On September 16th, Kasie and Rex wanted to dedicate the show to Ginny Padgett, longtime SCWA member and leader of the Columbia II Chapter to which both Kasie and Rex belonged. Unfortunately, the engineer did not cue up our show and we weren’t able to get on the air.

Nonetheless, Ginny was a wonderful person and an influential one in our writing careers so we want to post this to honor her.

Virginia Linn Wessinger Padget | Sept 5, 1953 – September 11, 2023

Ginny was the leader of Columbia II when our friend Jodie Cain Smith convinced me (Kasie) to attend. She was gracious and welcoming and always had a positive response to anything I brought in for critique. She was also an excellent reader and had a keen eye for story and detail. Her feedback was critical for my first novel, After December.

Here’s a link to Ginny’s obituary and some notes and pictures people posted.

Ginny led the effort for Columbia II to publish a monthly blog. She signed us up, kept us on schedule, and reminded us when our draft was due and when the final copy needed to be ready for posting. For years she posted those blogs. Here’s a link to the treasury of Cola 2 work.

At the service on Friday, attendees were encouraged to share their Ginny stories. My own is about Ginny and I marching at the statehouse on International Women’s Day. She drove and we parked her wagon in one of the city’s Passport parking spots. It’s an app whre you identify the spot and the car and pay by credit card to park there. Ginny’s car is still listed in my Passport options.

The protest was in response to increasingly anti-women legislation that she and I shared concern over. We’ve watched the South Carolina legislature repeatedly attempt to curb reproductive rights and ban outright a woman’s right to choose. Women are chronically underpaid for the same work men do. We’re underrepresented in the legislature, the executive branch, and the judiciary. Ginny was a journalist by training but an activist by passion. We shared many of the same concerns that our state and nation were headed in the wrong direction.

When Rex married his wife, Kat, Ginny hosted a wedding celebratory brunch at her home. As was noted at her service, Ginny liked Prosecco to celebrate and she had plenty of it on hand to celebrate the newest marriage in our small group. She was kind that way and a wonderful hostess. As Hampton, her second son pointed out, if you visited Ginny’s home you rarely left there without executing some needlessly complicated task for her. We all pitched in to make that brunch shower a beautiful celebration but Ginny directed us masterfully, the perfect hostess and such a caring friend.

I’ve been the President of SCWA for two years, and served on the board two years before that. It was Ginny who pushed me to take a leadership role. During an onsite planning retreat she was supposed to attend, Ginny sent me as proxy. She must have nudged then-President Carol Ann Rudy to recruit me. Because between Mike Lee and Carol Ann, I quickly found myself put to work for the organization.

Serving SCWA has been an honor in my professional career. I’ve learned so much and been able to achieve so many things. Not the least of which was the Fresh Voices Award and this radio broadcast. Ginny has been the voice in my ear every step of the way encouraging me to try more, do more, be more. Not in aimless ambition but to be brave enough to fulfill my potential. She was a tireless coach full of optimism and encouragement.

We’re grateful to have known Ginny. Thank you, Padgett family, for sharing her with us. May she rest in peace.

Do you have a Ginny story to share? Leave a comment.