Alicia Franco
Art: Aquatic Adventure / Wildlife imagery
Career: Underwater Photographer & Videographer
Current Residence: Hilton Head Island
Hometown: Kailua-Kona, HI
Family: Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Boyfriend & 2 fluffy dogs!

When and how did you discover your artistic talent? How and/or why did you choose this medium? What do you love about it?
My mom was the person who originally instilled an appreciation of photography within me. Throughout my childhood, her Nikon film camera was never far from her reach as she captured everything from my first swim to saturated sunsets behind our house, contrasted by the silhouette of a Great Blue Heron. Our home was adorned with precious moments preserved for a lifetime thanks to her keen eye.

At the age of 15, I got my first job as a photographer on a dolphin swimming tour off the west coast of Oahu. I had previously dabbled with my mom’s camera but when my new boss handed me a DSLR inside a water housing and told me, ‘If you can dive 20 feet down to the bottom on a single breath of air and take a picture of those fish, I’ll hire you,’ an entirely new world opened up to me.

Elizabeth (Beth) Schlieger
Art: Multifaceted Artist—works range from traditional painting to theatrical costumes
Career: High School Visual Art Teacher and Board President May River Theatre (Artistic Director, Director, Costume Designer)
Current Residence: Bluffton Hometown: Marshall, Wisconsin
Family: Married 31 years to Don Schlieger;
2 children: Alex (28) and Cait (27)

When and how did you discover your artistic talent? How and/or why did you choose this medium? What do you love about it?
My earliest memories of creating are drawing horses with my father; I was about 4. I do not work with one medium, but flow amongst painting, ceramics, and costume design. I love the physicality of the medium, and when I have the time to fully immerse myself in the process, the rest of the world disappears. With ceramics there is something in the process that connects me to the environment. Utilizing material that was harvested from the earth and creating art from it just feels like the ultimate human experience. And with costumes, who doesn’t like creating a whole new world? I started making my own costumes in elementary school. As an actual art, I landed a job at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina as a wardrobe supervisor. They were down a draper, so I tapped into my earlier interests, and here I am, designing and creating the costumes for all of the shows at May River Theatre. For me creating the visual experience of a production is the ultimate “painting”, just the “brushes” are different.

Art: Ceramics and Acrylic Painting
Current Residence: Bluffton
Hometown: Logan, WV
Career: Artist, Ceramics & Painting (retired professor)
Family: Husband, Richard Allen

How did you choose this medium? What do you love about it?
My third-grade report card said that I was a dreamer. Guess that teacher was right. I’ve never stopped dreaming. My first masterpiece was a circus train created with crayons. I also loved to sing and to work with clay. Over the years these three things continue to be my passion.

Art: Murals and Live Event Painting 
Career: Professional artist 
Current Residence: Bluffton
Hometown: Jacksonville, FL
Family: Husband Kaleb Spears; two sons: Danny and Myles 

When and how did you discover your artistic talent? How and/or why did you choose this medium? What do you love about it?
I have always had a love for art, from bringing my sketchbook to the park as a kid to taking AP art classes in high school, it was definitely a constant for me. I never dreamed of turning that passion into a career, I just assumed it would be a side endeavor. However, as life unfolded, I found myself constantly drawn to it until I eventually decided to make the jump into a full-time pursuit. I have never looked back! 

September 17 will mark 35 years since Hugo, a Category 5 hurricane, tore through the U.S. Virgin Islands and the southern coast of the United States. The island of St. Croix, which measures only 26 by 6 miles, is where Cathy Schneider survived the harrowing experience of September 1989 when Hugo swept through the U.S. territory with 168 mile per hour winds, destroying 90 percent of homes and businesses on the island. Communications and transportation were knocked out, and for a time, St. Croix’s 55,000 people were simply cut-off from the world. This included Cathy and Paul Schneider and their two sons, aged 6 months and three years old at the time.

You and your husband, Kyle, left last September for a year of travel with the mantra: “Two 30-somethings touring the world together and sharing our story along the way.” What does an experience like this mean to each of you?
Our dream has always been to see the world, to learn from others, to search our souls and open our minds, heal our hearts, and better ourselves.

In the past year, you’ve visited 20 countries, five continents and circumnavigated the Earth. How did this magnificent plan for travel arise?
Another part of our dream was to find the freedom to go. In 2022, we made it our goal to travel somewhere every month. We would make weekend trips to St. Augustine, Savannah, and to see my family in Mississippi. We hopped on planes to England, Greece, Guatemala, and Mexico. Traveling and experiencing new cultures and ways of life is what makes us happy, so we mapped out a plan to do that full-time for a year, at least.

Sometimes life gives you an opportunity you can’t pass up.

Lin Socio is a former Pittsburgher who has called Hilton Head Island home for 25 years. A retired realtor, Lin raised her children in her Hilton Head Plantation home. Now known as “Mimi” to her grandchildren, Lin shares an especially close bond with her 10-year-old granddaughter, Lilyana. Lin also enjoys a maternal friendship with her former daughter-in-law, Cara, Lily’s mother.

Like many girls her age, Lily is a devout Taylor Swift fan. Cara searched high and low for reasonably priced Taylor Swift concert tickets across the U.S. Swift’s highly acclaimed “The Eras Tour” has swept the globe and was released as a film last October. Lin, Cara, and Lily saw the movie twice, but it wasn’t the live concert experience they desired.

By the time her smash hit “I Love You Always Forever” zoomed up the record charts in 1996, Donna Lewis was in her 30s and had paid her dues. Usually when someone hits the big time, people automatically think “overnight success.” However, Donna’s passion for music began when she started playing piano at age 6. It was natural for her musical interest to blossom, as she was raised in a musical household. Her father was an amateur jazz musician and had a huge record collection. Music was as much a part of their home as electricity and water.

Four words describe Phyllis Neville’s reaction to a recent safari trip to Kenya: “You just gotta go!” She’s traveled to places like Switzerland and Italy, but said nothing has compared to Africa, seeing amazing animals in their natural settings. Phyllis exclaimed, “I’ve seen elephants and giraffes in the zoo, of course, but seeing a herd of elephants in the savanna, or a zebra sitting right behind your cabin is fantastic!”

Phyllis is originally from San Antonio, Texas, and attended Texas Tech in Lubbock. She pledged her sorority in 1974 and has kept in touch with her sorority girlfriends ever since. “Over the years we would have reunions, and now, with our digital world, we stay in touch even more. One sorority friend is a Spanish teacher who has taken numerous trips to Spain with her students over the years. From that, she started organizing group trips based on offerings of EF Tours (educational tours and language programs abroad). This year she organized a trip to Africa, and I wanted to go.”

The Links Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation, established in 1946 by a small group of women in Philadelphia. Today the membership consists of more than 17,000 professional women of African descent in 299 chapters across 41 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of extraordinary women who are committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.

You have been involved with Girl Scouts for 48 years! Thank you so much for being a positive, wonderful part of so many girls’ lives. What is it about the Girl Scouts that has made you want to support them and stick with them for so long?
I was raised on a small family farm three miles outside of Varnville, SC. As a girl, I wasn’t a Girl Scout, but I’ve more than made up for it as a Girl Scout leader. I started my first troop with my daughter Becky (she was a Brownie). And later, I started the first Daisy Girl Scout Troop with my granddaughter, Cindy. When my husband of 39 years passed and my grown children had families of their own, Girl Scouts gave me something to do and be a part of.

Lindsey Gleason and her husband, Joe, have a two-year old son named Jordan who will become a big brother in a few months because Lindsey is six months pregnant. Leaving her teaching job when Jordan was born, she experienced the hard realization that it’s difficult to keep your work friends when you’re not with them anymore.

Lindsey first moved to the Lowcountry when she was in middle school. “It was a huge cultural shock coming from New York. When I moved back after college at Penn State, it was hard at first to adjust, starting over with new adult friendships through work. Family is thankfully around, but I wanted kids Jordan’s age around, too. After joining MOMS Club, both Jordan and I have gained friendships. MOMS Club members are like family.”

Debbie Gorski arrived on Hilton Head Island like many other residents: as a tourist. She and her husband began vacationing on the Island in 1988.

The couple purchased a second home in Sea Pines when Debbie’s husband decided to join her in retirement in May 2017. Their main residence was in Dallas, where their adult children still live. Debbie and her husband planned to live it up and travel back and forth between the two locations. However, just three short weeks after returning to Dallas from Hilton Head, Debbie’s husband passed away from a catastrophic heart attack.

Imagine a huge fire engine, horns blaring, lights flashing–and tin cans tied to the back bumper as it whisks away a beautiful bride and smiling groom. On May 18, Lieutenant Haley Langford married another firefighter, Dalton Kearnes, in Beaufort. “It was a dream for both of us. We had a perfect ceremony and then danced the night away to the music of Deas Guyz,” Haley reminisced.

Haley chose a wedding gown with lots of buttons down the back. As the big day approached, she became a little melancholy, worrying about who would help with her dress because she always thought it would be her mother, whom she lost to Covid in 2021. She wanted to honor her mom at the wedding and decided it would be through her “something blue.” So she created her “Mom-tourage,” a group of 16 women who all wore blue. “They were mine and Mom’s favorite women—best friends, aunts, women who have looked after me my whole life. They made my wedding even more special.”

You have been with Beaufort County EMS for 35 Years, what is your current position?
I am the Training Officer and Education Coordinator. I design and implement Continuing Education Programs (CEP) which meet National Registry and South Carolina requirements. My role is to provide the education, which may either be a lecture or skill session which I present or is presented by a subject matter expert, such as a physician or nurse. We’ve had guest speakers from the Parkinson’s Support Group Aware in Care, AirMethods (helicopter EMS), SANE program (sexual assault) from the Officer of the Solicitor, and Crisis Intervention Training by NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health) just to mention a few. It is my responsibility to ensure the information meets the education requirements.

At the youthful age of 23, Alex Clark has accomplished more in her life so far than many people twice her age. While it is not unusual for women of all ages to multitask, Alex takes on her endeavors with the energy of a highly motivated individual, doing it all with grace and style.

A true Lowcountry girl, Alex was born in Charleston, S.C. and moved to Beaufort when she was 4 years old. Living in Bluffton since 2020, she graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina Beaufort in April. Additionally, she was recognized as the “Outstanding English Major” by her teachers, whom she credits as her mentors and inspiration to pursue a teaching career.

Al’Kedra Tyler saw her first Marine when she was a sophomore in high school in Elizabeth City, NC. “I saw him walk down the hall, and he was like a vision of a Marine on the cover of a magazine. From that moment, I always wanted to do that, be a Marine. So, I joined the Junior ROTC, but it was Air Force. I found all the Marine commercials, graphics, weapons, uniforms, and posters enticing. I met the Marine recruiter in my junior year.”

“Mom was completely against the Marine Corps. She tried to talk me out of it, but I was stubborn,” Al’Kedra said. A week after graduating high school, she moved to San Antonio with a few friends. “It wasn’t working, so I called the recruiter, and he got me in. I was in boot camp for a week before I called my mother. It was May, and it was very hot here at Parris Island. I was only 100 pounds, very small, and I felt like I was wasting away. I was burning through calories, and it felt like I couldn’t eat enough or drink enough water to get through boot camp. But I made it.”

Detective Kate Cooler has given back to her community in many ways.

Kate, who grew up in the small town of Oxford, Connecticut, packed up her Jeep Wrangler to move to the Lowcountry in December 2014. Armed with a degree in Justice and Law Administration from Western Connecticut State University, she longed to be near the water and away from the snow. Kate had always enjoyed visiting South Carolina, so at age 22, she moved to the Palmetto State without a job or any firm prospects. After consulting Google Maps, she chose Beaufort and applied to a few agencies, showed up in person, and was sworn in as a cop in January 2015. She worked on patrol for three and a half years before joining the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office in 2018. There, she worked as a patrol officer with additional responsibilities in victim advocacy and criminal investigations.

Teri, Your story is one of rising from the ashes like a powerful Phoenix. Let’s start in the present and work backwards because where you have landed is the pinnacle of triumph over tragedy. Your podcast, The Healing Place, is rated in the top 2% of most listened to podcasts globally. Tell us more about it.

I love that visual of rising like an empowered phoenix! I was working in a mental health agency when a therapist friend approached me about starting a podcast. I began reaching out to trauma-recovery specialists around the country to invite them to join me on my new show. Word spread quickly and the podcast blossomed. Best-selling authors, therapists, and healers across the globe have been sitting down with me to share their empowering missions over these last seven years.

She can play guard and forward; she handles the ball with ease and sinks three pointers regularly. This is what happens when you start playing street ball at a young age, being the only girl in a mix of big, burly, boy cousins, all serious about the round ball. None of them knew Janiyah would take her determination to show them up on the courts and work her way up through the ranks to receive a full ride scholarship to play on the USCB Sand Sharks inaugural ladies basketball team. It has been a dream come true for Savannah native Janiyah Heyward.

At five feet, seven inches, Janiyah isn’t the tallest player on the team, but when she enters a room, her stature makes it clear she means business. She is large, strong, serious, an athlete at heart with competitiveness coursing through her like a wide-open jet ski on smooth-as-glass water. She plays the game, but she isn’t here to play. She’s here to improve, grow and be an important part of the team.

Grass doesn’t grow under Reily White’s feet.

Reily is the only female from the State of South Carolina, age 19 and under, invited to attend the U.S. Crew Olympic Development Camp in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
this month.

Born and raised on Hilton Head Island, 17-year-old Reily maintains a rigorous schedule that will make any over-achiever blush. About to enter her senior year, Reily is the youngest of three children. Her older brother rowed on a crew team for a couple of years, and the team needed someone to fill the last spot just one week before a race. At the tender age of 11, Reily, a fifth grader, jumped right in. “I didn’t know what it was,” recalled Reily, “but I said sure! I’ll try it!”

Codee Yeske and Alison Owen are enthusiastic and talented members of the athletic staff at the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB). Codee entered her third season as the head coach of USCB's softball program in 2024. Alison joined USCB in 2022. She serves as the assistant softball coach/camp coordinator but has added on a new role as the academic coordinator for the USCB Athletic Department. Alison will now oversee academics and academic standards across all 13 Sand Shark sports. The Sand Sharks are the USCB athletic teams in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division II ranks, primarily competing in the Peach Belt Conference since the 2022–23 academic year.

Endurance, strength, and diligence are three radiant attributes Kourtny Kosto exemplifies on and off the tennis courts, where she has flourished in her love for the game.

Born and raised on Hilton Head, an island known world-wide for golf and tennis, it was only natural Kourtny gave them both a try. Starting out as a competitive trapeze, ribbons, and Cirque du Soleil dancer, Kourtny always knew she was going to live an active life.

Kim Lewis is a beachcomber extraordinaire. After moving to Hilton Head Island from the mountains of North Carolina, she began walking the beach at Fish Haul, picking up little treasures each time. Now her home and garden are potpourris of many of her precious finds. Her husband, Matt, says Kim is the “idea person,” and he is the “doer.” Their home has an outdoor shower and two indoor showers that Kim has tiled with seashells, small bottles, sea glass, shark teeth, dolphin bones, even ancient horse teeth—all found on the beach or in the Lowcountry pluff mud. The stunning tile work beckons a closer look to find the intricate treasures it contains. The Lewis’ driftwood garden also showcases numerous curiosities. All of their finds, creatively woven into their home and garden, will be featured on the All Saints Episcopal Church Garden Tour on May 18.

As a young girl growing up in the early 1970s, the fact that Trisha Marmo had a child-sized ironing board wasn’t all that unusual. Unlike most five-year-olds, however, Trisha’s ironing board was her operating table, and her dolls were her very first patients.

“Very early on I had an affinity for helping others,” Trisha recalled. “It’s just always been a part of who I am.”

That affinity has guided Trisha all her life, steering her into a nursing career, which came as a surprise to her because, from those early ironing board/operating table years, her heart and mind had been set on becoming a doctor.

Tara Boswell’s life has been idyllic. She grew up on a farm in the tiny community of Cummings, S.C., seven miles outside of Yemassee, and has never left. “I grew up there and have always loved it-–the space, the fresh air, conserving wildlife and experiencing God’s magnificent creations.” She married her high school sweetheart, Chuck, who grew up in nearby Hampton. Their parents knew each other, and Tara said it seemed like they had always been in each other’s lives. “Our relationship evolved. I started dating Chuck when I was 16 and never went out with anyone else.” The couple married when Tara was 21, after she earned her degree in elementary education.

Tiffany Mikkelson is an organizer of the next level by necessity.

Born, raised, and schooled in Jackson, Mississippi, Tiffany met her husband, Ryan, in law school at Mississippi College School of Law. As their courtship progressed, Ryan, a Wisconsin native, mentioned he wanted to return to his adopted hometown of Bluffton. The couple established that they were agreeable to moving to Bluffton and founded Mikkelson Law Firm, LLC.

Ella Mae Jenkins was born on Daufuskie Island in 1937 on a hot summer Sunday in August. Now, she is the oldest living matriarch on the Island, still calling Daufuskie home 86 years later. Both of Ella Mae’s parents, Cornelia and Freddy Grant, Sr., were also natives of the eight-square mile sea island still only accessible by water. Her father worked in Savannah as a river dredger.

According to the 1940 Census, rarely did a Daufuskie resident get educated beyond the sixth grade, as it wasn’t until the 1930s that the Maryfields School for black children was even built. This is the two-room schoolhouse where Pat Conroy taught in the late ‘60s, and yes, one of Ella Mae’s seven children had Conroy as a teacher.

Candice, the last time we caught up, we were at the largest Pink Partini ever held throughout 19 years. It was the largest, because you were taking center stage that evening. In fact, you were center stage! More than 4,000 people came out to Tanger Outlets in Bluffton to not only celebrate your monumental win of Season 12 American Idol, but also to hear your beautiful, powerful voice. 

That was 2013 and over the 20 years of Pink’s existence, your win is one of the biggest, most positive things Beaufort County has experienced. In the last 11 years, we have seen you grow and blossom. We’ve gotten to meet your wonderful mother, Carole, and participate in her big event. We are thrilled for your success, and we are excited to let everyone know what you’re currently up to and where your journey has led you so far! So, Candice, please fill us in!

Nancy Golson was featured in the very first issue of Pink Magazine 20 years ago. In that feature she was described as the epitome of the Bluffton State of Mind. And that hasn’t changed. Nancy has lived on Myrtle Island for 44 years in a house built in 1919 on family property previously owned by her mother-in-law.

“When I got married, we built a house in my mother-in-law’s backyard. We were young and naïve and kept adding on. Eventually we moved into the original house,” Nancy said. She mentioned her children enjoyed growing up there, on the river, as opposed to a gated community. “My new edict is to leave the vegetation alone. It’s a habitat for animals and birds. Nature is wild, and it gives the yard privacy. But now they’re cutting down trees for mega-houses with manicured lawns.”