Southern Ghost

Courier.

Prominent Family Loses Father,

Son in Double Tragedy

The Honorable Augustus Tarrant, 63, suffered a fatal heart attack Saturday after learning of the death of his youngest son, Ross, 21, in an apparent shooting accident.

Harmon Brevard, Ross's grandfather, found the body of The Citadel senior at the fam­ily hunting lodge on Deer Creek in late afternoon. After calling authorities, Brevard went to the family home, the well-known Tarrant House, to inform the family.

Judge Tarrant collapsed upon hearing the news. The family physician, Dr. Paul Rutledge, was immediately summoned, but the jurist died before he could be hospital­ized.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

The father and son were members of one of Chastain's oldest and most influential families. Tarrants have played prominent roles in Chastain

and in the history of South Carolina since Mortimer Tar­rant arrived in Chastain in 1735. Family members have led efforts to preserve historic sites in and around Chastain.

Judge Tarrant was the son of Nathaniel Robert Tarrant and Rachel Wallace Tarrant. He was born in 1907. A 1928 graduate of The Citadel, he re­ceived his law degree from the University of Virginia. In 1937, he married Amanda Bre­vard of Chastain. Judge Tar­rant served in the Circuit Solicitor's office from 1931 to 1936. He joined his father's firm, Tarrant & Tarrant, in 1937 and practiced there until the outbreak of World War II. Judge Tarrant served in the in­fantry during the War, rising to the rank of lieutenant colo­nel. He returned to private practice until he became a cir­cuit judge in 1950.

Ross Tarrant was born Jan. 3, 1949. An outstanding stu?

dent at Chastain's Wellston School, he was an honor stu­dent at The Citadel and would have been graduated this spring.

Judge Tarrant is survived by his wife, Amanda, and two sons, Milam and his wife, Julia, and Whitney and his wife, Charlotte.

Annie sighed. What heartbreak. Two in a family lost the same day. Poor Amanda Tarrant. Her husband and youngest son dead with no warning, no preparation.

Tragic, yes. But what in that family tragedy prompted a young woman to hire a private detective twenty-two years later? (Annie called a spade as she saw it. She didn't have to pretend about Max's occupation, no matter how Max avoided the appellation of private detective.) Why did Courtney Kim­ball hire Max? Who was Courtney, and why did she care about the deaths of Judge Tarrant and his youngest son?

Annie carefully reread the article, then skimmed the other news stories and the formal obituaries. The facts remained the same. The only additional information concerned funeral ar­rangements.

She studied the newspaper photograph from the May 12, 1970, Chastain Courier. The mourners wore black. They stood beneath umbrellas in a slanting rain among a gray and cheer­less sea of tombstones. A veiled woman leaned heavily on the arm of a young man.

The caption read: The family of Judge Augustus Tarrant and Ross Tarrant bade them farewell Monday at graveside rites in St. Michael's Cemetery. The judge's widow, Amanda, walks with her oldest son, Milam. Also pictured are Mrs. Milam Tarrant, Mr. and Mrs. Whitney Tarrant, and Mr. and Mrs. Harmon Brevard.

Annie concentrated. Mr. and Mrs. Harmon Brevard? Oh, of course—Amanda's parents, grandparents of Ross, Whitney, and Milam.

The veil hid what must have been the grief-ravaged face of Amanda Tarrant. Her son Milam had the stolid look of a man enduring great pain. His wife's face was white and pinched. Whitney Tarrant frowned, the kind of frown a man makes to hold back tears. His wife, Charlotte, pressed a hand againsther mouth. Harmon Brevard stared grimly at an open grave site. His wife touched a handkerchief to her eyes.

A sorrowing family.

Annie riffled through several more stories and found noth­ing that changed the import of the initial report.

She returned the photographs and clippings to the file and picked up The Tarrant Family History and Guide to the Tarrant Museum, both cream- colored pamphlets with crimson print­ing. A yellow tab on the outside of the history carried an inscription in Max's handwriting: Received from Courtney Kim­ball.

Annie looked through the Guide to the Tarrant Museum. She was startled when she realized the museum was housed in former slave quarters toward the back of the Tarrant grounds. Wow, this was Family and History in capital letters, although it was clear, despite the obviously biased introduction by Mrs. Whitney Tarrant, its founder, that the museum housed some interesting and valuable collections, including playbills from early traveling shows. The Orphan or the Unhappy Marriage was presented in 1735, shortly after its initial production in Charleston. In 1754, a traveling troupe put on A Bold Stroke for a Wife, The Mock Doctor, and Cato. The museum housed the personal letters of Hope Tarrant, who spent her life opposing slavery and was one of the earliest to speak out in South Carolina, along with Angelina and Sarah Grimke. Copies of many of the various Chastain newspapers from 1761 to 1815 were featured. (Three had belonged to Tarrants, of course.)

Annie put down the guide reluctantly. A hodgepodge, yes, but such an interesting mйlange from the past.

The Tarrant Family History was also written by Mrs. Whit­ney Tarrant. Was she perhaps a trifle obsessive? Annie skimmed the introduction: . . . distinguished family from the outset of Mortimer Tarrant's arrival . . . the author's aim is to provide ensuing generations with a record of bravery, devotion to duty, and honor . . . gallantry both in war and peace . . . exemplary conduct which can ever serve as a shield in good times and bad. . . .

The introduction was signed by Mrs. Whitney Tarrant and dated September 14, 1987. In parentheses following the date,

it read: Marking the two hundred and fifty-second year of the Tar­rant Family in Chastain, South Carolina.