Retired Eutawville teacher sees much change in 100 years

EUTAWVILLE, S.C. (AP) — From coaching the Eutawville High School girls’ basketball team to decades of teaching and church involvement, Eliza Spiers Couturier has had experiences of a lifetime while enjoying small-town living.

“It’s something I didn’t think would ever happen. I’m amazed by it all and I feel greatly blessed,” said the soft-spoken Couturier from a rocking chair on the porch of her historic home, Lawson’s Pond, in the Cross community.

On April 16, she turned 100.

“Most of my life, I have enjoyed good health,” she said.

In recent years, she’d taken a couple of falls that resulted in breaking both of her hips and undergoing physical rehabilitation.

“But I’m not in any pain. I feel absolutely blessed,” she said.

“All I can say is the Good Lord has blessed me. But I will say this, I think I have led what you might call a ‘clean life,’” she said.

“I was raised on the farm. I ate healthy, homegrown food. I did not smoke. I did not drink. And all in all, I have taken good care of myself,” she said.

She’s been receiving birthday cards over the past weeks and several of former students, from her 37-year teaching career, have sent cards to her. Her first four years of teaching were at the Eutawville School and the remaining 33 were at Cross Elementary School.

She taught first and second grades.

After graduating from Winthrop College, now Winthrop University, in 1942, Couturier got a job teaching at the Eutawville School, which housed first through 11th grades. This was before kindergarten and the 12th grades were required for public schools.

Her starting salary? $85 monthly, but not during the summer when school was out.

After four years, she began teaching at Cross Elementary School, where her salary increased to $100...