City: Myrtle Beach, SC

Category: Annual Events & Festivals

Telephone: (843) 626-7444

Description: Two notable South Carolinians are inducted into this hall of fame each year, representing a gallant procession of statesmen, scientists, artists, soldiers, and teachers. Inductees include President Andrew Jackson, jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, painter Jasper Johns, Gen. William C. Westmoreland, author Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, and more than 30 others. The South Carolina flag that was taken to the moon by NASA astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr. is also on display. In 2009 King Hagler, an 18th-century Catawba Indian chief, and Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, and other novels based in the Lowcountry, were inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 2008 the honorees were Eliza Lucas Pinckney, an 18th-century planter and agriculturalist, and Walter B. Edgar, an author and distinguished professor of history at the University of South Carolina.Civil rights activist, famed attorney, and judge Matthew Perry was inducted in 2007, along with Revolutionary War hero Peter Horry. Horry County, where Myrtle Beach is located, is named after this brigadier general, who also served in the South Carolina Legislature. Previous recipients include Bobby Richardson, who joined the New York Yankees at the age of 19 and played more than 1,400 games while the Yankees were winning American League pennants. Named the Most Valuable Player in the 1960 World Series (still the only player from a losing team to be so named), Bobby holds numerous World Series records, including runs-batted-in in a game, runs-batted-in in a series, and hits in a series. He also holds the record for having played in 30 consecutive World Series games.Cardinal Joseph Bernadin was ordained to the priesthood in 1952 and served 14 years in the Diocese of Charleston before being named a papal chamberlain in 1959 and a domestic prelate in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Atlanta by Pope Paul VI, which made him the youngest bishop in the country. In 1982 Archbishop Bernadin was appointed by Pope John Paul II as archbishop of Chicago and was elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals in early 1983. He died in 1996.In 1980 Charles F. Bolden Jr. was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA, qualified as a shuttle pilot in 1981, and subsequently flew four missions logging more than 690 hours in space. In 1986 he helped deploy the SARCOM KU satellite; in 1990 he piloted the shuttle Discovery, which launched the Hubble telescope. In 1992 he commanded the shuttle Atlantis on NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth; and in 1994 commanded STA-60, the first joint U.S./Russian mission. After leaving NASA he was promoted to major general and assumed duties as Deputy Commander, United States Forces, Japan.The hall is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and admission is free.