COLUMBIA - Christie Zimmerman Fant, widow of James Wilks Fant, died Friday, June 14, 2019, at Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community. She was 99 years old. Funeral services will be held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter Street, Columbia on Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 2:00 p.m., with burial afterward in Trinity’s churchyard. The family will be at the home of Simpson Z. Fant, 1742 Graeme Drive, Columbia. They will also greet family and friends at Trinity after the service, in Satterlee Hall.
Mrs. Fant is survived by her two sons and their families: Dr. and Mrs. James Wilks Fant, Jr. (Margaret Claiborne Macdonald), of St. Matthews, and their four children, Claiborne Macdonald Fant, James Wilks Fant III, Roderick Cunningham Fant, and William Tennent Fant; and Mr. and Mrs. Simpson Zimmerman Fant (Katherine Robinson Williams), of Columbia, and their four children, Katherine Fant Strickland (Henry Graybill Strickland), Caroline Hunter Fant, Simpson Zimmerman (Zim) Fant, Jr., and Hal Williams Fant. She is also survived by her brother, Simpson Jones Zimmerman, Jr., of Columbia, and many beloved relatives and friends.
Daughter of Simpson Jones Zimmerman and Christie Powers Zimmerman, Mrs. Fant was born on April 16, 1920, in Columbia, South Carolina, where she lived all of her life.
She attended city schools, including old Heathwood School, Shandon (later Schneider), Hand Jr. High and old Columbia High, a landmark for so many years at the corner of Washington and Marion Streets. She was a graduate of Converse College, Class of 1941, and was listed in Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities. She loved Converse and was a recipient of the school’s Distinguished Alumna Award.
After graduation, she taught English and Latin for one year at Greer High School and for three more years at her Columbia High alma mater, where she was also faculty advisor for the school newspaper. Teaching and working with high school students were among the joys of her life. In 1945, she joined WIS Radio at its early Main Street studios as producer/moderator of Youth Speaks, a weekly program sponsored by Belk department store as a public service and featuring high school students. She later held positions as advertising manager of Davison’s Main Street store, as public relations director for the Community Chest and United Fund, and as public information officer for the adult education division of the State Department of Education.
During World War II, she did volunteer work with the American Red Cross and USO, and in the next two decades was a free-lance writer for The State and The Columbia Record newspapers. Her popular column, “The Social Whirl,” ran weekly in The State for 18 years.
Always a writer, she was author of the first illustrated historical guide of the South Carolina State House, published in 1970 by the R.L. Bryan Co. for the State of South Carolina. She also was co-editor of South Carolina Portraits, a volume that includes portraits from colonial times to 1914, published in 1996 by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina.
In 1969, she joined the staff of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, an association that continued until 1987, when she retired as an assistant director of the agency and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer. She considered herself fortunate to have participated in starting the State Historic Preservation Program, which became one of the best in the nation. She always gave high praise to Dr. Charles Lee, the State Historic Preservation Officer, as well as to a talented young staff and to the dedicated citizens throughout the state with whom she was privileged to work in preserving South Carolina’s visual history. She was involved with a variety of important preservation projects, including the Exchange Building in Charleston, the University of South Carolina Horseshoe in Columbia, and the revitalization of Main Streets in many South Carolina towns. She was active in national historic preservation circles and was a board member of the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers at the time of her retirement. When she retired, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed a resolution thanking her for her service to the state and also declared her retirement date as “Christie Fant Day.”
A devoted and faithful member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, she was active in many phases of church life through the years, including service on the Vestry and on the Daughters of the Holy Cross Board, but most of all, she loved teaching in Trinity’s senior high Sunday School, which she did from 1942 to 1960.
Proud of her native city and state, Mrs. Fant was an enthusiastic volunteer worker. She served as president of The Junior League of Columbia and on such community boards as the Town Theater and the Columbia Music Festival. She was a founding board member of Historic Columbia Foundation and one of the six women who planned and directed the campaign that aroused Columbians to save the historic Robert Mills house from impending destruction.
A longtime member of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina, Mrs. Fant served a number of years on the Society’s state board and also as chairman of the Columbia Town Committee. She is listed in the Society’s National Roll of Honor.
She was a life member of The Columbia Ball and its Executive Secretary in earlier years. She was also a life member of The Quadrille Club and the University South Caroliniana Society. She belonged to the Junior League Book Club, the Reading Club, the Fortnightly, and to the Dianthus Garden Club. She was recognized with various awards through the years and was especially honored to receive, at age 87, the Lucy Hampton Bostick Award from the Friends of the Richland County Public Library.
Intensely interested in preserving the character and beauty of her native State, she frequently quoted in preservation speeches the Kipling lines that “God gave all men all earth to love, But, since our hearts are small, Ordained for each one spot should prove Beloved over all.” And she always added “South Carolina is our spot to love, protect and preserve.”
Mrs. Fant will be remembered for her love of the Lord Jesus, her family, and a wide circle of many loyal friends.
The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, memorials might be made to Historic Columbia Foundation, 1601 Richland Street, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (youth programs), 1100 Sumter Street, University South Caroliniana Society, 910 Sumter Street, or Richland County Public Library, 1431 Assembly Street, all at Columbia, SC 29201.
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