Edythe R. Lambert

1921 - 2020

Edythe R. Lambert

Edythe Rutherford Lambert, age 98, of Clemson, South Carolina, died September 27, 2020. Edythe was born in Candler, NC, a daughter of the late John William Rutherford and Addie Bell Holcombe Rutherford. She earned a B.A. in 1942 from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (Greensboro) and received an M.A. in English from Clemson University in 1970. She served as an instructor at Clemson during her Masters studies from 1966-68, and was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi.

After college she taught French at Linden High School (NC) in 1942-43, served as a lab technician at American Enka Corporation (NC), 1943-44, and was a reporter for the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times, 1944-46. She married Robert S. Lambert March 7, 1946.

Surviving are a daughter, M. Anne Lambert and a son-in-law, Peter C. Barton, of Madison, Wisconsin, and former son-in-law, Thomas W. Whisnant. Her daughter, Dorothy Lambert Whisnant, is deceased. Robert, her husband of 71 years, died in 2018.

Edythe was the youngest of eight Rutherford children. Settling in Clemson, South Carolina in 1956 meant she and Robert could often visit and enjoy her beloved North Carolina family, including nieces and nephews, while benefitting from opportunities in the university town of Clemson where they lived.

Edythe's civic activities in Clemson include contributions to varied educational, social justice, and visual arts organizations. She was active in the late 1960s and into the 1980s in the Clemson chapter of the South Carolina Council on Human Relations whose interracial members founded the Clemson Child Development Center which opened in 1969. In 1973, she was chairperson of the Clemson Area Homes Tour, a fundraiser to benefit the Clemson Child Development Center, and later she was a member of the Center's board of directors.

She was a longtime member of the Clemson chapter of American Association of University Women, and beginning in 1985, was president of that Clemson branch. She served as editor of the AAUW statewide newsletter, The Palmetto Leaf, from 1984-86.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Edythe enjoyed working at Clemson Community Care as a food pantry volunteer. Started by an interfaith group, Clemson Congregations in Touch, she was glad that it has grown and expanded its services in subsequent years.

Edythe had wide ranging interests including researching family genealogy, collecting furniture and decorative arts from the region, and supporting the visual arts. She served as president of the Clemson Area Arts Council, in 1978-79, and was an active member in the Pickens County Friends of the Arts, in 1981-82. She supported the Clemson University School of Architecture and its Lee Hall Gallery for many years, and later served on their board of the Friends of the Center for Visual Arts.

From 1974-2004 her interest in decorative arts and history enhanced her work as a docent at Ashtabula, a historic house of the Pendleton Historic Foundation in Pendleton, SC. Edythe was a long-time, proud member of the South Carolina Democratic Party, the Francis Asbury Methodist Church in her youth in Candler, NC, and the Clemson United Methodist Church.

In 1990, for her participation in Clemson area philanthropic endeavors, Edythe was recipient of the Algernon Sidney Sullivan Award for community service from Clemson University. Edythe and Robert Lambert received a Human Rights Award from the Bahá'ís of Pickens County in 1991.

Edythe's family thanks the staffs of the Clemson Downs, its Healthcare Center, Carrine Galloway, her Healthcare Center companion, and Providence Care for their outstanding care.

Due to COVID restrictions, services will be private for the family.

Memorial gifts for Edythe may be directed to the Clemson United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 590, Clemson, S.C. 29633, or a Clemson area non-profit organization of one's choice.

Duckett-Robinson Funeral Home is assisting the family. For online condolences, please visit www.RobinsonFuneralHomes.com