OPINION: Region should embrace keeping Purvis history alive

Every town across America has historical events and figures that are buried to the naked eye.
Unless someone takes it upon himself to dig up and keep that history fresh, a town’s younger generations as well as new residents and visitors might never fully know the history of the town in which they’re living or are visiting.
Fortunately for the Florence area, South Carolina Educational Television and Friends of Florence County Library gave new life to a significant piece of the area’s history with advanced screenings of “G-Man: The Rise and Fall of Melvin Purvis” on June 28 at the Drs. Bruce & Lee Foundation Library.
The movie has since been broadcast by S.C. ETV as part of the channel’s Carolina Stories series.
Purvis, a Timmonsville native who made a home along Cherokee Road in Florence, headed up the FBI’s office in Chicago, which took down such gangsters as John Dillinger, Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd and Baby Face Nelson during the 1930s.
The movie “Public Enemies” currently playing at theaters nationwide also chronicles these events, and Purvis’ son, Alston Purvis, has written a book about his father titled “The Vendetta: FBI Hero Melvin Purvis’ War Against Crime, And J. Edgar Hoover’s War Against Him.”
These theatrical efforts and the book no doubt have shed light on Purvis and the Florence area for having played large roles in an important chapter of American history. Without them, some of us would have never made the connection.
Through the book and movies, Alston Purvis says even he has come to know his father better.
After leaving the FBI in the mid-1930s, Purvis practiced law, ran a radio station in Florence and served as an Army colonel during World War II. In 1960 at the age of 56, he died at his Florence home from what the FBI deemed a self-inflicted gunshot.
The story of Melvin Purvis is a wonderfully engaging one that had not been told to a broad audience since Purvis was portrayed in the 1991 TV movie “Dillinger.” Before that, a movie featuring Purvis had not been made since 1975.
Years pass quickly. Public figures come and go. And without effort to keep them in our consciousness, they can be forgotten with time.
Any town, any region should embrace the responsibility of keeping its history alive. Instead of depending on someone to write another book or produce another movie about Purvis, say, 20 years from now, perhaps Florence City Council or Florence County could name a building or street after him, or even erect a monument in his honor once the economy recovers and there is a surplus of funds for such a project.

— Unsigned editorials represent the views of this newspaper. Editorial Board members are Mark Laskowski (regional publisher), James Bennett (regional editor), Sam Bundy (sports editor), Kimberly Ginfrida (news editor), David Johnson (regional circulation director), Charles Tomlinson (Lake City News & Post editor) and Jackie Torok (metro editor).