagoochee who was waiting for her.

"Jocassee" directly translated from Cherokee means, "Place of the Lost One."

♪ Before there was a lake, the area was called the Jocassee Valley.

The lake was created in 1973 after the construction of the Jocassee Dam.

The resulting flood created 75 miles of immaculate shoreline in the Jocassee Gorges.

One of the best places to experience the beautiful scenery is "Jumping Off Rock".

At the precipice, visitors can get a panoramic view of Lake Jocassee and the surrounding mountain range.

The gorges receive an extraordinary amount of precipitation, averaging 100 inches of rain each year.

This is what's known as a temperate rainforest, one of only five rainforests in the entire country.

A confluence of four rivers supply Lake Jocassee's water.

The rivers course down the steep escarpment that forms at the base of the mountains creating an abundance of spectacular waterfalls.

The most impressive of all is Whitewater Falls.

There are actually six different waterfalls in what is known as the "Whitewater Falls Chain".

The chain consists of falls that start in North Carolina and end here at the lower falls in Lake Jocassee.

It's the highest series of falls in eastern North America.

The dazzling, 200-foot lower falls can be viewed from an observation deck south, where hikers can take a glimpse of the breathtaking cascade.

Like the Cherokee maiden walking on top of the river, there's something magical about the wild beauty of Lake Jocassee.

It's something wonderous to behold.

From the Sky!

♪