Mama Clutts
Mama Clutts was a nurse at Tumey Hospital in Sumter SC and worked in the maternity ward. She lived at 108 S. Washington St in a beautiful two story home with her lady friend Ms. Minnie Benbow who taught at Lincoln High school. Both women were well educated. I called Ms. Clutts, Mama Clutts because she was my Godmother and. attended St. Jude Catholic Church on Oakland Avenue. She was very active in the church and very supportive of the nuns that taught at the school. She was the person I confided in as a child and she often encouraged me by telling me that I was smart and capable of becoming anything I wanted to be. My family lived on the first floor of the home and Mama Clutts and Ms. Bennie lived on the second floor. They later built a beautiful home off Green Swamp road. She got me through years of physical and emotional abuse by a grandmother that was hell to live with. She bought me my first flowers when I was confirmed. Each summer she and Ms. Benbow would take me with them to their summer home “La Pebla” which was on Atlantic beach. This was the early 60’s and I remember loving to go to the beach because other Black families would be there with their children and it was a fun time from morning till night. In the evenings we all went down to the patio on the beach and did the young people did the latest dances and hung out. Adults were always close by to make sure we were safe and protected. The beach had a long fence going out into the water to separate the black beach from the white beach. Blacks could not go onto the white side of the Beach which was called Myrtle Beach. Mama Clutts was also called Nurse Clutts in the community and had a reputation of being a very tough nurse in the delivery room. I never say that side of her. She was always loving,kind and generous to me. She got me through my childhood and off to college in Buffalo New York. She encouraged me to get out of Sumter and to see the world. I will never forget her.
