SC H4897

South Carolina House Resolution expressing sympathy upon the death of Vivian Ayers Allen, a Chester native who passed away on August 18, 2025, at age 102

Dr. Ayers Allen was a poet, playwright, museum curator, and cultural activist for over 60 years whose first poetry collection, Spice of Dawns (1952), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize

Served as founding director of Brainerd Institute Heritage in Chester for nearly two decades and established Workshops in Open Fields, a preschool literacy program

Her 1957 poem Hawk, an allegory of freedom analogous to space flight, earned recognition from NASA and is displayed at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

Mother of four notable children: musician "Tex" Allen, choreographer/producer Debbie Allen, Tony Award-winning actress Phylicia Rashad, and TD Bank regional president Hugh Allen