2013 Anderson Hall of Fame Class Announced

The Anderson County Museum Advisory Committee announced today the 2013 Hall of Fame Class. This is the 11^th year the museum has inducted deserving individuals into the ACM Hall of Fame. Barnard Elliott Bee, Jr. and Claude Richard “Red” Canup will be inducted during a ceremony at the museum on October 22 at 6 p.m. At that time the museum will celebrate their 30^th Anniversary with the launch of their World War II Book “A Necessary War.” The ceremony and celebration are free and open to the public.

“Each year, our Hall of Fame Committee reviews the submitted applications and selects individuals whose accomplishments and contributions make them worthy of this recognition,” said Museum Executive Director Beverly Childs. We received more than 50 applications and this year we are inducting two military men who valued serving their Country.”

Confederate General Barnard Elliott Bee, Jr. was born in Charleston, SC, on February 8, 1824. The Bee family was a prominent family celebrated for their contributions to our state and beyond. His grandfather Thomas Bee (1739-1812) served as Delegate to the Continental Congress and was the first Federal Judge for South Carolina.  Bee’s father, Barnard E. Bee, Sr., was a Texas statesman integral to the establishment of that state.

The family moved to Pendleton in 1833 when Bee was nine years old. When his parents moved to Texas in 1836, the young man remained in Pendleton where he lived with his aunts and attended the Pendleton Academy. Eager for a military career, he was appointed a cadet at West Point and graduated in 1845.  He entered the United States Army as an infantry lieutenant.

Bee’s first posting was to Texas with the Third U.S. Infantry.  While there, he distinguished himself in service during battles early in the Mexican War. In 1854, the South Carolina General Assembly gave him a special dress presentation sword in honor of his distinguished service in the Mexican War. The sword is now on display at the South Carolina State Museum. It was on loan to the Anderson County Museum for an exhibit in 2008.

Bee spent the rest of his U.S. Army career on America’s frontier, serving in Minnesota, Utah, and at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1851. When the Tenth Infantry was organized four years later, Bee was appointed its captain. With the coming of the Civil War, he resigned his commission on March 3, 1861, brought his wife, Sophia Elizabeth Hill, and their two children back to Pendleton, and joined Confederate service with the rank of major.

On June 17, 1861, Bee was promoted to brigadier general in command of the Third Brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah, under General Joseph E. Johnston.  He arrived with his troops at Manassas Junction in Virginia on July 20, 1861. The first major battle of the war, First Manassas (also known as First Battle of Bull Run) began the next day. During fierce combat, Bee’s troops were forced back, and the ranks began to break.  Bee rallied his troops, successfully, by pointing to nearby General Thomas Jonathan Jackson and his men and shouting “There stands Jackson like a stone wall. Rally around the Virginians.” The South won a great victory, and General Jackson was known ever after as “Stonewall Jackson.”

General Bee’s excellent military career was sadly ended that day, for he was mortally wounded soon after making his famous exclamation. He died the next day, July 22, 1861, in the house he had used as headquarters during the battle. The thirty-seven year old Bee was given a hero’s funeral in Charleston and buried at Magnolia Cemetery. His body was moved to the family plot at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pendleton in March of 1863. A South Carolina historical marker honoring General Bee is located at the edge of the churchyard. On July 21, 1939, a monument honoring Bee was placed on the Manassas battlefield.

Bee’s children did not live to adulthood to learn about their famous father, but his fellow South Carolinians continue to honor his accomplishments.

Claude Richard “Red” Canup was born in Pendleton on March 3, 1911, to George Alexander Canup and his wife Hulda Marietta Wood. One of nine children, Red Canup decided by the time he was a teenager to become a sportswriter. He was a success, becoming Sports Editor for the Anderson Independent and Daily Mail. However, his career can best be described as consisting of three parts:  sports writing, World War II Marine Corps Combat Correspondent, and public relations executive.

As Sports Editor, Canup’s column ran seven days a week in the Anderson newspapers during a twenty-eight year career. Writing with a dry wit, these columns promoted charity activities, youth programs, adult recreation leagues, high school athletic programs and college sports. He was also instrumental in having the annual University of South Carolina-Clemson University football game changed from being held on “Big Thursday” to being hosted by each school in alternating years.  Canup became known as the “Dean of South Carolina Sports Editors.”

In World War II, after going through boot camp at the age of thirty-three, Staff Sergeant Canup served as a U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondent. He filed 398 dispatches from the Pacific theater, keeping the home front informed about the marine aviators. He once stated that his “deepest satisfaction was in helping see to it that there were no unknown Marines.”

In 1960-1962, he worked as Athletic Publicity Director for the University of South Carolina. In 1964,  Canup became the first Director of Public Relations for Daniel Construction Company. He held this position for nearly twenty years, throughout events such as Daniels’ death and the company’s transition to Fluor-Daniel International Construction Company. He co-authored (with William D. Workman, Jr.) the book Charles E. Daniel, His Philosophy and Legacy,which combined a history of the company and biography of its founder. Canup also edited the company magazine for the Greenville-based firm.

When Canup died in 1999 his box of carefully preserved Marine dispatches, letters and other documents from 1944-45 was saved with the other contents of his desk. In 2008 his son Dr. C.R. Canup, Jr., gave the box to Red’s daughter, Linda C. Keaton-Lima. She edited the material into the book War Is Not Just for Heroes :  World War II Dispatches and Letters of U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondent Claude R. “Red” Canup. The book and its editor have won awards, including one from the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association. The dispatches and other papers were donated to the Marine Corps and are now housed in the Marine Corps Gray Archives and Research Center in Quantico, Virginia.  It is the only known collection of its kind and has been called “an invaluable treasure trove” of wartime eye-witness information.  Canup never knew that he would be so honored for his wartime body of work.

Applications are now available for the 2014 Hall of Fame at the ACM or on the ACM Website www.andersoncountymuseum.org. The Anderson County Museum is at 202 East Greenville Street, in downtown Anderson. The Fred Whitten Gallery and Museum store hours are Tuesday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Reading and Research Room is open 1 to 4 p.m. on Thursdays and by appointment with the Curator. ACM is handicap accessible and admission is free. Donations are always welcome. For more information, contact the Museum at (864) 260-4737.