MINIS COLUMN: Foster care a calling for house mother

In a job where many burn out before they settle in, Ann McClellan Gilliam was always right at home. For more than 20 years, the McClellanville resident had been a house mother at the Boys Farm of Newberry.

Gilliam and her late husband, Virgil Lee Gilliam, raised as many as eight boys from broken homes at once.

When asked to become house parents at the farm, designed for boys whose families are weathering desperate times, the two prayed over it, accepted it and never looked back, says her sister, Wilhelmina Couch of McClellanville.

Ann McClellan Gilliam, who was born May 31, 1943, died Sept. 23.

The Gilliams moved to the farm with their young daughter and son and began caring for boys born to others in the mid-1980s.

"She had them as young as 4 and as old as 11," says Couch. Some stayed in the cottage run by the Gilliams until they were 11, then moved on to another one. Others remained for a shorter time and were returned home or placed in foster care. Still others stayed until they finished high school.

Couch says one boy, who was raised by Gilliam from the age of 4, became very upset when he was returned to his mother after several years. Gilliam was the only mother he had ever known. So, his natural mother agreed to let her visit him. The boy, who is now in college, and Gilliam, kept in touch until she died.

Gilliam's son, Travis Gilliam of Silverstreet, was 10 when his parents took the jobs at the farm. He estimates that she helped raise 150 boys. For his mother to have stayed for 20 years, including 10 years after his father died, was a testament to her dedication, he says.

When her own father, the Rev. James O. McClellan Jr., died, Gilliam returned to McClellanville and cared for her aging mother, Ruby Seigler McClellan. While there, she was the bridal consultant at Belk in Georgetown for a number of years. But she continued to visit the farm in Newberry each Founders' Day.

"She believed her mission in life was to serve God by helping those boys," says Susan Kobrovsky of Sullivan's Island, her sister.

"She was not only a wonderful house parent, she had teaching credentials so she helped them with their homework. She was the one who went to school with them on Parent's Day or Grandparent's Day. She just felt it was her mission to be there for them.

"Even before she had her children, I remember she chose this little girl in her community who came from a family who could not afford to buy her the things for Christmas that every child wants. She bought her all of these Christmas gifts and brought her over to her house and shared them with her."

Gilliam was a Christian woman who felt fortunate that God had shown her what he wanted her to do at every phase of her life, Couch says. Her sister, she says, had a beautiful voice, and a favorite song, "All The Way My Savior Leads Me."

Reach Wevonneda Minis at 937-5705 or wminis@postandcourier.com.