Book covers life and times of Port Royal resident
Published Sun, Aug 29, 2004
By DEBBIE RADFORD
Gazette Lifestyles editor
Hilton Head Island author Deonne Parker's first book in a trilogy about her mother and her aunts began with questions.
Her book, "A Life in the Low- country: Lilla DeLoach Haltiwanger, A Survivor, With the Help of God and Bunny Fischer," appeared on store shelves in July. It was published by Chinaberry Publishing, a company begun by Parker and her husband, Lynn Castner, both retired attorneys from Minnesota.

"We knew I might never find a publisher for these books, so we created our own publishing company and hired a friend to be a copy editor," Parker said.

The book is the life story of a 90-year-old Port Royal resident whose spirit was never broken. A child of a family challenged by hardship and the killer flu of 1919, Lilla found true love, then suffered widowhood twice and the death of a son.

Living a day at a time with her faith in God, the help of her sons and caring people of small town South Carolina, Haltiwanger is truly a survivor.

Among the places she lived in the 1940s was 807 North St., designated a historic landmark and soon to be renovated by Historic Beaufort Foundation.

Parker said, "My aunt, Marguerite, died, and I was writing about her, but I found I had huge holes in my story. So I began to interview her sister, Lilla, who is full of answers and has her own full history. Her memory is so good -- it's just amazing."

Haltiwanger was able to give Parker lots of information.

"When we would visit Hilton Head, before we moved down here permanently, I used to go and spend time with Lilla," she said. "I would visit and she'd tell me all this stuff, and I would think, 'I should write this down.'"

So Parker suggested to Lilla that she would write her story.

"She liked the fact that I was going to write about her, but she was embarrassed and didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings. She said she was just a wrinkled old lady who had had fun, suffered and had a life."

Parker would give Haltiwanger free rein in her storytelling.

"She couldn't be led along really well. It was hard to keep her on topic," Parker said, noting that she reviewed each story with her aunt.

"She was a stickler for facts," Parker said. "Lilla found out a lot of history from her father because she would get up early in the morning and spend time with him and her sisters didn't. It was not a life to brag about -- it was a hard life, but it was important to have that information."

Parker said her aunt doesn't present a perfect image of herself. "She doesn't have an agenda; she doesn't want to make herself look better."

The books are available in the Beaufort County Library, especially the South Carolina Room, and are for sale at the Historic Beaufort Foundation's Verdier House. A percentage of the book sales at the Verdier House will go to the foundation.

While the family history will be of interest to some, the book also covers some history of Beaufort -- the Hurricane of 1940, the building of the railroad in Dale, the town's early telephone company and names of many businesses.

Parker's second book is about her aunt, Marguerite Player Priester, and is close to completion. Both books end with a poem, and on April 15, The Beaufort Gazette published "Ode to Marguerite," which was sent in by an old friend of Marguerite's.

The third book will be about their sister and Parker's mother, Grace Player Parker, and the author's family. Three books of poetry also are coming soon.