Hiney Grin Hamsolot

In June 1948, Sandy was the oldest of five children, born to Duane and Vera Newington; and the mother of four wonderful kids. She grew up in the small town of Hickory Corners, Michigan, where she attended Gull Lake High School; graduating in 1966. She was the featured majorette in her high school band and as a teenager, she began teaching young children the art of baton twirling, along with some beginning dance and gymnastics classes, teaching up until the year 1993. She graduated from the Lake Michigan Nursing program with honors, followed by specializing in Obstetrical nursing. She flew throughout the US while moonlighting as an air ambulance nurse during this period of time. In 1987, she and her family relocated to Walterboro, South Carolina, where she continued working in Labor & Delivery until retiring in December 2012. She always held her entire family very dear and had a huge passion for babies, poetry, and needle crafts of all kinds. Following retirement, she decided to try blending all of her passions together by writing children's stories with subtle messages through the art of light-hearted poems, to entertain her grandkids. Most of her characters are named for family members, who seemed to get a kick out of it and all the pictures and illustrations were embroidered by her on her sewing machine. The stories are also set between her home state of Michigan and her current residence of South Carolina. In the fall of 2019, she was juried into the South Carolinian Artisan Association as a new artist for her storybooks, which are on display at the Center.