In Brick and Story, we share the voices of those who shape Manning—shopkeepers and chefs, quiet doers and familiar faces, neighbors whose roots run deep. These are the stories that breathe life into our streets, giving our town its soul and making Manning matchless for beauty and hospitality.
Candice:
"I’ve always loved fashion. I like being my own unique person. Even when I stayed at home, I’d wake up every day and get dressed. I was never in my pajamas all day. When you look good, you feel good.
I don’t like copying or having imitation stuff, so I want everybody to look their best but still stand out.
When I go out, even if it’s just to a restaurant in town, I don’t want 14 other people to look the same. Everybody should look like their own unique self. My quote in life is, "Do you, boo." You do you, I do me.
I was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years. I started in Moncks Corner with a small team. I have a location there, I opened it 10 years ago this August.
At the time, things were booming, and a lot of my customer base was from the Manning area. I was born and raised in Manning. I was transitioning and moving back home, and opening this store just kind of fell into our lap. It was meant to be. We've been here five years. Stephanie's been here since day one."
Stephanie:
"I also was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years. Candice’s dear Aunt Debbie went to church with us, and I was talking with her. I said, “Oh, I see Candice is opening up a Berkeley Boutique in Manning. How exciting!” She said, “Yeah, she’s probably going to need some help. Have you ever thought about going back to work?” I thought about it twice because I previously did hair. After I had my last baby—he was a needy child—I stayed at home with him and never went back to doing hair.
I guess Miss Debbie reached out to Candice and said, “I have somebody.” I came and viewed the store and absolutely fell in love with it. I've enjoyed doing this. I’ve reunited with some of my past clients I hadn’t seen in years, and I’ve met new clients. I just love people. I love helping them. Just like Candice said, when you get the perfect outfit, you look good, you feel good—and that’s what it’s all about."
Candice:
"We love all ages. They come in at 13 and sometimes even at 70 or 80. We don’t just pinpoint one age group.
We’re very trendy, very chic. We try to stay with the trends. We go to market and keep up with the latest. I’m already buying for winter right now. We try to stay one season ahead because everything we have now was ordered back in November or December.
Sydney’s good at putting stuff together. She likes people. She tries to work every day. She loves it that much.
I just love when people send us pictures from events. Like, my mom’s best friend went to a wedding in Virginia a few weeks ago, and she said so many people yelled, “I love your dress!” She just advertised for us. That’s what keeps me motivated.
You have days where you don’t really feel it, and then one person will say, “So-and-so loved it and came in here to get one,” and that just keeps you going.
It’s my hometown. It feels good when you go out in public—people are genuine. Everybody loves to be social. It’s a good place to raise kids. A lot of people are moving down to retire. It’s a small town, but it’s close-knit, and everybody looks out for each other.
The biggest compliment is when you get referrals from customers."
-Candice Castle, Stephanie Richburg, & Sydnee Lyerly of Berkeley Boutique
"In May of 2017, we moved across the country. I worked five years out of a 35-year banking career in Charleston. I retired in December 2022.
And I headed up nonprofits, worked as a director for Shriners Hospital, a director for the American Diabetes Association, and Executive Director for Children’s Village, a residential foster facility in Idaho. I wanted to switch gears and leave the nonprofit arena, but I wasn’t sure what the next phase or chapter was going to look like, and neither one of us was employed.
We came here in 2022. We weren’t looking to open a business. That all just kind of happened organically. We locked down this place in July 2024, and we opened in September of that year. The whole business model is that we lease wall space, display space to artisans, artists, and vendors. We now have 20-21 artists and vendors at Whimsi.
We have alcohol ink jewelry by Lori Levine. She’s a local jeweler. When the alcohol hits the ink, it explodes into these magnificent colors, so each one is different.
And we have Parker Johnson’s “Beads of Joy”. She’s a nurse at the local hospital and a beloved local resident. They’re blessing beads, and people love them. There’s the connection to the local community.
And Sam McManus, the wife of the local United Methodist minister, makes beeswax soaps, lotion, and lip balms.
Our newest artist is Jack Boyd. He focuses on a lot of local establishments. We’ve got a picture here of the Manning water tower and the courthouse, just a number of venues he paints that make an immediate connection.
It is local and regional. We have artists from Summerville, Columbia, Chapin, Prosperity, and Blythewood. We were fortunate, just in terms of the quality of the artisans we’ve gathered here in creating that experience.
There was a lady who came in. She recently lost her husband. We’ve got great art here, so people come in to enjoy great art, and it’s cathartic. She spent a good hour just looking at exquisite art and getting outside of herself, taking some personal time in the midst of grieving, to just enjoy the art. I decided to spend some one-on-one time with her. I was in banking, a high-energy, high-level, intense environment, and to be able to make a connection with a person, and we both mutually benefited from.
We’re just blessed beyond measure that we have this community we get to call home. We’re surrounded by cornfields, yet we have the lake community. We have access to good golf courses, we’re not golfers, but it’s the resort vibe, the recreation vibe, with this sweet little downtown community that ties us all together.
When we have traffic congestion, it’s because we’re behind a combine. I’d rather be late and be behind a farm implement than live in the frustration of a metropolitan area with traffic congestion every single day. For us, it’s endearing. We embrace it and celebrate it."
-Gerald and Julie Lockhart
"My grandparents ran a store. It’s what I knew. It’s the only thing I really knew. I enjoy helping people find what they are looking for and delivering superior selection and knowledge at the end of the day. We’ve got 3,000 products. The average person only knows what they see in marketing. We can tell them about it, tell them how to mix it, give suggestions in that manner. As a point of reference for the brands on the shelf, we're here. A long time ago, spirits were made by just a few big companies. Now there’s a lot of local—just like the craft beer movement, there’s a local craft spirits movement, where local distilleries are popping up that use locally made and sourced grains and products, in turn supporting the local economies. Even though the products are a little more expensive, you can see the direct impact those products have on the local economy and local businesses. We like to highlight those local products within each section of our store. If you want to support that and drive the economy locally, that’s what we like to do. The largest liquor company in the world is headquartered in the UK. We definitely will never see that money again. A couple of other big companies are headquartered overseas. Some products you can only get overseas. By supporting local, you can see the impact. My wife is from Manning. I moved down here 12 years ago. It’s a nice town. I like the rural living. Manning still has enough amenities that it doesn’t feel like you’re missing out on much. And it’s close enough to larger towns if you really want movies or fine dining you’re close enough. I mean, if I’m living in Charleston, you drive an hour for 10 miles. I can drive an hour and be in Charleston. You don’t always go for the cheapest stuff. If your neighbor’s working somewhere, you want to support where they’re working. Because they support you, you support them. The money keeps flowing in local businesses." -Jeremiah Stokes, Premier Spirits & More
"We originally started as an Etsy shop called For Heavener's Sake. My maiden name is Heavener, so I just liked the fun, quirky play on words. We moved here from Summerville in 2021 and didn’t really know anybody. It was not planned but opening up a brick-and-mortar store was a way to meet people in the community. Because when working from home, you don’t get to meet a whole lot of people. I’m also a reservist, so going to work a nine-to-five job is kind of hard with the job that I have. Being your own boss is helpful. I’m typically only gone a day here or there, but it still makes employers mad. The first question is always, “Thanks for serving,” but the second is, “How many days are you going to miss?” We do a lot of personalized gifts—that’s our specialty is custom orders. We do custom hats, personalized jewelry that we do right here at the counter. We do on-site engraving. The store is a mix of stuff we make personally, stuff we can personalize, and then unique gifts. All of our beauty section is clean brands. That’s very important to me. I’m what you’d call a “crunchy mama,” so they’re all clean, U.S.-based beauty brands. I like out-of-the-box stuff. My goal is that whoever you’re shopping for, we’ve got something for them and not something you see at every other gift store. I feel like small businesses care more about what we put in our stores. We care about the person who comes in looking for a gift. In a small town, often you know the person they’re gifting it to, or you’ve met them, or maybe you’ll potentially meet them. It’s a more personal experience to me, and that’s why I own a gift shop. Gifting is a very personal thing. areas. Everybody’s very welcoming. We rely more on our community as a business than we do, say, the city or the government. I feel like small businesses care more about what we put in our stores. We care about the person that comes in looking for a gift. In a small town, often you know the person they’re gifting it to, or you’ve met them, or maybe you’ll potentially meet them. It’s a more personal experience to me, and that’s why I own a gift shop. Gifting is a very personal thing. I even made one yesterday—personalized money holders—because the kids want money, but I don’t like to just give a plain gift. So when you come, and not just to my gift shop, but to all the shops here, you’re going to get a more personal experience. You’re going to get somebody who cares about you, someone who cares that the person actually likes their gift." -Ryan Estes, Southern Accent
"There’s a waiting list. I wish we could get a second story because I love my location. I had a void in my life when my kids went to college—no baseball games, none of that. I started with a little booth here and stayed in it for about five years. Then the owner fell on some health issues and needed to sell. I bought it. Because this is fun. This is what I really like to do in my life. I like the hunt. I like to go out and find the unique and unusual stuff. There's a mixture of vintage, antiques, home décor, repurposed. We’re consignment. I give them space for a consignment fee and sell their stuff for them.You kind of get a feel after a while for what people are buying, and so that’s what you go out and look for. But I also look out for stuff that I like, because I seem to have that knack—that what I like, other people like. We do have retail in here—rugs and dish towels and stuff like that. That’s retail. But 80% of the stuff in here is used goods. I found a Hoosier one time—a cabinet—and that was one of my greatest finds because of the price. The price was really, really low. You can’t say no. A lot of the vintage stuff are finds because it’s getting harder to find those old things. I walk away from a lot of stuff. If I can’t resell it, I’ll walk away. Not a problem. I did not grow up in Manning. My dad was Air Force, and he got stationed at Shaw in ‘71, in Sumter—that’s the neighboring city. I grew up there, got married, started having kids. I moved down to Manning for that small-town feel. It’s kind of hard to put a finger on, but it’s mostly the people. You just stop and talk to people. You’re not in a hurry. The schools were great for my kids. My kids had a great time growing up. There’s not much here for kids to do—they had to find their own fun, just like I did when I was growing up. They did sports, they did the hunting, the fishing—stuff like that. And that’s what I wanted them to have. We have a good time here. 80% of the people that I started with are still here."-Tracy Forbes, Sweet Repeats & More LLC
"I’ve always wanted to do hair. I think that it just felt like it wasn’t a job. When I was younger, it just seemed fun. Now I know it’s completely different. I finished high school and went to cosmetology school. I went to another salon for six months, and then my clientele took off. I always wanted my own salon, too. I got the keys in February 2020. We got shut down a month later. I didn’t get to open until the middle of May. It was terrifying. Thank God I was still living at home. I could take a chance and it worked out. Everybody needed a haircut when we all opened back up, so that kind of jumpstarted things. I was really busy when we came back. I love the girls who work with me now. I worked alone for like two years, just me in here. I got to a point where I was like, did I make the right decision by opening my own salon and not staying where I was? And then Katherine came, and then they all kind of filed in, and now we're full. I think it helps knowing people. In a bigger city, you don’t know everybody, so it’s hard to keep that close relationship outside of your business, or doing their hair, or whatever. I think that by knowing people and people knowing who you are in the small town, that keeps the relationship and the loyalty there." -Lauren Wilkins, East Boyce Salon
"We purchased it in June of 1995. Our first day was June the 25th, and we have been in business here ever since.
Anderson Pharmacy was started back in the late ’70s by the original owner, Andy Anderson, and he retired in 1995. Myself and two other gentlemen bought the business from him.
One of my partners had been in conversation with him about this store originally, on its proximity to the hospital right across the street. He knew the hospital probably was not going to move from its present location. It would always be there.
It’s very hard to move a hospital. And he thought having a pharmacy close to the hospital would be just a great business decision.
I grew up in a small town about 120 miles from Manning, South Carolina in Edgefield. At the time I came here, I had two young sons, one was five and one was a little over a year and coming to raise two sons in a small town was what my wife and I were looking for. She was basically coming home. She grew up in Summerton, an only child, and her family had a business along the interstate, so it was a chance for her to come home.
A slower pace of life.
This community has been really good to my family and to this business. When I came here, I didn’t know a whole lot of people, but I have met people from all walks of life. Honestly, everybody that comes in here, they're my family. They're family to me. It doesn’t make any difference whether they're black, white, rich, or poor. They’re my family.
And they’ve helped me along the way. I’ve grown through them, and I hope they’ve grown through me.
It’s been really good. It has."
-Rock Outz, Anderson Pharmacy
“This was the first pharmacy I ever stepped behind the counter of. One of the former owners, his wife, taught me science in either sixth or seventh grade. I must have made the comment that I wanted to be a pharmacist, so she sent me up here for a day to shadow. I came behind the counter here, and that owner had his eye on me ever since.
The best we can find is that Brunson’s was started somewhere between 1905 and 1906. Obviously, I was not around then, just a youthful face.
I'm from Manning. I was working corporate and had just kind of had enough and wanted to do my own thing, take care of patients my own way.
When he retired, he wanted to sell it to me. He came to my corporate job where I was working, pulled me off to the side, and said they were looking to retire. They didn’t want to sell the store to just anyone. It was for sale, but it was only for sale to me at the time. I bought the store in 2013.
Well, it's your typical pharmacy, but we try to make it more personable. We know most of our patients, know where they live, try to memorize their meds, and know them by first name when they walk in. We still try to give it that old hometown pharmacy feel.
I would guess 75% of our patients, we're going to ask their name just to verify, but we know who they are when they walk in. We’ve got a lot of elderly clients or low-income clients that need a little extra help. They may not have cars, may not have transportation, may have had their driver's license taken if they're elderly, you know. We try to do our best. Those that are in town, if they need it, we’ll fill their medicine and deliver it to them.
I'm servicing the community that I grew up in. A lot of these people, they may have taught me in school, we may go to church together, I may have coached their kids in rec ball. I come to work every day, and yeah, I’m your typical pharmacist, I fill meds, we try to get them out quick, fast, and in a hurry, so you're not waiting three days like some places. But also, I feel like I'm doing it for people that I know. You're personally vested in them. You talk to them on a general basis, how are your kids? How’s this going on? How’s this problem that I know you may be having? And then they do the same for me.
Since I bought the store, I’ve lost my brother, I’ve lost my mom, and I’ve had a cancer scare of my own. The customers ask how I am. How are you doing with your health? The day that I got home from having a tumor removed, one of my customers was knocking on, I don’t know how she even knew I was home, but one of my customers was knocking on my front door with a pound cake. It’s a sense of community that you don’t get everywhere.”
-Jamie Mathis, Brunson's Pharmacy LLC
“Gone with the Grain is a bespoke home decor company. We make custom furniture. A lot of that stays local to Clarendon County. Some of it goes out of state, well, actually, quite a bit goes out of state. And then we make a lot of home decor, custom wall finishes, designs, gift items, all that we hand-make, laser cut, and finish here in our Manning location.
Gone with the Grain started in 2016 as a way for me—I used to own a marketing company—and I got so stressed out with doing that. I always liked doing woodworking.
We have a TARDIS door. Yeah, it’s a TARDIS from Dr. Who. Because we design for a lot of British stores, they will come to us—a new one that opens up—and they’ll say, “Hey, we need to make the store look really British,” or the restaurant look really British. We’ve built up that kind of reputation. We have a client, a store in Atlanta, that has a TARDIS door for the men’s restroom and then a London phone box for the women’s. We have a store in Georgia last year that bought ten tables from us for a tea room—a British tea room. We don’t just do British stuff, you know. It just happens to be something that we got into that allowed us to kind of expand.
It started as a hobby in our back garden. We have a property with an 800-square-foot workshop. I’d go out there and do things and stuff. It started out with wine racks and things like that, and then built up to other things and got larger and larger soon it became coffee tables and dining room tables.
And then COVID hit. And, you know, it was one of those things where people were suddenly spending more money at home because they weren’t traveling and stuff. So our business really skyrocketed. And we had to make the decision we couldn’t serve two masters. We couldn’t serve a marketing company and this. We were building this up with the idea that one day we’d make it full-time, and we got the opportunity, and we just went for it.
We’ve now got a 5,500-square-foot workshop here. The one at the house was 800 square foot. But it’s important to us to be able to do this to where we can have a business outside of the home now, so we can separate home life and work life.
It's interesting. When I put out my first big project, a custom order for someone for a table. I was like, oh my god. I had to really think about it. Someone’s going to really pay me for this, it’s go time. We just took on another job recently for a family. We're doing an entire kitchen for them. Building out an entire kitchen. It’s a big project. The things that are your bread and butter are small stuff. You catch a big fish here and there, but this keeps the doors open.
Everything’s got a story of where it’s gone. I remember building it. It’s just different when you have someone come in saying, “We have this space, can you make this?” And I’m like, yes. But sometimes people come in with champagne taste and beer money. That can become a problem too.
I think what I love most about this business we’ve created, that it’s definitely very cool when you deliver a custom piece, and you know someone spent a small fortune on it, and their family’s going to eat dinner around that table for the next 20, 30 years. The memories they’re going to make around it. It’s a joy.
It’s really cool when we make a piece for a wedding. You know that’s now going to be in pictures they’ll look at for years to come. It’s part of their memories. Or we’ll make something for a pet that’s passed away, memory boxes, or for graduation. We get to be a part of people’s precious memories, and that’s really kind of cool.
There are things that come up in life you have to pay for and you don’t enjoy paying for. And then there are some things... you see people actually buying something they’re going to display in their home. That does bring joy not just to us, but to them, hopefully.
And it’s the type of business where you have to hustle. You’re self-employed. You’ve got to go after it. You have to rely on the backbone of the community. We’re a little unique. We have a lot of local traffic for custom furniture, but we don’t do a lot of this stuff locally. A lot of the décor we do have people who know us and come buy it but for us, we rely on people.
Manning is a very small town. It’s very close-knit. We were outsiders, it was really hard to break in. But we’ve developed some amazing friendships down here. And when people talk about Southern hospitality, it is very real. We were made to feel welcome by a lot of people. The more we got to know people, the more we put ourselves out there.
Over the last few years, we’ve developed an appreciation for the people and the businesses. We really like to support local businesses. Pretty much with all our gift-giving and everything, we try to find someone local who has a small business or go to the main square area and support those businesses.
That’s important. A lot of people don’t realize small businesses are the backbone of America. People think, “Well, I can go get it from so-and-so on the square in Manning,” or “I can go to Walmart and get it for ten bucks, cheaper.” They don’t understand what went into it.
It’s a great place to live. Manning’s growing, and its exciting times. I think the future for Manning looks pretty darn good.”
-Rick and Amy Miles, Gone with the Grain
"I was a hairdresser for 48 years, and my knees started giving me some trouble. The next best thing is that I love is quilting. And I could sit. I could sit a lot. I still have to get up, move around and all, but I could sit a lot, whereas doing hair, I didn’t get time to sit.
Mainly, the people you get to meet so many different kinds of people. People that you wouldn’t even think would do something like this. And then you get the ones that really want to learn how to do quilting, and they get excited over everything. That gets you excited about quilting. I like teaching, at one point, I taught hair and nails, and I’ve taught other things.
I was born in Sumter, and I lived most of my life in Delaware, where my dad was from. I came back here 32 years ago and I’ve been here ever since."
-Cyndi Freeman, Stitching Memories
"Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to help people. And when you're younger, you think of things like, “Okay, if I want to help people, what can I be?” I could be a nurse, or I could be a doctor, or a police officer. Not once did it cross my mind that I would be able to help people navigate through their journey—meet them wherever they are—through music or art.
I wanted to provide a creative outlet, something healthier to do. Something that could spark relationships and build relationships amongst people—because people are craving that. They need that connection.
We started off as a mobile art studio. We traveled around to different restaurants, breweries, wineries—things of that sort—and popped up little paint parties. It started out as just something to do for fun, and then I saw that there was a demand. People really enjoyed gathering creatively, whether it be to paint or just to be around other people.
I've noticed that a lot of the people that have come to those events have been people who’ve lost someone, or they're not really part of any organization, or they're a stay-at-home mom. After a certain age, it’s really hard to meet people, especially since COVID.
I’ve always been a musician since I was younger. Music was the first thing. It was the full-time gig—that’s what I did three to four times a week. And then on off days, I would schedule the art parties. I’d dabble a little bit, anything I could do that was creative and not your general nine-to-five. That was for me, because I don’t want to be put in a box. I want to have that creative freedom.
So now I still do both. I still do music full-time. I usually play two to three times a week. I do a good bit in Manning, Santee, Charleston, Sumter all over. I can sing... maybe just a little.
When I realized I could do that and still be who I am and be that creative person, I was like, “Yep, this is it. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
I was a little nervous coming to Manning, just because there really wasn’t a thriving art scene. So I’m not gonna say it wasn’t scary. It was a risk, but it was a risk I was willing to take.
I’ve been super blessed. We've had a very good response. I’ve kind of been in the background a little bit, as far as our hours—we were event-only. And that’s only because it’s just me. It’s just my funds from working music and art that have funded this. This has been like a single-mom-budget type thing.
It’s not anywhere near where I want it to be or where I envision it, but it’s just one step at a time.
We've actually shifted a little. Our mobile parties, when we first started two years ago, almost three, we worked more with adults. We didn’t really work a lot with kids. We'd have the occasional kid come up, but not really young kids.
People always ask, “Do you do watercolor lessons or oil painting lessons?” Listen, I am not a professionally trained artist. That’s not what the business is about here. I just want people to know this is a place where, like, if you’ve never picked up a paintbrush or never thought about creating anything, this is the place for you.
Our goal is to bring that out of people and show them that no matter what, everybody can be creative. You can turn a mess into a masterpiece before you walk out, no matter your skill level.
We focus more on social gathering creatively than we do on technique. I’m sure there are other studios within a reasonable distance that focus more on the technical side, but if you're looking for that—we're not it.
We offer sip-and-paint-style parties. We have art kits to go that have all the paint, brushes, aprons, and canvases—everything’s pre-traced. The majority of our paint parties are pre-traced so that it's a stress-free painting experience.
We want it to be fun. It’s about painting, but it’s not really about painting.
We do corporate team-building events. We do fundraiser events, private parties, public parties that are listed on our website, and birthday parties.
We have different packages for birthdays. The traditional Picasso-style party, where the birthday kid comes in with friends and we paint something that fits the party theme. We have movie nights too, a projector on the wall, lights off, popcorn machine going. We put dividers up at the front, give people a little movie ticket, popcorn, snack, and soda.
We do slime parties, anything creative. Anything you don’t want your kids to do in your house or have to clean up after—do it here!
I try to think about how a lot of people don’t know we’re here. I’ve had so many random conversations where people say, “Oh, I didn’t know we had a place like that,” or “I was looking for somewhere to have my kid’s birthday party, but it’s too hot to do it at the park.” Well, this is a place they can do that.
I was raised in Sumter, so it’s not far, but I didn’t spend a lot of time in Manning growing up. It wasn’t until about six or seven years ago I even went to the Walmart in Manning!
But in the time I’ve spent here, I’ve gotten to know people. It’s a small-town, close-knit community, especially in the downtown area. I noticed Sumter’s downtown has really blossomed and improved over the last couple of years. I want to see that same type of effort and growth here.
If not me, then who? If not now, then when?
I hope this encourages other people to take that risk and jump in. People said, “I don’t know how an art studio would do down there.” Well, it’s done pretty well. I’m very blessed.
Of course, as an entrepreneur or anyone trying to figure out, “What is my purpose?” you might think, “Well, what if this doesn’t work out?” But what if it does?"
-Candace Wells, The Art & Soul Co. - Creative Studio