Carrie Baker LeNoir: Breaking down barriers

March 1, 2022

An article in The Item dated March 6, 1980, starts with the headline “Female Firemen Provide Vital Community Service.” It tells the story of an exceptional lady in Sumter County who fills that vital role, Carrie LeNoir. According to staff writer Sylvia Wise, “hanging behind a door in Carrie LeNoir’s sitting room is her firefighter’s coat and helmet, an odd sight among the walls filled with family photographs and keepsakes.”

Sitting in Horatio’s fire station is Engine No. 11, and Carrie LeNoir was one of the primary drivers of that fire truck for many years, especially during the day time hours when few of her male counterparts were available to get the truck to alarms of fire. She drove that truck to countless fires over the years and was often the first one to the scene. The community credits Mrs. LeNoir as the main force behind the Horatio community getting the fire truck. We are told that the first fire station was an old Quonset hut located on the property donated by Carrie LeNoir’s family in 1962.

Mrs. LeNoir was born just prior to The Great Depression to a farming family and was one of eleven children.  She was known throughout as a “hard working woman” who raised six children of her own and ran LeNoir’s store in the crossroads community of Horatio located in Sumter County. The family-owned business is documented as one of the oldest continuously-running businesses in the nation having been in operation since 1765 and is listed in the National Register for Historic Places. 

In addition to running the store, she also served as the postmaster for Horatio for nearly 35 years. In 2006, the U. S. Postal Service unveiled four stamps honoring Benjamin Franklin’s 300^th birthday at the Horatio Post Office. A spokesman for the U. S. Postal Service is quoted at the time as saying “What more appropriate site for this stamp dedication ceremony than a business that originated when Ben Franklin was alive.” 

Carrie LeNoir was a busy and remarkable lady. She was an active member of the American Legion Auxilliary, the Poinsett Garden Club, the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, the Pomona Grange, Heart Fund, and vigorous in politics when it involved improving her county and local community.

This writer remembers proud comments about fireman Carrie LeNoir made by two late Sumter Fire Chiefs, Charles V. “Bit” Wilder and T. A. “Gus” Green, both saying that they couldn’t do without Carrie LeNoir. When radios were installed in all the county fire engines, you could count on Mrs. LeNoir keying the microphone to sign on the air as responding to the call.

Just like Ben Franklin, whose stamp was unveiled at LeNoir’s General Store back in 2006, Carrier LeNoir was a trailblazer in her own right when she became one of South Carolina’s first recorded female firefighters.  Mrs. LeNoir died on Thursday, June 18, 2015, at the age of 94.