Interviewing and writing a person's 100th birthday celebration is never routine. The 100th doesn't come around that often. To produce a T&D story on Orangeburg's Camilla Brailsford Knotts Williams' birthday on Sept. 8, I projected that many hours of question-and-answer sessions would be required to cover the first 10 decades of her life.

Drawing on my more than 40 years of journalistic experience with The Times and Democrat, I was mindful of the prominence of her birthright in the James Moncrief Brailsford family, one of Orangeburg's most influential families. Camilla's father, a lawyer and farmer, served four terms on City Council and in 1937, was elected mayor. He did not seek a second term, as he felt he had accomplished his goal of securing the future of the city-owned electrical power operation.

The eldest Brailsford son, James Jr., represented Orangeburg County in the S.C. House of Representatives from 1932 to 1942 before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. Returning to civilian life, he was elected for another legislative term before becoming a circuit judge, a position he held until 1962, when he became an associate justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. In 1939, John, the other son, founded the extremely successful 700-acre Shady Grove Nursery and Plantation, which is situated near Orangeburg on Charleston Highway. He was highly decorated for his World War II service with the U.S. Army in the South Pacific.

Daughter Camilla, the eldest of the five Brailsford children, was greatly admired for endurance after the news of her husband's combat death during World War II and the rearing of her daughter, who was 3 years old at the time. To support her daughter and herself, she and her aunt opened and operated a shop for children's attire on East Russell Street. Sisters Sallie and Elizabeth married and lived away from Orangeburg.

To seek more information on Camilla and her 100 years, I arranged to meet with her and her daughter Cam Underwood at Camilla's home in the old Country Club. Cam led me into the sunroom and lifted five binder volumes.

"Here's what you need ... all written by Mother, in her own words," she said.

Studying the first volume, I was astounded. Seeing page after page in Camilla's perfect handwriting about the life and times of her family, herself and the city where she lived quickly convinced me that I was reading through a genealogical treasure trove. No question-and-answer sessions were needed -- the albums tell the story.

With deep humility, she looks back on life as she has lived it. Her words and photos radiate the life of a woman extremely proud of her upbringing and contributions of her family to the overall welfare to the city of Orangeburg. The pronoun "I" is seldom used; in most cases, it is "we," for daughter Cam or other members of her family.

Camilla was 89 years old when she was encouraged to write her memoirs. Granddaughter Charlotte Underwood wanted to know about her family. Cam was supportive. Camilla's enthusiasm for the memoirs was such that 11 years later, five volumes were completed, including 1,130 pages of text and photos on 8x11-inch pages. Charlotte, after graduating from Clemson University, became employed by the Coca-Cola Co. in Atlanta. She met and married Coca-Cola executive Stephen Cobb in 2001. They moved to Stephen's home in Sydney, Australia, 9,684 miles from Charlotte's hometown of Orangeburg. Both Charlotte and Stephen remain employed with Coca-Cola, she as meetings and events manager for Coca-Cola South Pacific, a position that has taken her to major sporting events around the world, including the recent Beijing Olympics.

At home in Orangeburg is daughter Cam, who is married to Charles Underwood of Travel Center, a travel agency in the city since 1967. Charles, a native of Sewanee, Tenn., is a graduate of the University of the South and the University of South Carolina School of Law and served as an aide to the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. Cam is a graduate of Columbia College.

Camilla depended on family records for information dating prior to her recollections of early childhood. Research for the sake of accuracy was done by daughter Cam on the events and people going back to the early years of the last century. Cam used files at the Orangeburg Historical Society, books written on Orangeburg and back editions of The Times and Democrat. Her research on Orangeburg, the county and city, provided more than 400 topics for her mother's chronological writing.

Throughout the volumes, Camilla writes of the good and bad days of Orangeburg and dwells strongly on the depression years of the 1930s, with its bank failures, WPA and the hard times that prevailed. On the brighter side, Orangeburg County farmers produced 94,000 bales of cotton in 1918, making it the second-largest cotton producer in the United States. She even recalls the day, March 7, 1970, when thousands of Orangeburg citizens went outdoors to view a total eclipse of the sun, the first since 1878.

Camilla weaves together the Orangeburg life of her family. She recalls the Edisto River as their favorite place to swim; sports, with baseball, in particular; the Southern and Atlantic Coast Line railroads with their majestic stations; watching silent movies in local theaters; chewing on sugar cane in front of the fireplace; the hard times for her father, with the ups and downs of the cotton crops; and driving on unpaved country roads.

The sport of baseball, then and now, continues to be a bright part of Camilla's life. When she was 10 years old, in 1918, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox came to Orangeburg to play an exhibition game. More than 3,000 fans turned out to watch the game at South Carolina State College. The Yankees won 3-1 in 11 innings. The game highlighted a "Get Together Day" in Orangeburg to sell World War I bonds.

Camilla acknowledges the births, marriages and deaths of her immediate family, aunts, uncles and cousins. Pride is injected for those who served in World War I and II, including her husband, two brothers and two brothers-in-law. Camilla tells of switching from urban to rural life as a farmer's wife and following her husband with their small child to Army bases across the nation before he was killed in World War II combat.

"All families had to sacrifice during those years and did so with pride," Camilla recalled, relating World War II life on the home front. "Rationing began almost immediately. Ration books contained stamps and were issued to families ... everyone had 'Victory Gardens' to supplement the rationing with vegetables. The amount of gas and tires was determined by the job the owner had."

In early pages, she walks the reader through childhood days: playing hop-scotch, bicycle riding and walking to school, daily marching into the auditorium at Mellichamp Elementary School for morning recitation of The Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance; catching lightning bugs and putting them in a jar; watching her mother make her dress for the high school junior-senior banquet; and eating hominy every morning, explaining that "Papa always said that it was grits before it was cooked and hominy after it was cooked."

She remembers the Ringling Brother Circus coming to town and its parade with elephants, camels, lions, clowns and girls and men dressed in glittering costumes to perform on the high wire and trapeze; spending summer evenings on the cool front porch until bedtime; and her father's first car, a two-seater "Little 4," and the second, a "Hubmobile" with running boards on both sides and isinglass windows that were stored behind the back seat and could be snapped all around to protect from rain or cold weather.

Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic in 1927 was one of the most fascinating events of Camilla's early life. Two weeks ago, she described to me the flight in detail, including her experience of visiting Lindbergh's burial site in the Hawaiian islands. She was accompanied by daughter Cam and granddaughter Charlotte.

No account of Orangeburg's history would be complete without references to what is now Memorial Plaza, generally known as the "town square." It was the big issue of 1928, Camilla recalls.

"The courthouse on the square ... constructed in 1875 was demolished with much controversy. ... The city of Orangeburg purchased the site for $35,000 (from the county) for a downtown square to be built. The fountain that is at the entrance to the gardens today was placed in the middle of the square. There were two goldfish ponds on either side of the scantily clad women on the fountain.

"The Confederate Monument and the fireman's statue were also located on the plaza at the time. The fireman's statue was a public drinking fountain. Horses and mules used the long troughs on each side. The dogs had four 'dog laps' just above ground, and humans had two higher level fountains. Inside the statue base was room for 500 pounds of ice, which, when melted, provided the cool water for all of the fountains."

On the flip side of life, Camilla tells of the bad days in the city. Among those were the latter days of 1918, when Orangeburg was hit with a Spanish influenza epidemic. The city reported that 3,883 people came down with the flu, and the death toll was 53 in October, 116 in November and 81 in December.

"No wonder Grandma gave James and me a glove that was filled with acifidity, a home remedy of crushed sap," she wrote. "She'd cut a finger off a kid glove and fill it with acifidity and tie it with a string so we could wear it around our necks. We did not like it because it smelled so bad. James and I were staying with Grandma and Aunt Liz. Papa would come down to see us and stay on the outside and talk with us through the window. He was out and about all over town and didn't want to run the risk of bringing it to us. Mother and Elizabeth had it but James and I escaped with our acifidity gloves."

She is proud of her father purchasing the brick building of the former Orangeburg Collegiate Institute on Glover Street, transforming it into an apartment building and later making it available for Dr. Charles Mobley to turn it into Orangeburg's first hospital in 1919.

Going back in time to the unique establishment of the Brailsford family in Orangeburg, she explains that typical of most old Lowcountry families, it all began in Charleston, when, in 1714, Edward Brailsford immigrated from Lincolnshire, England, to Charles Town. He married Bridgette, daughter of Joseph Morton, governor of the Province of South Carolina, the only colony set up with nobility. Morton was of the highest nobility, a landgrave. The first American Brailsford home still stands at 49 Tradd St. in Charleston.

Joseph Brailsford, Edward's son, married Elizabeth Waring, daughter of Ben Waring and granddaughter of Thomas Smith, landgrave and also governor of South Carolina. Their son, John, married Elizabeth Moncrief. One of their sons, Edward, married Eliza Charlotte Moultrie, granddaughter of Gen. William Moultrie of American Revolutionary fame, the hero of the first victory for America in its war with England on June 28, 1776. Edward studied to become a doctor in Pennsylvania and became the port surgeon of Charles Town. Among their 10 children was Alexander Baron Brailsford, who married Anna Eliza James DuBose.

Years later, in 1880, John Moncrief, son of Alexander Baron Brailsford, the great-great-grandson of Gen. Moultrie, married Camilla Brock. They moved to a plantation in Clarendon County that was given to the new couple by the bride's father.

They became the parents of four children, including a boy they christened James Oliver Brailsford. The name James was his legal name, but throughout his life, he was known as Jim Brailsford. Wanting his name to include one of his father's names, he prevailed upon a sister to swap his middle name of Oliver for her middle name of Moncrief. She agreed to the trade. Jim and his sisters attended a neighborhood school at Panola, a small community north of the Santee River.

In 1898, Jim decided to come to Orangeburg for his higher education, while his sisters attended educational institutions in Charleston. Jim enrolled at the Orangeburg Collegiate Institute, founded in 1895 as a Baptist-affiliated college situated at the corner of Broughton and Glover streets.

Graduating at age 19, young Brailsford remained at the college for a year as commandant. After one year as a teacher, he studied law at USC and returned to Orangeburg as an attorney and a teacher at OCI in 1904.

Apparently, Jim looked at Orangeburg, with its rail connections and success with cotton, as more appealing for future prosperity than Clarendon County. His family had the same opinion when they decided to sell their plantation property and move to Orangeburg. They were accompanied by three other farm families. Ironically, another plantation family in nearby Orangeburg County, but unknown to the Brailsfords, had the same views of the future. F.D. and Mamie Bates and their family of three daughters and three sons moved to Orangeburg during the same period.

Daughter Bessie, eldest child of the Bates family, became one of South Carolina's first paralegals and worked in Orangeburg in the law firm of Raysor and Lide. Jim Brailsford and Bessie were introduced to each other, and they were married on March 11, 1907. Their first child, Camilla, was born Sept. 8, 1908. Brailsford Sr. died in 1959, his wife in 1977.

Educated in the Orangeburg city schools and at Columbia College, Camilla taught school in North and Cheraw in the 1930s. While in North, she met and, after a courtship of several years, married Joe Knotts, son of a large plantation owner near North. For six years, the couple lived the farming life, including completing their home, of which construction had started before their marriage. Joe named their farm home site "Oaklawn." Its location is about seven miles from Orangeburg, between U.S. 301 and Denmark.

With America facing an imminent entry into what would become World War II, Joe knew he faced a call to active duty in the U.S. Army. When he graduated from Wofford College, he received his commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Rather than face a call up during the planting of next season's farm crop, he volunteered for immediate duty. His first military assignment was at Columbia's Fort Jackson in January 1941.

When husband Joe went into the Army, Camilla remained in Orangeburg, living with her parents until the birth of their daughter in February. They named their daughter for her mother and great-grandmother. Baby Camilla became known as Cam immediately after birth. In March, Camilla and Cam joined Joe at Fort Benning, Ga., for a few months before returning to Fort Jackson and other stateside assignments, including stays in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Virginia. Joe's first oversees assignment was in London, where he remained until volunteering for combat duty as a captain in the infantry.

The following quotes are directly from Camilla's writings concerning the death of her husband:

"I'll say around the eighth of December or it could have been on the eighth, I was awakened in the middle of the night by a loud booming noise, like an explosion. I sat bolt upright in bed shaking all over, then I distinctly heard Joe's voice calling to me. It was very real to me but I lay there trying to tell myself it was just a dream. With the daylight I felt better about it. As the days passed and Joe's letters kept coming I had gotten it out of my mind. On the morning of December 20, 1944, as I was standing at the ironing board in the breakfast room ironing a little pink dress for Cam I heard the door bell. I can't describe how I felt but I knew at once what it was. I could hear Mother and Papa whispering to each other.

"When they finally came in the breakfast room they didn't have to say a word, I knew what they were going to tell me. I felt numb, I just kept on moving the iron and looking out of the window where Cam was playing. My first thought was of Cam and how best to protect her. Christmas was so near I felt I couldn't spoil it for her, she was so excited. She was just three years old and adored her daddy. She certainly hadn't forgotten him and talked about him all the time. We all decided it would be best to keep it from her until after Christmas."

It became harder and harder to tell her and I kept putting it off. Sometime later she was playing with her playmate from next door when he told her that her Daddy wasn't coming home, he was dead. She came running to me, crying her little heart out, 'My Daddy not dead!' It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, telling her and trying to make her understand, when I didn't understand myself. I felt so guilty I hadn't been brave enough to tell her sooner and I carried that guilt a long time. She was so young she could be diverted and I guess in a way it helped me trying to be brave for her. ...

"He was killed in Belgium but was buried in a beautiful cemetery in Aachen, Germany. A Flemish girl, Therese Goffard, adopted his grave and would visit it. She wrote to us and would let us know each time she carried flowers to his grave. ... In 1946 we decided Joe should be placed in the hallowed grounds at Arlington National Cemetery. I've never regretted that decision although it would have been nice to have him nearer home."

After Joe's death, Camilla helped at Charlotte Jones' pre-school while Cam was a student. In September 1946, she and her Aunt Elizabeth Brailsford opened The Children's Centre, a children's clothing store. It was in two of the front rooms of Elizabeth's home on East Russell Street, near Camilla's family home. The first day's sales were so great that the next day, Camilla had to go to Charleston to seek a re-supply inventory. With its continuing sales success, The Children's Centre needed more space. Camilla's father, referred to as "Papa," answered the call for help by turning his garage, with additions, into the store's new location. As they approached the 30-year mark with The Children's Centre, Camilla and her Aunt Elizabeth decided it was time to retire from retail business. They sold the business, its inventory and name. It was moved to the Orangeburg Mall.

Family outings to Orangeburg's drive-in theaters in the winters and night baseball games in the summers were welcomed outlets in the immediate post-war years. From 1948 to 1951, the Orangeburg Braves, a semi-pro team loaded with former major league players, played in the Palmetto League at newly-constructed Mirmow Field. Camilla wrote that Cam would be asleep before the movie's end but would be lively throughout the baseball games. In later years, Cam and her mother became avid Atlanta Braves fans.

In 1958, daughter Cam became interested in politics after working on a paper in her history class. She became a staunch Republican. Cam and Dail Smoak, also of Orangeburg, attended the Young Republican Convention in San Francisco, where Cam was a delegate.

By 1964, Camilla was following in her daughter's political footsteps. In that year, Cam, Camilla, Aunt Mamie Wagnon and nieces Mimi Brailsford and Sallie Kiser may have constituted one of the largest family delegations to attend the Republican Convention in San Francisco. Cam was a delegate to the convention. Camilla was impressed with one of the speakers, Ronald Reagan.

After 39 years as a widow, Camilla Brailsford Knotts became Camilla Brailsford Knotts Williams. She married widower Milburn Cullen Williams, known as "Willie," in a ceremony on March 12, 1983, at Orangeburg's Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, with granddaughter Charlotte as her only attendant. Willie, a native of Norway, had known Camilla when they were both school teachers at Cheraw in the 1930s.

"Willie came by unexpectedly to see me after his dear wife had passed away," Camilla wrote. "When he left he asked if he could come back again when he was over this way.

"When Willie suggested marriage I thought it was the craziest thing I ever heard of but the more he talked the more sense it made." Willie died April 3, 1986, after a brief illness.

The more than 4,000 words I have written on these pages constitute only a tiny capsule of Camilla's literary treatment of her 100 years. Her more than 90,000 hand-written words will endure as a masterpiece of Brailsford genealogy and a precise historical documentation of life in Orangeburg from 1908 to 2008.

* Dean Livingston is the retired publisher of The Times and Democrat and the author of the book, "Yesteryears ... A newsman's look back at the events and people who have influenced the histories of Orangeburg and Calhoun counties."

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