A True Lander Lily: Mae Williams Buzhardt ’48

For Mae Williams Buzhardt ’48, being a Lander Lily is more than a title. It is a connection to a place and a time that helped shape the woman she would become.

At 96 years old, Buzhardt is one of Lander University’s oldest living alumni. Her memories of Lander College offer a glimpse into student life during the 1940s, from strict curfews and room inspections to May Day celebrations, friendships and late-night doughnuts. While campus life looked very different then, Buzhardt remembers her college years with warmth, humor and gratitude.

Buzhardt grew up in Edgefield County and always dreamed of attending college. Her father supported that dream but taught her an important lesson about hard work. He would pay half of her college expenses if she worked for the other half.

That arrangement brought her to Lander, where she worked in the dining room to help pay her way through college. She remembers working alongside a fellow student who played the piano, and the students would hurry to finish setting the tables so they could dance at six o’clock.

“I’ve always danced all my life,” Buzhardt recalled. “My parents danced, and I taught my son to dance.”

When Buzhardt attended Lander, it was still a women’s college, and campus life came with plenty of rules. She lived in Old Main, where “Ma” Bass kept a watchful eye on the ladies. Students did not have cars, dates required a senior chaperone and students had to sign out before leaving campus. Sunday afternoon dates were limited to specific hours, and being late came with consequences.

Much of student life centered around the residence halls. Rooms were inspected in the mornings, students gathered for evening prayers and the girls often borrowed clothes and accessories from one another when getting ready to go out. Despite the rules, Buzhardt remembers the friendships and camaraderie most of all.

“We all always had a good time,” she said.

Even food became part of the memories. By her final year, students could call a local establishment to have doughnuts delivered late at night. If someone had enough money, the girls would pull their resources together and enjoy a late-night treat.

“And we’d eat doughnuts at 11 o’clock at night because, you know, back then, everybody’s hungry,” she said.

One of Buzhardt’s fondest memories is May Day, a much-anticipated campus tradition. Students dressed in white, with long skirts and carefully styled hair, and a May Day queen was crowned. Everyone was expected to look their best.

“You had to be spotless and fixed and dressed and primped and everything,” she recalled.

For Buzhardt, however, her connection to Lander began even before she became a student. A distant relative of Callie Self Coker, she visited Greenwood as a child and heard about Lander College during those visits. Growing up nearby, she became familiar with the families connected to the college and developed an early connection to both Lander and the Greenwood community.

That connection has remained meaningful throughout her life. Even today, when people from Greenwood visit her store, she can proudly tell them, “I’m a Lander Lily,” and they know exactly what she means.

Her memories also reflect how much Lander and the world around it has changed. During her college years, she remembers walking to church on Sundays, traveling home by Greyhound bus and living without air conditioning. Soldiers traveling during World War II often filled the buses, sometimes leaving students to stand during the journey home.

The Monday after Buzhardt graduated, she had planned to go to the beach with friends. Instead, her plans changed when Roger Milliken called her father and said he was interested in hiring Mae. She was told to report to his McCormick office at 8 a.m. Monday morning.

“So there went my beach trip,” she recalled with a laugh.

Milliken hired her on the spot, beginning a career that would introduce her to the world of textiles. She worked in his office for many years, assisting with meetings, documents and transcriptions. Then one day, Milliken returned from a trip with a piece of fabric and gave her a new challenge. He asked her to go into the plant and figure out how to replicate it.

That assignment sparked what would become a lifelong love of fabrics.

After many years working for Milliken, Buzhardt had her only son and decided to step away from work for a time. Later, Leona Ethridge approached her about purchasing her women’s clothing store. Buzhardt accepted the opportunity, beginning a new chapter that would become a 63-year legacy.

For more than six decades, Mae’s has dressed women from near and far, reflecting Buzhardt’s lifelong connection to people, fashion and fabrics, and at 96, she is still going strong. Today, customers can find Buzhardt six days a week at Mae’s, where she continues to run and operate the store at 130 N. Oak Street in Batesburg-Leesville.

Her connection with customers extends well beyond the store. Buzhardt has also built a loyal following on Facebook, where nearly 10,000 followers keep up with her weekly videos showcasing new arrivals. Through those videos, she continues to share her enthusiasm for fashion and her unmistakable personality with women near and far.

Nearly eight decades after graduating from Lander, Buzhardt remains a proud Lander Lily and a living connection to an important chapter in the University’s history. Her story is not only one of college memories, but of hard work, friendship, family, opportunity and a life shaped by the experiences she carried with her long after leaving Lander’s campus.