Beaufort’s beloved ‘Tootie’ is given a final gift. ‘He was just an inspiration’
With his unmistakable gait and cheerful disposition — and despite many challenges — Wilson Lane “Tootie” Bourke became one of Beaufort’s best known and respected citizens. If he was not sweeping Bay Street sidewalks, he was helping kids safely cross the street (he was the unofficial crossing guard at Ribaut Road and Greene Street). For years, he proudly led Beaufort Christmas parades, high-stepping the entire route. He even helped integrate the state’s second-oldest city.
Bourke, who died in 2013 at 81, was laid to rest at Sixteen Gate Cemetery on Boundary Street.
Several years ago, Gerry Watson Ryan was walking through that cemetery when she came across Bourke’s grave. She was stunned by the grave site of one of the town’s most beloved residents
“It just blew my mind that Tootie, of all people, didn’t have a headstone,” Ryan said.
A headstone for Wilson Lane “Tootie” Bourke arrived Monday, thanks to Ryan’s efforts to highlight the final resting place of one of Beaufort’s brightest souls.
It reads, “Beaufort’s Beloved Tootie.” A classic photo of the Beaufort original leading a parade is also etched into the headstone.
Ryan was behind a fundraising campaign that took in $2,500 for the headstone. She received permission from the family to place the headstone on the grave and worked with Steedley Monument Works in Walterboro. She suspects Steedley matched the donated amount because of the quality of the headstone. “It’s beautiful,” says Ryan. “It’s perfect.”
The headstone, says Ryan, now shows everyone who visits his grave how special Tootie was to Beaufort.
“I thought he was just an inspiration,” she said. “He would see something that needed to be done, and take care of it.”
Tootie got his nickname in 1978 from the Beaufort Police Department. He used the whistle the department gave him to make sure school buses made a safe exit from Robert Smalls Junior High School.
Even though most knew him as “Tootie”, there were other variations to his nickname — “Tootie Fruity,” “Toots,” but most memorable is “Mr. Fruit,” as he was characterized in Beaufort author Pat Conroy’s novel, “The Prince of Tides.” Tootie’s history making integration of Harry’s Restaurant in downtown Beaufort was also captured in “Pat Conroy’s Cookbook: Recipes of My Life.” In that book, Conroy tells the story of how Tootie integrated Harry’s restaurant on Bay Street.
“He came in (to Harry’s) for the first time and things got pretty quiet. Harry sat Tootie down and tried to explain to him about integration and segregation, and Tootie didn’t know what Harry was talking about, so Harry said the hell with it and just brought him lunch.”
Like most Beaufortonians, Ryan knew Tootie. When she was 6, she says, she remembers watching him, transfixed, feeding pennies into a gumball machine at the old Edwards department store and then passing them out to kids on the sidewalk.
He was a familiar face downtown until the early 2000s, when he was struck by a car and became wheelchair-bound. He lived his last 10 years with family and then at the Ridgeland Nursing Center. Ryan visited him in that nursing home.
Ryan recalls Tootie saying, “Hey everybody, she came to see me! She came to see me! He was so excited to see me.”
“Tootie should have a headstone,” says Ryan, “because of everything he contributed to this town.”
