Charles Gay
But few know Charles Gay…the cowboy.
Most people who know Charles Gay, 74, think of Gay Fish Company shrimp dock and seafood retail store along Ward’s Creek on St. Helena Island.
His family has owned and operated the shrimp dock and store since 1948. “I’ve loved horses all my life,” he said at his home and “ranch” at Molly Hill on St. Helena Island. “It’s really my first passion. I just love them.”
Gay’s family moved to Beaufort more than 100 years ago. Gay said his granddaddy was an electrician at the U.S. Naval Hospital and went shrimping in the St. Helena Sound from a bateau with a friend. Gay said he couldn’t remember if they were dragging or throwing a cast net, “but they made more money selling those shrimp than he did at the hospital in a month.”
The rest is history and the Gay family became local shrimping legends with their own dock and up to 21 shrimp trawlers.
At the same time his family was plying the waters for shrimp, young Charles was riding horses and doing some serious barrel racing.
“Daddy had a Marsh Tacky mare and bought another Marsh Tacky stallion and bred them,” he said. “That’s how we got our start in horses. That’s how we started out raising horses in 1953.” Throughout the years he’s owned up to “30 something” horses at one time. Gay said he would rush home from school to ride horses. “I’d work on either the boats or on the docks during the day and run home and ride horses until the sun went down,” he recalled with a broad smile. “I had the best of everything back then and never knew it.”
Between the shrimping business, delivering block ice and raising horses, Gay even found time to serve 10 years in the S.C. National Guard. “I got out of going to summer school my senior year because I had to report to Fort Jackson for basic training that summer in 1964. So, it all worked out,” he said. While he says he doesn’t ride much anymore, and has sold most of his horses, Gay keeps a few horses for his grandchildren to ride. He also maintains stables and 10 acres for his four remaining horses.