 Elizabeth O’Neill Verner
(1883-1979)
As a member of the Charleston Renaissance, Verner popularized the image of Charleston with etched visions of local life at a time when the city was becoming a destination for visitors from around the world.
 William Rhett
(circa 1666-1722)
A pirate catcher and protector of Charleston in the 1700s, Rhett is most famous for capturing “gentleman” pirate Stede Bonnett
 Dr. Leon Banov
(1888-1971)
closed the privy vaults, forced modern plumbing on residents, and declared war on rats and disease through vaccinations.
 Franz X. Meier
(b. 1934)
Meier’s restaurants, such as The Colony House, Carolina’s, and The Privateer, helped define haute Lowcountry cuisine in the 1970s and ’80s. Many of the chefs he recruited—such as Robert Dickson, Chris Weihs, and Donald Barickman—continue his influence, and his scholarships at the Culinary Institute of America will provide us with quality chefs for years to come.
 Mary Jackson
(b. 1945)
Jackson took the traditional Gullah craft of coiled basketsewing and made it fine art. Her work is regularly displayed at the Smithsonian and other museums throughout the country.
 Theodore S. Stern
(b. 1912)
When he takes on a project, he does it well. Stern has served as a commanding officer at the Charleston Naval Supply Center,
president of the College of Charleston from 1968 to 1979, founder of the Community Foundation, and chairman of the board of directors for Spoleto Festival USA.
 Andrew B. Murray
(1844-1928)
A Charleston orphan who gave back generously to the city, Murray spearheaded and paid for half of the reclamation project that
resulted in most of the land south of Tradd and west of King streets. On a drive along his namesake, Murray Boulevard, you can see
the Confederate monument he also helped erect.
 John Conroy
(1926-1981)
As chief of police in 1969, Conroy, aka “Mr. Cool,” kept the city from tearing itself apart in the tense days of the Hospital Workers’ Strike.
 Countess Alice Spaulding Paolozzi
(1917-2002)
This socialite jet-setter married an Italian count and became a fixture at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Living in Charleston part of the year, she was instrumental in luring the arts festival here, and thanks to a generous donation from the Spaulding Paolozzi Foundation, a building for the Center For Women at 129 Cannon Street now bears her name.
 Henry Woodward
(circa 1646-circa 1686)
Considered by some to be the first non-Native American resident of the Lowcountry, Woodward opened up Indian trade and was the first to explore the state’s backcountry. His experience with indigenous populations were vital to the success of the early city and colony.
 J. Waties Waring
(1880-1968)
This former segregationist and blue-blooded jurist wrote in a decision that segregation is “per se
inequality,” before the U.S. Supreme Court did.
 Eliza Lucas Pinckney
(1722-1793)
Mother of important national leaders Thomas and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Pinckney made indigo a profitable local crop as a young woman, adding to the wealth and luster of the Lowcountry.
 Joseph P. Riley, jr.
(b. 1943) 
Riley has been mayor since 1975, longer than anyone else in our city’s history. He’s also accomplished more than the rest. Most mayors are known for one issue, but Riley addresses scores of them every week. Imagine Charleston without Spoleto, Waterfront Park, transitional housing, a beautiful baseball park, the Ravenel Bridge, or the South Carolina Aquarium.
With an unparalled record of increased public safety and affordable housing, strong support of the arts and economic development, and eight mayoral terms of unprecedented growth in size and population, he’s made Charleston one of the most livable cities in the United States.
At the same time, he has fought to mitigate the impact of tourism and development, attempted to hold down property taxes, beautified the city, and brought in a wealth of arts programs.
 Ruby Cornwell
(1902-2003)
A silk dress, gloves, and hat were her only armor when she dared to eat in a whites-only restaurant—and was arrested for it—in 1963. She later served on the local branch of the NAACP and developed a close friendship with J. Waties Waring.
 John Rutledge
(circa 1739-1800) 
A drafter of the state’s first constitution and signer of the U.S. Constitution, Rutledge eluded capture by the British and was S.C.’s governor in exile, later serving on the U.S. and S.C. supreme courts.
 Francis W. Dawson
(1840-1889)
As the first News and Courier editor, Dawson preached modernization
and industrialization rather than dwelling on antebellum glories. He was honored by the Pope for opposing the practice of dueling.
 Rhett Butler
(fitctional)
Try telling a tourist from Ohio he didn’t exist. By calling Charleston one of the last places of grace and charm left in the world, he raised the city’s visibility in the final pages of Gone With the Wind.
 J. C. Long
(1903-1984)
As a developer and entrepreneur who opened up early suburbs West of the Ashley and East of the Cooper, Long was also a public benefactor and well-known lawyer, handling the first asbestos case in the state.
 Mary Amarinthia Snowden
(1819-1898)
As the founder of the Ladies Memorial Association and the Confederate Home on Broad Street, Snowden cared for wounded soldiers and, later, their widows.
 William Ashmead Courtenay
(1831-1908)
Mayor Courtenay stabilized the chaos following the 1886 earthquake while bringing order and modernizing city departments.
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