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“B” is for a Bowles, Crandall Close (b.1947)

“B” is for a Bowles, Crandall Close (b.1947). Businesswoman. In 1998 Bowles began serving as chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of Springs Industries, whose corporate headquarters were in Fort Mill. A direct descendant of the textile manufacturing pioneers Samuel Elliott White and Leroy Springs, Bowles was the fifth generation to run Springs Industries. As CEO she was regularly ranked among the top women executives in the country. Prior to becoming CEO, Bowles was a financial analyst for Springs Industries and later president of Spring's Company, the Close family’s investment management arm. According to Business Week, for a decade she managed the $700 million Close family fortune. From 1992 to 2007, Crandall Close Bowles was Chairman and CEO of Springs Global, US, Inc., a subsidiary of Springs Global, one of the world’s largest producers of home furnishings and specialty fabrics.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.