He’s about to turn 100. Family celebrates South Carolina’s “oldest black farmer”
Bernie Pringle might not be a household name, but he holds a distinct honor in South Carolina. He’s the Palmetto State’s “oldest black farmer,” according to the National Black Farmers Association. Soon, he’ll make the record a year harder to break. On Jan. 3, he turns 100. But on Saturday his family joined together to celebrate the upcoming birthday.
Nya Simone, niece to Pringle, said all the grandchildren and family were together on Dec. 22, so they decided to celebrate the upcoming centennial birthday early.
“He’s just a very loving man,” Simone said of her uncle, which she likens more to a grandfather. “He loves all his family and extended family the same.”
The Huffington Post wrote about Pringle in 2013 when the NBFA honored the Sumter resident at their annual conference which took place in Columbia.
“We can all learn from the 94-year-old black farmer who has seen a lot and is full of wisdom,” NBFA President John W. Boyd said at the conference.
At 16 years old Pringle started farming while the Great Depression set in and Jim Crow was still the law in the South, according to a 2013 report by WLTX. He farmed cotton, tobacco, corn, soybeans, and peanuts on a 56-acre farm in Sumter.
“I enjoyed it more than I thought I would,” Pringle told WLTX.
Simone said her uncle is “very hilarious” even as he’s close to 100 years old, a casual quality that he’s had since she was young.
“Growing up he always let us play on the farm,” Simone remembered. “He let us feed the horses and stuff like that.”
Pringle told the 2013 NBFA conference that the love of his wife, Pearl, allowed him to have success as a farmer.
“He came out to be a pretty good man, I love him, I love him right now today, I love him more, because I always ask God to let me and Bernie’s last days be the best days,” Pearl told WLTX in 2013.
In 2016, Pearl passed away, Simone said. Now, Pringle lives in a senior living community, but still owns the farm he worked for so many decades. The land is rented out to other farmers.
As a testament to his determined character, Simone said even though her uncle had to quit driving a couple years ago, he still goes to church every Sunday.
“He’s still in good spirits,” Simone said.
The Huffington Post reported that at the NBFA conference in 2013 Pringle told those gathered, “I’m gonna leave this earth the way I come — farming.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2018 at 12:30 PM.