Mrs. Brandon was born on September 13, 1921 in Columbia, South Carolina, the youngest of two children to Juanita Wilkins Crews and John Wolff Crews, Richland County judge and member of the SC House of Representatives.
She attended Columbia High School enjoying her after-school hours on the cheerleading squad. After graduating high school, she attended Mary Baldwin College for two years before returning to Columbia to finish college at the University of South Carolina. At Carolina, she was a member of the Alpha Lambda Chapter of Tri Delta and received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan award for excellence of character and service to humanity.
Following her college years, she studied handcrafts in New York to help rehabilitate those returning from World War II. Additionally, she ran the Teenage Canteen at the Memorial Youth Center in Columbia, lead the Canterbury Club at Trinity Episcopal Church (now Cathedral), and volunteered backstage at Town Theatre.
In 1954, she married U. S. Navy Commander Walter Bethune Brandon of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. After moving from duty station to duty station across the country, Mrs. Brandon returned to South Carolina with her husband and children and settled in the Wales Garden area in Columbia.
The following years were filled by leading yearly tours to New York for a week of Broadway’s finest as well as coordinating several tours for special occasions. Mrs. Brandon worked with the Trinity Cathedral Bazaar and was the President of the Daughters of the Holy Cross also at the Cathedral. She served on the Hammond School Board and the Columbia Housing Authority, and was a member of the Columbia Junior League and the Fortnightly Book Club.
She loved people, was enlivened by music and theatre, and had a self-deprecating sense of humor that enchanted those who met her. The phrases “quick to smile” and “never met a stranger” could have been created for her.
Mrs. Brandon is survived by her three children, Varian Crews Brandon Hunt of Saluda, North Carolina, Walter Bethune Brandon, Jr. (Skip) of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and John Wilkins Crews Brandon of Meggett, South Carolina. Also, surviving are four grandchildren, Katherine Monnett Brandon (Katie) and Cameron Marshall Crews Brandon of Fredericksburg, and Josephine Gallagher Brandon and Wilkins Gallagher Brandon of Meggett, South Carolina; a son-in-law, Bruce Oswald Hunt, Jr. of Saluda, North Carolina, and two daughters-in-law, Nancy Douthett Brandon of Fredericksburg, Virginia and Rebecca Susan Gallagher of Meggett, South Carolina. She was predeceased by her husband, Walter Bethune Brandon, and her brother, John Wilkins Crews.
Services will be held Tuesday, May 1 at 3:00PM at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and a reception will follow in Saterlee Hall at the Cathedral.
Service to be held on Tuesday, May 1 at 3:00PM at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and a reception will follow at the Cathedral. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to Kanuga Episcopal Conference Center, PO Box 250, Hendersonville, NC 28793-0250 or Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter Street. Columbia, South Carolina 29201.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18