Charles Joyner

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Charles Joyner, 81, passed away September 13, 2016 in Myrtle Beach, SC. Surviving are his wife Jean Dusenbury Joyner, his son Wesley, his daughter Hannah, her husband David, and their son Abraham.

Chaz and Jeannie came to Laurinburg in 1966 when Joyner accepted a job teaching in the history department at St. Andrews. They began their family while living on Blue Drive, then bought a house a block away on Woodburn Road. Jeannie has expressed how much the Laurinburg community meant to them: "We have so many fond memories of our lives there."

During his years at St. Andrews, Joyner especially enjoyed team-teaching in the Christianity and Culture program, where he worked closely with other faculty members including his dear friend George Melton. He often said that C&C's unique interdisciplinary approach to the humanities made possible his own scholarship combining folklore and history.

Joyner's love of music and his interest in folklore led him to study folktales, ballads, and instrument makers from Scotland County, from the mountains of North Carolina, and from many other places around the world. Joyner took several groups of St. Andrews students to England and Scotland to study music and folk culture. Eager to share his passion with the larger

community, Joyner also told folktales and sang traditional songs at local preschools and grammar schools. He was honored to serve as the president of the North Carolina Folklore Society in the 1970s.

In 1980, Joyner left Laurinburg to move to Myrtle Beach, the town where he grew up. There he was the Burroughs Distinguished Professor of Southern History and Culture at Coastal Carolina.

Joyner wrote many books and articles about southern history and culture. Down by the Riverside, the best known of his books, chronicles slave life in a lowcountry South Carolina community. It has been called "the finest work ever written on American slavery." In Shared

Traditions: Southern History and Folk Culture, Joyner explored the intersections of African American and white cultures and how they have flowed together in Southern history and heritage.

Donations may be sent to St. Andrews, https://www.sa.edu/donation-forms/give-to-standrews