By BILL BENGTSON

He has nine decades to his credit so far, and W.O. Gwin has spent six of them as a Lions Club member, including 48 years of perfect attendance.

A native of Winnsboro, La., Gwin got on board with the Lions there in March of '49, when he was operating a building-supply and construction business, having initially worked as a bookkeeper. "At that time, they were the only civic club in Winnsboro, and my uncle was in the Lions Club, and he wanted me to get in there."

He served that club as president in 1960-61, and the road to North Augusta did not beckon until 1983.

"A good-looking lady brought me here," he said. "She and I courted in 1936 ... She was from Fairfax, S.C. She came home in '36, and we corresponded."

A letter from him, however, was intercepted by her father, who happened to be the Fairfax postmaster, and her mother, who also worked in the post office.

They apparently didn't appreciate Gwin's question, in a letter, inquiring, "How many children do you want when we get married?"

"That stopped the correspondence," and things cooled off considerably. Gwin and his would-be spouse, Edith O'Neal, married other people, eventually outliving their spouses and being out of touch for years.

They didn't see each other again until 1965, when they met in Augusta and had a few minutes to chat. They met again more than 20 years later, when both were single again. "I wrote her a letter in '86, and said, 'If you'd like to get together and talk, let me know,' and she called me and said she was ready to talk."

He and the future Edith O'Neal Blandenburg Gwin, a 24-year employee of the North Augusta Department of Public Safety, would marry in 1988. She died in 1999.

Regardless of his home base or marital status, Gwin had participation in Lions Club activities as a staple in his life. He and his fellow Lions are to be in the local spotlight over the next couple of weeks.

This weekend, a district meeting is to be held at the North Augusta Community Center, drawing more than 100 Lions from around South Carolina, focusing on the future.

There's also an opportunity to look back a few generations, by way of an exhibit to be on display through Feb. 2 at the Arts and Heritage Center of North Augusta, focusing on "the 75 years of Lionism" on the local scene, as described by Joyce Haskell, a member of Gwin's club.

Among Gwin's longtime friends is Ed Zeigler, who knows Gwin largely through their dual membership in the Orville Morris Sunday school class at First Baptist Church of North Augusta and in the Sheffield Fellowship, a club for the congregation's senior citizens.

"I don't think I've ever had a birthday or an anniversary, either one, when he hasn't sent me a birthday or anniversary card," Zeigler said. "He is a card sender."

He also noted that the 91-year-old has some handy, community-minded kitchen talent. "He cooks pies by the 10s and 20s, I think, and he gives them away all during the year."

Looking back to his military service during World War II, Gwin can point out that he was in the Coast Guard. In his case, however, that meant "guarding coasts" in the South Pacific.

Gwin served for 43 months, reaching such places as New Guinea, Guadalcanal, Guam and the Philippines.

"I was on a supply ship, and we were carrying supplies in to the troops. We didn't draw but nine feet of water, so ... the ship could get in close to land ... It was a 180-footer. We were on an Army ship under Navy orders, and in the Coast Guard. We didn't have but 23 men -- four officers and the rest of them enlisted men ... so it was like a family."

Returning home, he opted to leave the bookkeeping business, and began work as a carpenter in 1946, and shifted gears again in 1949, working for himself in construction and building-supply sales. "I put in about 14 and 16 hours a day. I did that for about 36 years. By then, I was burned out."

"I built ... over 250 houses," he said, recalling his Winnsboro years. "I started out with a 6-by-30 store and a 20-by-24 lumber shed, $200 in money, and in a town of 4,500, there were five other building-supply people in town. I was the sixth one. There was two of us left when I got out. I sold out in '83."