A native of Florence, South Carolina, Joe Sallenger spent much of his childhood on the farm that would later become Francis Marion University. After "going north" to school (Wake Forest University) and a spot of travel through Europe and the United States, Joe returned to the Pee Dee region with the realization that "folks are pretty much folks everywhere you go, some just talk funnier than others."

When the Fine Arts Center was constructed at Francis Marion (College), Fine Arts Chairman Jack Baker convinced Joe to take up residence in the "fish tank" off the breezeway, where he remains to this day. He tries to keep track of the Art, Music and Theatre faculty, manage various auditoriums, dabble in a bit of Art and Flute Collecting, feed Oedipus the One-Eyed Cat, help out at the Anglican Church of Our Saviour, and keep his British (Morris Minor) truck and log cabin from falling apart around him.

Joseph Wilds Sallenger
Department of Fine Arts
Francis Marion University
P.O. Box 100547
Florence SC 29501-0547

Phone: (843) 661-1385
E-mail: jsallenger@fmarion.edu -or- goferjoe@aol.com

Oedipus the One-Eyed Mandingo Lodge Church of Our Saviour Florence, South Carolina, USA

Donna & Joe at the stuff market Return to GoferJoe's Burrow GENERAL FRANCIS MARION: If you would like to learn more about the Swamp Fox, the American revolutionary general for whom Francis Marion University is named, Project Gutenberg now has William Gilmore Simms' 1845 The Life of Francis Marion available electronically. Images © J. W. Sallenger & W. W. Sallenger