From These Roots

“In the company of the admirable ones who came into our world bereft of the gift of sight, there is no more heroic one than Dr. Sam M. Lawton of South Carolina. His academic degrees reveal accomplishments which would have been heroic for the sighted ones of us–Bachelor of Arts, graduate in Theology, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy, the last named degree being the highest academic degree conferred by American universities. All along the way of those arduous and accomplishing years, he did his outstanding work by listening intelligently in classes, by listening carefully as others read to him, and by a skillful use of his typewriter–and do you know who that lovely woman is, standing in the wings, smiling with joy, asking no credit for Dr. Lawton’s accomplishments? She is his beloved wife, Alice, who has been to him a masterful mosaic of love, devotion, patience, courage, and helpfulness in a thousand ways. Without her, Dr. Lawton’s roster of accomplishments would be shorter in length and less in luster.” – Chester E. Swor in his book, “Neither Down Nor Out”

On November 8, 1898, in Decatur, Alabama, a Southern Baptist pastor named James I. Stockton and his wife, Mary Ellen Simpson Stockton, welcomed their ninth child into the world. They named their newest daughter Roberta Alice. Every new child was a special blessing to the couple after losing their first three children to childhood sickness- two of them within a day of each other. Later, they would also lose their youngest son, Frank Stockton, in the First World War. Despite his personal grief, Rev. Stockton was one of the most active preachers in the area and served in many of the early Alabama Baptist churches in Morgan and Lawrence Counties.

Alice likely grew up attending church and education seemed to be important to the family. On May 23, 1921, Alice graduated from Judson College with an A.B. degree after only three years. Upon graduation, she also received a Sunday School Teacher Training diploma, a Mission Study certificate, an Alabama State First Class Teachers’ High School certificate, and a teaching license for Alabama schools. She taught Sunday School Teachers’ Training classes throughout Alabama after graduation before moving to Louisville, Kentucky in 1921 to attend the Women’s Missionary Training Union (WMTU) where she received her Bachelor of Missionary Training (B.M.T.) in 1923.

While Alice was attending school at the WMTU, she met a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary student from Greenville, South Carolina named Samuel Lawton. Sam Lawton, a Furman University alumnus, was born blind and was working on his Graduate of Theology degree. Once the couple finished their work in Louisville, they married on April 24, 1924. That same year, they relocated to North Carolina where they both taught at Mars Hill College until 1926.

Shortly after finishing their last semester teaching at Mars Hill, the Lawtons welcomed their first child into the world and named her Mary Elizabeth. The young family then moved to Nashville, TN while Sam completed his M.A. from George Peabody College for Teachers (now a part of Vanderbilt University). In 1927, the Lawtons moved to Arkansas where Sam was a professor of education in the extension department of the Arkansas State Teacher College and Alice taught in the public schools.

While in Arkansas, the couple’s son was born and they named him Francis “Frank” Lawton. We do not know for sure, but it’s possible Frank was named after Alice’s brother, Frank, and/or Sam’s sister, Francis. Frank Stockton was killed during WWI while coming to the aid of a wounded soldier under machine gun fire. He was able to administer first aid to the wounded soldier before being killed by enemy fire. Frank was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism and Alice had an oak tree planted on the campus of Judson College in his memory. Alice’s son, Frank Lawton, would later become a pilot in the Air Force before joining the ministry. He wrote several books and served in churches for more than 25 years in various roles such as music minister, pastor, and educational director. He later managed a Lifeway Bookstore for 16 years and started his own company named Lawton Robes.

In 1929, the Lawtons moved back to Sam’s home county and took teaching positions at a small school named North Greenville Baptist Academy. The family only stayed in South Carolina for one school year before moving to Nashville, Tennessee where they both entered graduate school at Peabody College. Sam worked on his PhD residency requirements while Alice obtained a Master of Arts degree and did much of the reading for her husband. Once Sam’s residency requirements were finished and Alice had completed her degree, the couple returned to North Greenville Baptist Academy.

In exchange for room and board for their family, the Lawtons were taxed with completing a statewide survey to determine if North Greenville should begin offering college work. Alice and Sam traveled all over the state gathering information and compiling it into a report to present to the North Greenville board of trustees. Through their work, it was discovered that North Greenville’s faculty was better qualified than most of the junior college faculty across the state. When Sam presented their findings to the board, they unanimously agreed to start the first year of college courses at North Greenville. Sam was chosen as the Dean of Instruction of the school and Alice was tasked with creating and implementing the school’s first official record keeping system.

Once the trustees approved North Greenville to become a junior college, the next phase of work began. For the junior college to be successful, they needed the support of senior colleges in the area. Once again, the Lawtons took to the road to gather support for North Greenville. The Lawtons and Dr. Donnan, the school’s first president, convinced Coker College, Wofford College, and Furman University to accept North Greenville Junior College graduates. The next challenge was to get the South Carolina Department of Education to recognize North Greenville as a college. Together, the Lawtons made their case to the superintendent in Columbia. He was so impressed by their arguments that he gave them a recognition letter to take back to North Greenville and agreed to be the commencement speaker at the first graduation of North Greenville Junior College in 1936.

From 1935 until 1941, Alice taught Sociology at North Greenville while Sam continued to serve as Dean of Instruction. During their time at North Greenville, Dr. Lawton served as the pastor of both the North Greenville Baptist Church, which would later be named Tigerville Baptist Church, and Tyger Baptist Church. Alice was heavily involved in the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) at the churches and would continue to be involved with the WMU her entire life. In 1941, Sam resigned from North Greenville Baptist Church to devote more time to his roles at North Greenville Junior College and Tyger Baptist Church. A year later, the Lawtons resigned from North Greenville Junior College and relocated to Spartanburg. In their honor, the “Sam and Alice Lawton Award” was created and presented each year to the married students who contributed the most to the life of North Greenville.

The Lawtons continued to serve at Tyger Baptist Church until 1946. During WWII, the church had 26 members serving in the military overseas. Alice later recalled a memory from that time during the war:

“One night I decided to have a special service with military flair. I spread a big map of the world on a table down front; put the picture of Tyger Baptist Church right on South Carolina where it belongs; ran a strip of red, white, and blue ribbon from the picture of the church out to about where we thought each of our miliary folks was located. A large candle was placed on the church. Smaller candles were placed at the ends of the streamers of red, white, and blue ribbon. My husband and I went to the home of every family member of our 26 and asked the head of the house to say which one of his family would light the candle that had his child’s name on it. One man whom nobody ever remembered having been seen at church had two sons representing us on the battlefield. The father said, ‘I’ll light the candles for both of my sons.’ Sure enough, he came to the church and with trembling hands he lit the candles. Even with the dim lights we saw the tears. When the war was over and all 26 of ours came home this particular man and both his sons came to church and bowed their heads in prayer.”

While in Spartanburg, Alice returned to public school teaching and worked for several years each at Gaffney High School, Duncan High School, and Spartanburg District #5 Junior High School. She became the superintendent of the Spartan Baptist Association’s WMU and President of the Women’s Missionary Training Union Alumni Association. After resigning from North Greenville, Sam took a position teaching at Cedar Springs Institute, a school for the deaf and blind in Spartanburg. During this time, Sam, with the help of Alice, began the Aurora Club for the Blind which later became the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina. The club was a religious club with the object of “the blind to let their light shine as Aurora and to help those who feel that they are helpless to know that they can do something.”

Throughout their marriage, the Lawtons traveled the world. Their daughter, Mary Elizabeth, became a medical doctor and spent sixteen years in Nigeria as a medical missionary. The Lawtons sometimes visited her during the summers when their schools were on summer break and Alice would share the work her daughter was doing with WMU members back in South Carolina. The couple also had a home in Ridgecrest, North Carolina where they would spend the summer when they were not traveling. It was at their Ridgecrest home on November 3, 1971, when Sam died of a heart attack.

After her husband’s death, Alice split her time between Spartanburg and Ridgecrest. On September 21, 1975, she returned to Tigerville to attend the 200th anniversary remembrance of Tyger Baptist Church. As a part of the ceremony, one of the original pillars of the church was placed on a permanent marker. It had been Alice’s idea to place the marker so that the church’s history would not be lost and she funded the entire project. When she gave her speech, Alice spoke of how much Tyger Baptist Church had meant to her family and shared some of her favorite memories from their time there. One such memory was when a snowstorm came through Tigerville.

“One Sunday morning, all was white with snow. Our family said, ‘What will we do?’ I think that was about the time of the polio epidemic so the children would have to stay at home anyway. We lived a mile from the church. I knew I could not drive so I said to my husband, ‘You and I will walk.” It takes longer to walk in snow that is more than knee deep. Hand in hand we trudged the full mile. The snow was soft letting your foot go to the bottom and then having to be pulled up step by step. As we neared the church, we saw blue smoke curling upward telling us that others had come. We opened the door and counted. There were 32 people around a cozy fire. Happy words greeted us, ‘We knew you’d come so we came too.’ My husband preached what I thought was a masterpiece. How I wished for a machine that would have recorded on tape what was recorded in our hearts that day.”

Alice Stockton Lawton passed away on September 1, 1986, at the age of 89. She and Sam are buried together at Ridgecrest Memorial Park. The verses on Alice’s tombstone are Isaiah 26:3 and a portion of Psalm 16:11. Without the work of Alice Lawton and others, North Greenville may have never become a college and likely would have closed its doors with many of the other former mountain mission schools.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”- Isaiah 26:3

“In thy presence is fulness of joy” – Psalm 16:11