John Mackall Gantt

Entered into eternal rest on the morning of August 3, 2010, John Mackall Gantt, Sr., widower of Eliza (Lisa) Buist Rivers Gantt.  Residence, Charleston, SC.  The relatives and friends are invited to attend his funeral services Friday, August 6, 2010 at eleven thirty o'clock, at the graveside in St. Philip's Episcopal Churchyard. The family will receive friends at the residence following the service. Friends may call at the residence Thursday between four and seven o'clock.

John Mackall Gantt was born in Columbia, SC, April 22, 1926, a son of Elizabeth Cheatham and Frederick Hay Gantt. He graduated from Dreher High School in 1943. After his freshman year at Presbyterian College, John joined the United States Navy and participated in WWII during the liberation of The Philippines, the second day invasion of the island of Samar. After his discharge he returned to Columbia where he went into the general insurance and residential construction business and later owned Dixie Lighting Company and The Heritage House in Columbia and Charleston.

He was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia and an Eagle Scout at the church's Troop #15. He served as a Scoutmaster and a deacon. He later moved to Charleston where he attended St. Philip's Church for almost 25 years.

John was a creative thinker and a skilled craftsman who enjoyed working out of his workshop on Romney Street. His Charleston Gas Lanterns grace such Charleston landmarks as the William Aiken House, the Sword Gate House, and the old Charleston Market Hall. The Fall 2005 Issue of Charleston Magazine featured a piece on John that included the following: "John has created the copper lanterns that adorn nearly every prominent home, plantation, and public building in the historic city of Charleston.and several of his designs have been installed in nationally acclaimed historic restoration projects."

His unlimited imagination was such that he could look at discarded materials, such as old stair spindles and even ostrich eggs, and find ways to make them into beautiful and useful objects. But his most memorable creation may have been his celebrated culmination of craftsmanship, skill as a cook, love of entertaining, and abundant and colorful sense of humor: the kitchen tool with a red-hot reputation, The Charleston Hooker. John continued to brainstorm and sketch ideas until shortly before his death.

He will be missed and toasted by scores of friends and kin from Charleston to Saluda, NC, and beyond, and by his loyal canine companion, Bo.

He is survived by three sons: John Mackall Gantt, Jr. and his wife Mary Connor Hill Gantt, David Huff Gantt and his wife Martha Lindsay Gantt, and Charles Rucker Hipp, III; one daughter: Augusta (Shea) Porcher Kuhn and her husband John Robert Kuhn; one brother: Frederick Hay Gantt, Jr. and his wife Henrietta Mason Gantt; nine grandchildren: Bessie, Harriette, Mackall, Charlotte, Mary Hay, Henrietta, Madeline, Philip, and Louisa; five great grandchildren: George, James, John, Elly, and Simmons.

Memorials may be made to the Carolina Children's Home, 3201 Trenholm Road, Columbia, SC 29204 or to Pet Helpers, 1447 Folly Road, James Island, SC 29412.

Arrangements by J. HENRY STUHR, INC., DOWNTOWN.