When Austin Sheheen Sr. was elected in 1958 to Camden City Council, he didn’t know he was starting a political family tradition.

Nearly 50 years and three generations later, the Sheheen family has made its mark on local and state politics.

And while other South Carolina families are active in politics, what distinguishes the Sheheens — characterized by many who know them as independent thinkers and hard workers — is staying power.

“It’s pretty remarkable to hold on for such a long time,” said Patrick Maney, chairman of the history department at the University of South Carolina, particularly through dramatic changes to Southern politics in the 1960s and 1970s. “A lot of political would-be dynasties didn’t survive. They just got eclipsed by events.”

The family has produced a Camden mayor and Kershaw County Council chairman — Austin Sheheen Sr. and Austin Sheheen Jr. — who worked to improve city-county relations.

Other members took on statewide roles: Bob Sheheen as S.C. House speaker, who helped guide the state through a tumultuous political scandal; and Fred Sheheen, whose stint as state higher education commissioner helped shape the way education is structured today. Fred’s son, Vincent, is the state’s newest senator, elected in a special race three months ago.

“It’s a marvelous legacy of service to South Carolina,” said Jean Toal, S.C. Supreme Court chief justice and a longtime family friend. “These folks did more than just serve, they really made a difference.”

Fred Sheheen said his family operates from a basic principle: that people have an obligation to give back to the community.

“I’m proud that my family does that,” he said.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Unlike some of America’s political families, who are rooted in affluent social circles with family money, the Sheheens began life in America as outsiders.

Patriarch Abraham Sheheen came to the United States from Lebanon in 1896. He and his brother, Joseph, walked 300 miles from Newport News, Va., to Camden, where they settled and opened a grocery store.

“For many, many, many years, my family struggled,” Austin Jr. said.

But fate brought Abraham to meet a traveling priest, who came through Camden every couple of months. He wanted to settle down and asked the priest to be on the lookout for a suitable wife. Eventually, word came back that there was a Catholic Lebanese family in Thomasville, Ga., with several eligible daughters.

So Abraham met Elizabeth Koosa.

“He went down and picked my grandmother out, who was 18, and he was 31,” Austin Jr. said.

Abraham and Elizabeth spent 60 years together, raising six sons.

The second son, Austin Sr., followed his father in starting a business.

And then, he started the family’s tradition of service to community.

“Part of what makes us tick, I think, is that we’re an immigrant family,” Vincent Sheheen said. “That thankfulness for America has kind of played down through the generations.”

‘ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS’

In 1950 — before Austin Sr. was elected to political office — his wife, Lucile, and sons Austin Jr., Bob, Fred and Michael were living in a three-bedroom home, sharing one bathroom and getting by on $457 a month.

Living in the small town of Camden, Austin Sr. and Lucile made it a point to teach their sons lessons about working hard, being humble and serving others.

“My parents fostered an attitude in our household of participation,” Bob said.

These kinds of values were highlighted in a Ladies’ Home Journal story about the Sheheens, after Lucile nominated her family for a 1950s article series looking at how typical, middle-class America lived.

Reporters Earl and Dorothy Selby lived for a couple of months with the Sheheens — the boys then were ages 7-15 — watching their everyday activities and even going on the older boys’ dates.

“They were everywhere, all the time,” Fred said but added, “We were all thrilled to death to be in the magazine.”

What was written, Fred said, was representative of many Southern families of the day: strong in values, faith and family.

Austin Sr., active in the Chamber of Commerce, Jaycees and recreation commission, was typical of men who were “the hope of new Camden,” then-Mayor Henry Savage told the magazine.

Fred, then 13, was “known in junior high as a man who gets things done.”

Brother Bob, 7, was “solidly confident” and planned “to be a magician.”

Austin Jr., 15, was spreading his wings as a high-school football player and stamp collector. Brother Michael, 9, had “a natural flair for rhythm.”

And keeping all of them in line was Lucile.

“She was the glue that held our family together,” Austin Jr. said.

Lucile was active in her sons’ lives, Bob said, from attending oratorical contests and football games to keeping them disciplined with chores and education.

“She always wanted you to know your first line of security was your family,” Bob said.

And part of family was responsibility.

Friday was cleaning day, Bob said. The boys helped wash the dishes and clean the house — “chores ordinarily reserved for girls,” the magazine observed.

And when they sat down for their three squares a day, they ate what was on their plate with no back talk.

“If you said you didn’t like it,” Bob said, “she gave you a double helping.”

Daughter-in-law Rose Sheheen, Fred’s wife, said Lucile was like a tigress in the way she protected her sons. But she also had high expectations for them.

“She didn’t tolerate fools,” Rose said, “and she kept them humble.”

She said the boys might have gotten their political savvy from their father, but “their intellectual prowess comes through their mama.”

“I’ve always been a big believer that actions speak louder than words,” Vincent said. “I learned from what I saw.”

CLOSENESS AND INDEPENDENCE

The most important lessons from Austin Sr. and Lucile — who died in 2000 and 1996, respectively — were about commitment to family.

The Sheheens had a tradition of getting together at the family lake house every Sunday. But when Austin Jr. was older, he decided he wanted to spend some of his Sundays golfing.

A quiet reprimand from his father changed his mind.

“He very calmly said, ‘Sunday is family day. You can play golf on another day,’” Austin Jr. recalled.

“I never missed going from that day on.”

Today, the brothers don’t get together every Sunday. But when a holiday rolls around, they gather at their Lake Wateree family compound, now a cluster of family cabins.

On Mother’s Day, the men cook for the women. On Father’s Day, they switch roles.

Austin, 69, and his wife, Joan, have seven daughters. Fred, 67, and Rose have two daughters and a son.

Bob, 61, never married. Neither did brother Michael, who died last year at age 62 and whose arrest in the early 1990s tested the family’s strength.

The three brothers and their parents rallied around Michael, who served more than eight years in federal prison in the 1990s after pleading guilty to fraud, embezzlement and money-laundering charges. He was convicted of bilking $11 million from investors.

His brothers say not a week went by that Michael didn’t get a letter or a visit from a family member while in prison.

“That was the hardest time for my family ever,” Austin Jr. said.

Though the Sheheens have shared family and political traditions, they don’t always agree on everything — especially politics.

One example, Fred said, was on the issue of The Citadel admitting women in the early 1990s. Bob was House speaker, and Fred was heading the Commission on Higher Education.

“I took a firm position that The Citadel ought to admit women,” Fred said. “Bob sponsored legislation to keep (women) out of The Citadel.”

Still, Fred said, it is hard to fight the stereotype that family members hold the same political opinions.

“The dynasty issue becomes an issue whether you like it or not. My feeling is you try not to feed that, you try not to do things that make it appear that there’s some kind of dynasty,” he said.

“You just establish your own independence and you trust that the public will have confidence in you.”

Fresh thinking and political courage has helped keep the Sheheen family in politics during the years, said USC political science professor Blease Graham.

“There’s not a staleness in their thinking,” he said. “I think South Carolina, over the 300 years of its existence, has benefited from individuals like this.”

Vincent Sheheen, whose seat will be up for re-election in November, said he hopes his young sons will take to heart the Sheheen tradition of community service — but whether that means a fourth generation of political servants is up to them.

“I don’t hope one way or the other,” he said. “If they do, I think it would be great and honorable. ... (But) I wouldn’t want them to feel like there’s pressure.”

Their grandfather, Fred, agrees.

“Each person crafts his own future,” he said. “They may be artists or poets instead of politicians, and that’s fine.”

Reach Rupon at (803) 771-8622 or krupon@thestate.com.