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Benches Donated to Lander

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Members of Mildred Rodgers' family pose with the bench dedicated to her by the Morning Glory Garden Club. Seated, from left, are Elizabeth Bowie, Kate Todd, William Cooper, Flynn Bowie and Nathan Cooper. Standing, from left, are Ashley Sherman, Ginger Rodgers Sherman, June Rodgers Todd, Blake Todd, Katherine Todd, Sloan Cooper and Walter Todd.

The Lander University Shade Garden is taking on a more finished look, with the addition of two new benches.

One was donated by Dr. F.B. Ferguson and his wife, Mary Barnette Ferguson, a former member of the Lander Foundation Board of Trustees, in honor of her grandmother, Mary Henderson Barnette, wife of former Greenwood veterinarian William A. Barnette, and a 1916 graduate of Lander.

The other bench was given by the Morning Glory Garden Club, whose members established the shade garden, to honor Mildred Miller Rodgers, who was instrumental in founding the club in 1991.

Former club president and current member Carolyn Fish said that Rodgers, the wife of longtime Greenwood veterinarian LeGrand D. "Lee" Rodgers, "was our mentor and served as an honorary member until her death."

Lander president Daniel Ball, speaking at the dedication ceremony, thanked the Fergusons, members of the Morning Glory Garden Club, horticulturist John Elsley, who selected the plants for the shade garden, and Dr. DeWitt Stone, Lander Arboretum Committee chair, for their efforts to beautify the campus. "It means a lot," he said.