By Robin Green
Carol Linville has been dedicated to many communities in her life. Her first community was Broward County, Florida, where she grew up, attended school and worked for the county government. The next was Folly Beach, where for 32 years she has helped both residents and animals alike, whenever the calls may come.
Linville grew up in Hollywood, Florida with two younger brothers, Cam and Mike, and baby sister Pam.
Linville said, “My father worked in sales and my mother was a medical X-ray nurse, so while they both worked I helped take care of my siblings.”
Linville was an active teenager who was president of the Spanish Club and active member of the Drama Club. She also served as senior class treasurer. In what was probably the most prophetic achievement of her youth, she was voted “most dependable” by her classmates.
She met her first husband, Jack Moore, at her first job as a secretary for AAA Glass Company.
Linville said, “He was 14 years older than me and I was only 19. At first, my parents were upset, but they ultimately approved and we married when I was 21.”
Linville went to work for the Broward County Tax Assessor. She was promoted to Administrative Assistant for the Commissioner’s Office. She began her volunteer life early, working long hours to run the Commissioner’s reelection campaign.
“It was a tremendous job with huge challenges and equally great opportunities. I was working with the public and learning how to resolve problems and complaints heard from his constituents. I was handling the correspondence and running the election polls,” Linville said.
In 1966 Linville adopted her first pet, a minor addition in many people’s lives, but in Linville’s case it was a true milestone. She found Reenie, a sad little poodle, who sat in the back of a cage in the Broward County Humane Society.
Linville recalls, “He had everything wrong - from a heart murmur, to heartworms, to parasites. He was also unneutered. I remember the staff person saying I should pick another dog, and that’s when I knew I had to take him.”
Linville later adopted a cat, Butter, who once disappeared for three days. Linville called her local veterinarian in a panic.
She said, “Back then we weren’t educated on the importance of spaying our pets. The vet informed me that Butter may come back pregnant with a litter of kittens we were not prepared to care for. Luckily we found her and had her spayed the same week.”
In 1974 Jack Moore, Linville’s then husband, had a sudden heart attack and died at age 44. Bob Linville had developed a relationship with the couple while they were buying a car in Ft. Lauderdale. Bob and Carol continued the friendship long distance after Bob moved to Charleston, SC., The two ultimately fell in love after Jack’s death and Carol soon moved to Charleston.
“It was a hard first year starting all over again. As I look back I know that God had a plan for us.”
In 1974, Bob went into business for himself, and shortly thereafter Carol was offered an Administrative Assistant position at the “new” Charleston County EMS Department. Linville said, “I ended up turning down a great job with Charleston County and Bob and I started Linville Car Center.” The couple jump-started their own dealership and purchased their first house together on Folly Beach. “I wanted to live as close to the beach as possible, and Folly was affordable then.”
Busy years followed in the car business. Carol learned how to detail a used car, jump-start a battery, arrange financing for customers, and became the first female car dealer in Charleston. This was when Linville read in the local paper that 8000 pets were being destroyed annually at the local SPCA.
“I decided that to help I would go to the local James Island Journal and try and get some support for a ‘Pet of the Week’ column featuring pictures and info of SPCA pets.”
Linville had someone take the pictures, had the pictures developed and hand delivered the column to the paper every week. Her column still runs today.
Within the first year the pet column started running, an injured kitten was brought to her at the car dealership. Next was a Benji-like dog on Folly Road that had a broken leg and needed help. Carol enlisted a James Island veterinarian to help with her rescues. She continued to write the pet column and slowly through the years, taking in a stray here and an unwanted pet there, she accumulated 17 cats. She housed them in the dealership’s extra office.
Linville laughs, “There were so many calls to our home in the wee hours of the night from the sheriff’s department because the cats had set off the burglar alarm, requiring me or Bob to get up and reset it. He was not a happy camper, but he never kicked them out.”
Bob, 14 years Carol’s senior, jokes about his tolerance of his wife of 30 years. “I was too old to train another one,” he said poking fun while looking at Carol’s intentional scowl. “No really, through the years we argue and fuss but at the end of the day all is forgotten because she is wonderful.”
By 1983, over 2000 calls were coming to the Linville’s’ home and business regarding Carol’s pet of the week column. She was becoming a real “Pet Helper.”
Claudia Hawkins, Pet Helpers’ Shelter Director, said, “I met Carol in the 80’s when I was working for a Dr. Terry Clekis, a local vet. Carol was this smiling blonde with a great aura. The next I heard from her was in reference to a dog that she had in foster care. Carol asked if we could help treat the dog’s heartworms and she would help find it a home. Working together we matched them up, and the dog and the woman were so grateful Carol was there. It helped heal them both.”
After ten years in the car business Linville’s Car Center “phased out” and closed in 1983.
Linville said, “We continued to invest every dime we could save or borrow in Folly property. Everyone thought we were nuts for investing ‘way out there’, but as we gathered more tenants we also began getting more involved in the community.”
Carol was caring for all of Pet Helpers’ pets, asking for donations to help cover the medical expenses, speaking out on animal issues and helping out with the pet overpopulation problem on Folly. At that time there was no animal control on the beach. Bob decided to run for City Council, and as an experienced campaign developer, Carol was the natural choice to run his election campaign.
Bob finally won a council seat in 1988, quickly became Mayor in 1989 and was forced into action when Hurricane Hugo blasted Charleston and devastated the residents of Folly Beach three weeks later.
“While Bob worked 18-hour-days trying to rebuild the city I became the nonstop Hugo Relief Center for the next three months, raised $100,000 to help uninsured Folly citizens rebuild while taking in more animals than ever for Pet Helpers due to the abundance of homeless pets from the storm,” Linville says, sounding exhausted just from the memory of that time.
Through the years Linville’s efforts grew with the Lowcountry’s pet overpopulation problem. And while she never received any conventional training she learned what she needed to do regarding animal care, cruelty legislation and just speaking out on education from the support she received from vets like Dr. Jerry Murray and Dr. Johnny Ohlandt of James Island. She said, “I challenged the conscience of the community until people began to respond.”
Charles Karesh, John Ancrum SPCA Board President, noticed her work as well. Karesh said, “I remember reading about what Carol did in the papers. I have always had so much respect for her hard work in the community.”
A New Generation of Pet Helpers Join Carol
As we all know, no one person can do it alone. Fortunately, in recent years, several critically important and dedicated people have made it possible for Pet Helpers to fully grow into its potential, which is the best way to honor the sacrifices that started it 30 years ago.
Hank and Laurel Greer retired to the Charleston area in 1998. The couple had planned to start a permanent care animal facility of their own until they read about Linville’s and Pet Helpers’ efforts in the area.
Laurel Greer, now Pet Helpers’ Board Vice President said, “We started reading a lot about Carol Linville and Pet Helpers in the local press. It was apparent that she was dedicated to the same mission that we were and had already established a good reputation in the community.”
Hank Greer agreed, and also noted Linville’s generous heart. “Carol is probably one of the most humane people we have ever met. She continually concerns herself with the welfare of all animals, whether it's a kitten trapped in a culvert or a horse that's been abused by its owner. We feel blessed by our affiliation with her and look forward to a very long relationship with her both personally and professionally,” he said.
As co-chairs of the capital campaign for the new shelter, the Greers are proud of the progress the Pet Helpers shelter is making. “We have come a long way to where we are now. With building plans approved, a capital campaign underway and our announcement to the public on October 20, we have all worked extremely hard to get to this point,” said Laurel.
Besides founding Pet Helpers and raising funds for the nonprofit organization Linville actively pursues community relationships, hoping to join hands in animal welfare. She’s involved in The Humane Society of the United States, co-founded a local coalition of Lowcountry animal welfare activists called Humane Net, and this fall Carol Linville and Pet Helpers take on their biggest leap yet as they break ground on the new 18,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art Pet Helpers Adoption and Spay Neuter Center.
The opportunity for improvement of our community’s homeless pets is unprecedented as Pet Helpers grows and becomes an ever-stronger community partner in pursuit of this vision. Karesh said, “There is a lot of mutual respect between our organizations, we have a better relationship than we have ever had, and I look forward to working with Pet Helpers for years to come.”
Thanks to Carol Linville and her nearly 30 years of tireless effort, many thousands of pets have left the homeless community and joined a much happier, safer community of those who enjoy the love and shelter of a real home, and due to her efforts thousands more will be saved in the future as her vision becomes reality.
Suzanne Carr, the new Executive Director of Pet Helpers, said, “I jumped at the chance to help Carol take her ‘baby,’ as she fondly calls Pet Helpers, to its next level of growth.” As Pet Helpers moves into a new facility, Carol will remain closely involved as Board President. Carr added, “It takes a strong personality with a caring and compassionate heart to withstand three decades in this business - and that is the essence of Carol Linville.”
Read more about Pet Helpers Rescue & Adoption Center’s growth in the October Issue of Senior Sun Magazine and call 795-1110 for adoption or spay/neuter information or visit www.pethelpers.org.