Qualla: Darlington County, South Carolina https://qualla.com/darlington-county-south-carolina en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/5/darlington-county-south-carolina-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Darlington County, South Carolina https://qualla.com/darlington-county-south-carolina Darlington County, South Carolina: Introduction https://qualla.com/darlington-county-south-carolina/ Photo credit Mountsenoch, CC BY-SA 3.0. James E. Williams of Darlington County did not look like a war hero. He looked like a kid from rural South Carolina who had joined the Navy in 1947 at age seventeen to get out of the house. By the time he retired two decades later, he was the most highly decorated enlisted man in United States Navy history - Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, three Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts. The decorations came from one afternoon on the Mekong River in October 1966, when his two-boat patrol stumbled into roughly sixty-five enemy boats and Williams decided to attack anyway.

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Image: Mountsenoch | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/5/darlington-county-south-carolina-wp/dnp5-darlington-county-south-carolina-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Darlington County, South Carolina: Older than the County That Replaced It https://qualla.com/darlington-county-south-carolina/ Photo credit Jud McCranie, CC BY-SA 4.0. Darlington was established as a district in 1785 - one of the early administrative units of the new state - and reorganized as a county in 1868. It predates Florence County, which was carved partly out of Darlington in 1888. The county covers a chunk of the Pee Dee coastal plain ...

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Image: Jud McCranie | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/5/darlington-county-south-carolina-wp/dnp5-darlington-county-south-carolina-older-than-the-county-that-replaced-it.mp3 0:06 2 full Darlington County, South Carolina: The Track Too Tough to Tame https://qualla.com/darlington-county-south-carolina/ Photo credit Jud McCranie, CC BY-SA 4.0. Darlington Raceway is in the city of Darlington, and it gave the county its national identity. Built in 1950 by Harold Brasington on a plot of land where he had to swerve the layout around a neighbor's minnow pond, the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval became NASCAR's first superspeedwa...

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Image: Jud McCranie | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/5/darlington-county-south-carolina-wp/dnp5-darlington-county-south-carolina-the-track-too-tough-to-tame.mp3 0:06 3 full Darlington County, South Carolina: Hartsville and the Cokers https://qualla.com/darlington-county-south-carolina/ Photo credit Jud McCranie, CC BY-SA 4.0. Darlington County's largest city is not Darlington but Hartsville, sixteen miles to the northwest. Hartsville is the home of Coker University, founded by Major James Lide Coker after the Civil War; of Sonoco Products Company, which began as Coker's Southern Novelty Company and gr...

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Image: Jud McCranie | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/5/darlington-county-south-carolina-wp/dnp5-darlington-county-south-carolina-hartsville-and-the-cokers.mp3 0:06 4 full Darlington County, South Carolina: Bobo Newsom and a Highway https://qualla.com/darlington-county-south-carolina/ Photo credit Jud McCranie, CC BY-SA 4.0. Darlington County has produced an unusual number of professional athletes for a place this small. Albert Haynesworth, the NFL defensive lineman, was born in Hartsville. Orlando Hudson played second base in the majors; Jordan Lyles pitched in them; Bobo Newsom, born in 1907 in Har...

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Image: Jud McCranie | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/5/darlington-county-south-carolina-wp/dnp5-darlington-county-south-carolina-bobo-newsom-and-a-highway.mp3 0:06 5 full Darlington County, South Carolina: The Sailor from Fort Mill https://qualla.com/darlington-county-south-carolina/ Photo credit Jud McCranie, CC BY-SA 4.0. James Elliott Williams was born in 1930 in Rock Hill but grew up in Darlington County. On October 31, 1966, his two-boat river patrol on the Mekong met a much larger enemy force of sampans and junks. Williams ordered an attack. The action stretched on through the afternoon over m...

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Image: Jud McCranie | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/5/darlington-county-south-carolina-wp/dnp5-darlington-county-south-carolina-the-sailor-from-fort-mill.mp3 0:06 6 full