Lester Lee Bates, Sr. Papers

A favorite saying of Mayor Lester Lee Bates, Sr. was: “There are two ways to meet a difficulty. One is to alter the difficulty and the other is to alter yourself to meet the difficulty.” Bates spent his life altering – improving – himself to meet and conquer the challenges of his poverty-stricken childhood; the creation, success, and eventual loss of two insurance companies; and the daily difficulties of leading a southern city through the tumultuous 1960s. Bates served as the mayor of Columbia, S.C. from 1958-1970, and endured through a legendary rags-to-riches life to achieve that status.

Lester L. Bates was born around 1904 in an area of Berkeley County, S.C. known as Hell Hole Swamp. He was the eighth of approximately fifteen children born to Alfred G. and Ella Cumbee Bates. Bates and his siblings lived on a tenant farm and received no more than an informal third grade education from a pair of missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that were serving in the area.

At the age of twelve, Bates began work as a water boy for a local logging crew. While on the job, he suffered a near-fatal injury when he slipped under the wheel of a moving train. Consequently, he spent about one year recuperating in a Charleston hospital. He returned briefly to Berkeley County, but made his way back to Charleston around the age of fourteen. There, Bates worked various jobs and attended night school at the Salvation Army.

Around 1923, Bates became an agent with Industrial Life and Health Insurance Company. By 1931, he was a district manager with another insurance company, Atlantic Coast Life, and living in Columbia with his wife, Julia Burk Bates, and their two children, Julia [Mrs. John Breland] and Lester, Jr. In 1936, Bates had learned enough about the insurance business to start his own company, the Capital Life and Health Insurance Company. It prospered for almost twenty years until Bates sold it to the United Insurance Company of America in 1954. According to family members, the sale was made following intense political pressure from then-Governor James F. Byrnes.

Meanwhile, Bates served on the Columbia City Council for eight years, 1944 to 1952, during which time, and with Bates as assistant mayor, Columbia won the distinction of All-America City for the first time, in 1951. Bates ran for governor of South Carolina in the Democratic Primary in 1950, but lost to James F. Byrnes. He ran again in 1954, but again lost, this time to George Bell Timmerman, Jr.

In 1955, Bates founded a second company, the New South Life Insurance Company. His son, Lester, Jr., worked closely with him in this company, though he was officially an attorney by profession. Lester, Jr. graduated with a B.A. from Furman University in 1953 and from the University of South Carolina Law School in 1955. He maintained a law office in Columbia even while he served as the president of his father’s insurance company. Throughout his life, Lester, Jr. was also involved with the Columbia Rotary Club, annual South Carolina Prayer Breakfasts, Providence Home [a Christian Community Service Program], and the Richland County Bar Association. Lester, Jr. eventually reached the status of Chief Administrative Judge in the Columbia Municipal Courts. He married Gertrude Lomas, and the couple had three children: Leslee, Lester III, and Thomas.

Bates, Sr. became mayor of Columbia in 1958, and was re-elected twice, in 1962 and 1966. He chose not to run for a fourth term, ending his reign in 1970 to once again vie for the governorship against John C. West. Bates announced his candidacy for the 1970 gubernatorial race, but later dropped out due to health problems.

During Bates’ twelve years as mayor, Columbia once again, in 1964, earned the All-America City distinction. His additional achievements as mayor include opening the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in 1962 [with new facilities in 1965], incorporating the United States Army’s Fort Jackson into the Columbia city limits, building the Carolina Coliseum, and, perhaps most significantly, guiding Columbia through a peaceful integration process during the 1960s. Columbia can be counted among the few significant Southern cities to integrate without any violence. Bates’ family remembers Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson seeking Bates’ advice on the matter. He established the Columbia Community Relations Council, comprised of two committees – one African American and one white – who first met separately and then combined to orchestrate peaceful race relations in Columbia.

In 1972, New South Life Insurance Company ran into financial difficulties when it self-reported a nine million dollar deficiency in the state-required reserve, apparently due to miscalculations by the firm’s actuary. Bates and his son eventually lost the company.

Lester Lee Bates, Sr. suffered a stroke in 1980, and died eight years later on 24 February 1988, at the age of 83.

c.1904 Lester Lee Bates is born, 7 September, in Berkeley County (Hell Hole Swamp), S.C. to Alfred G. and Ella Cumbee Bates

c.1916 sustains a serious injury while working for a logging crew; sent to Charleston for surgery and recuperation

c.1918 returns to Charleston after a brief move back to Berkeley County; attends night school at the Salvation Army

c.1923 becomes an agent with Industrial Life and Health Insurance Company

1927 marries Julia Burk of Charleston

c.1929 daughter, Julia Bates born

1931 becomes the district manager for Atlantic Coast Life; son, Lester Bates, Jr. born; moves to Columbia, S.C.

1936 founds the Capital Life and Health Insurance Company, 10 February

1942 runs for Columbia city council, but loses

1944 elected to the Columbia city council

1946 runs for mayor of Columbia, but loses

1948 re-elected to the Columbia city council as assistant mayor

1950 loses in the Democratic primary for governor of South Carolina to James F. Byrnes

1951 Columbia awarded its first All-America City distinction

1953 Lester Bates, Jr. graduates from Furman University

1954 sells Capital Life and Health Insurance Company; loses in the Democratic primary for governor of South Carolina to George Bell Timmerman, Jr.

1955 founds the New South Life Insurance Company; Lester, Jr. graduates from the University of South Carolina law school

1958 elected mayor of Columbia by 14 votes over John T. Campbell

1962 re-elected mayor of Columbia with no opposition; the Columbia Metropolitan Airport begins operation; Lester, Jr. elected president of the Columbia chapter of the South Carolina Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) 1964 establishes the Columbia Community Relations Council; Columbia awarded its second All-America City distinction

1966 re-elected mayor of Columbia with no opposition

1968 instrumental in incorporating the U.S. Army’s Fort Jackson into Columbia city limits; the Carolina Coliseum is completed; Lester, Jr. becomes president of New South Life Insurance Company

1969 opens a new office building for New South Life Insurance Company; decides against running for a fourth term as mayor of Columbia in anticipation of running for the South Carolina governorship against John C. West

1970 February, decides against running for governor due to health problems; 4 June, becomes chairman of the Capital City Development Foundation, Inc., appointed to the South Carolina Insurance Commission; awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by the University of South Carolina

1972 New South Life Insurance encounters financial difficulties; Bates and Lester, Jr. acquitted of “filing false statements” in their management of New South Life Insurance Company.

1978 Citadel Life Insurance Company assumes control of New South Life Insurance Company

1980 suffers a stroke

1988 24 February, Lester Lee Bates, Sr. dies