Swampland.com

KO'ing Kudzu in Carolina

After my October 17th feature on Alabama filmmaker Max Shores, I decided to explore further the issue of kudzu. Shores’ documentary The Amazing Story of Kudzu called national attention to this bane of southern existence, this invasive and almost unstoppable species of plant known as kudzu. Where did it come from? Why was it imported? How fast is it spreading and what can we do to stop it? For more answers, I turned to my friend Dianne Fergusson (pictured) in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Dianne is an energetic member of the Kudzu Coalition, an organization whose members are dedicated to eliminating kudzu the old fashioned way—by the sweat of their brows.

I am delighted to be able to feature the essay, Rooting out Kudzu the Spartanburg Way, by my multi-talented friend. Dianne was born and reared in Scotland County, North Carolina, and received her Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of South Carolina. She is active in a number of civic organizations in Spartanburg, serving not only on the board of the Kudzu Coaltion, but also on the boards of the Men's Garden Club and Hatcher Garden. She is also President of the League of Women Voters of Spartanburg County.

Dianne and I have kept up a long distance friendship for nearly two decades. We met one another at the University of South Carolina in 1989 at an international conference on, believe it or not, Sigmund Freud. A few years ago I drove up to the Carolinas to be present at the wedding of her daughter Molly. Dianne’s daughter is an intellectual property lawyer and professor of legal writing and research at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where she lives with her husband, Kevin Stuart owner of the Oxford Bicycle Company, and her two sons, Smith and Ethan. Molly serves on the board and was one of the founding members of the Oxford Film Festival.

During her prolific career, Dianne has served as a public health worker for the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, as a researcher for South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, as newspaper reporter and photographer for a hometown weekly; and as a consultant in presentation skills and technical writing for business, industry, and government clients. She has worked for many years in public education both as a teacher and as a consultant and is currently retired as classroom teacher from Spartanburg School District Six.

When Dianne is not involved with one of her many projects, including gardening and redecorating, she is a free lance writer. It was her experience with the Kudzu Coalition that inspired the essay currently featured on Swampland. Her essays have also been published in Y’all Magazine and Wildland Weeds, among others. Be sure to check out her recent essay on Kudzilla, killer of the mighty vine, on the KOKudzu web site. 

Learn about the elusive kudzu plant and the genesis of the Spartanburg Kudzu Coalition on their web site. (All photographs are courtesy of Coalition founder Newt Hardie.)

---Penne J. Laubenthal

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