ous as she made him out to be. Mary said every time she talked or socialized with a male peer, Charles would somehow manage to weave his way into the conversation. “Sometimes it felt like there was a conspiracy going on,” she said. Charles would come over with his “intellectual sword,” and before she knew it the man would be gone. “I told (Charles) he was being rude.” Having accepted Charles’ proposal, Mary returned home to Greenville. Being away, Mary started having doubts, which she shared with her father. “He told me I had g better be sure,” she said. With that advice, Mary returned to Hilton Head Island. “After the drive, I was exhausted and lay down for awhile. I was waiting for Charles to return from work. “He rounded the steps, and right then and there I knew. That was it. A deep, deep love dropped inside of me,” she said. Laura Lawton Fraser, their youngest daughter, said watching her mother and father in action was inspiring. “They had an exquisite working relationship,” she said. “Very few women could have lived with my father,” she added. “They loved each other deeply and respected each other’s passion for ambitions in life.” “I just realized he was so bright. I fell in love with his vision,” Mary said. “He loved the boldness in me.” While her father brought an intellectual aspect to their relationship and to the family, Mary balanced it with spirituality, having a deep faith in Christ, Laura Lawton said. Married Nov. 30, 1963, Mary and Charles were married for almost 40 years. Although she never drew a paycheck from the company after the two were wed, Mary continued working behind the scenes, helping Charles turn Sea Pines into a family-oriented, world-class resort. And although she goes by Mary Wyman Stone Fraser, Mary said knew when it was appropriate to switch hats. “I’ll always be Mrs. Charles E. Fraser. That’s who I am,” she said. Charles died when a chartered boat exploded on Dec. 15, 2002. Today, Mary lives in Brevard, North Carolina, and has a home in Atlanta. Charles Fraser and Mary Wyman Stone Fraser fell in love with Sea Pines and with each other. SeaPines50thAnniversary.com | SeaPinesHomesAndVillas.com 23 MANY PEOPLE HAVE FALLEN in love with Sea Pines over the years. But no two people have fallen in love with Sea Pines quite the way Charles Fraser and Mary Wyman Stone Fraser fell in love with it and, in the process, fell in love with each other. It seemed at first, however, that everyone but them knew they were destined for one another. As the story goes, Charles needed a social director to entertain clients and executives. Someone suggested Mary Wyman Stone, whose family was in the textile industry in Greenville. Mary was working in Washington, D.C., for U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond at the time. When Charles contacted Harry Dent, Thurmond’s assistant, and asked whether he should hire this girl from Greenville, Dent’s reply was, “Hire her? You ought to marry her!” “My mother wanted me to marry him, too,” Mary added. This was even before the two had laid eyes on one another. “Charles sent me literature about the company, which I quickly filed in the trash can,” Mary said. For whatever reason, in 1963, Mary agreed to work for the company, but only for three months. Three months turned into six months, and Charles asked if she could stay on a little longer. Charles and Mary never really dated, but they spent just about every waking moment together during that six months as they both put in long hours with the company during Sea Pines’ formative years. “Charles and I were together constantly,” she said. “It really was a love effort.” Back then, Mary said, there really weren’t many options to go out to eat except the William Hilton Inn. “Charles always would invite people to sit with him at his table and made sure that I was always seated there ,too,” Mary said. It wasn’t until right before Mary was scheduled to leave Hilton Head Island that Fraser realized he might never see her again. Charles proposed. “I think he just woke up to the thought (of marrying me),” Mary said. Maybe Charles wasn’t as oblivi- A Sea Pines Love Story 22 SeaPines50thAnniversary.com | SeaPinesHomesAndVillas.com
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