Local alumni writer gives back to Spartanburg Methodist College

Local alumni writer gives back to Spartanburg Methodist College

Nancy Monson came to Spartanburg Junior College in 1959 on a Rotary Club Scholarship and was searching for ways to support another SMC student like herself.  It all came together for her when she decided to write “The Longest Bridge.”

The novel had been in the making for about twenty years, as she moved across South Carolina with her Methodist minister husband, Robert Monson, and taught in the SC public school system.  Once retired, those hundreds of pages came together as an historical fiction about two mill hill boys, Billy Joe and Charlie, who grow up in a mill village in Spartanburg.  Appropriate since SMC was started for mill people and Nancy grew up near a mill and her dad worked at Beaumont Mill. 

Monson, a member at Central United Methodist Church, where none other than former SMC President Charlie Teague is in her Sunday School Class, has already sold many books and the book is available at Hub City Book Store in Spartanburg.  Thanks to book signings and good reviews, Nancy returned to SMC on Thursday, April 3 to present a check for future student scholarships to SMC President Colleen Perry Keith.

Monson left Spartanburg Junior College after one year to marry her husband, who was attending Wofford at the time.  She worked as a bookkeeper at JF Floyd Mortuary while her husband finished Wofford and Duke.  “Spartanburg Junior College made a big impression on me, and there was never a doubt in my mind or my husband’s that I wouldn’t go back to college,” shared Monson. “SMC was my savior, it gave me my start in life and helped make it possible for me to return to colleges and universities across the state and eventually earn my Master’s degree.  Thanks to all those who helped me in 1959.  It feels wonderful to establish this scholarship at SMC today.”