Darius Rucker to honor mother with nursing scholarship at MUSC Children's Hospital – Post and Courier
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Updated: October 6, 2025 @ 6:09 am
Darius Rucker and his family will honor their mother, Carolyn, with a nursing scholarship at Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital at Medical University of South Carolina. Some proceeds from this year’s Riverfront Revival Festival, which Rucker founded, will go toward the scholarship. The festival will be held at Riverfront Park in North Charleston on Oct. 10-11.
Health Reporter
Tom Corwin is the Health Reporter for The Post and Courier. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri and has covered science, medicine, politics and state legislatures for newspapers in Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Darius Rucker and his family will honor their mother, Carolyn, with a nursing scholarship at Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital at Medical University of South Carolina. Some proceeds from this year’s Riverfront Revival Festival, which Rucker founded, will go toward the scholarship. The festival will be held at Riverfront Park in North Charleston on Oct. 10-11.
International recording artist and Charleston native Darius Rucker will honor his late mother, Carolyn, with a new scholarship for nurses at Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Carolyn Rucker worked for years as a nurse at MUSC, and her son wanted to pay tribute to her legacy there. The scholarships will go to current nurses who want to further their education. The trend is increasingly needed as technology and greater complexity of care demand more from nurses in caring for patients.
The Carolyn G. Rucker Nursing Scholarship Program will be funded by some of the proceeds from the upcoming Riverfront Revival, Rucker’s annual music festival, which will be held Oct. 10-11 in North Charleston at Riverfront Park. Among those scheduled to perform is fellow Charleston celebrity Bill Murray with his band, Bill Murray & His Blood Brothers.
“Mom loved her work because she loved helping people. She called it the greatest job on earth to be able to provide care and comfort to her patients,” Rucker told The Post and Courier in a statement from London, where he is preparing for his upcoming tour.
“I remember she would come home and tell us kids how lucky we were to have one another and to have the community around us that we did because that’s how she viewed her work, an extension of a bigger community working together and supporting one another. We didn’t grow up with a lot, but we grew up with a lot of belief in our dreams and the support to chase them.”
Rucker’s most recent album, “Carolyn’s Boy, also honors his mother.
The scholarship is not the only charitable contribution from Rucker and his bandmates. The Hootie and the Blowfish Foundation awarded $120,000 to four organizations in the Carolinas, the Central Carolina Community Foundation announced on Sept. 30. The foundation administers the fund.
Those groups are:
• Charleston Jazz, to expand its access program for children through classes, school performances and interactive events
• Clemson University’s Call Me MiSTER program in Pickens County, for its Camp iRock summer program pairing incoming teachers with experienced educators to learn ways to help elementary students with reading
• Community Foundation of Western North Carolina Emergency and Disaster Response Fund, to help with ongoing efforts to recover from Hurricane Helene
• Crosswell Home for Children, to expand its Independent Living Skills program for those transitioning out of foster care or the child welfare system
The nursing scholarship would go to MUSC nurses who want to pursue advanced degrees or training, and would cover tuition, fees and required materials. It comes at an opportune time for the Children’s Hospital, said Kiersten LeBar, associate chief nursing officer for children’s, women’s and behavioral health at MUSC. The pandemic put a strain on all health systems and forced many to bring in additional travel nurses to help carry the load. Now that the nursing staff has stabilized, it’s time to look ahead, LeBar said.
“Now we’re looking towards the future in how do we grow our nurses?” she said. “How do we enhance their skill set and retain them?”
Being able to offer that additional training is a bonus for staff to stay and also helps recruit nurses to areas of the children’s hospital that can be harder to staff, such as the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, LeBar said. Patients in that unit often have long-term stays and repeat visits, so the nurses serve as a kind of family for those patients, she said.
“So when things go well, that’s great,” LeBar said. “But sometimes, when we have hiccups or the outcomes aren’t quite what we would have hoped for, it’s hard on our teams.”
That unit, and many others in the children’s hospital, also require specialized knowledge and training for the nurses that work there.
“They use a lot of devices in these units, a lot of technology now to help make our patients better,” LeBar said. “And all of that requires our nurses to get advanced training, advanced certifications.”
The scholarship recipients would also be required to work at least two years at the children’s hospital.
For Rucker and his family, it is a chance to honor those following in Carolyn’s footsteps.
“I’d like to thank each recipient of this scholarship for dedicating their professional lives to a profession that we cannot live without,” he said. “Just like music can get you through dark times, so can one person caring for you in a time of crisis. Thank you for carrying on Carolyn’s legacy by investing in our community.”
If the scholarship helps them do that, even better, Rucker said.
“My family and I would love nothing more than for a future nurse to tell us their load was lightened by being awarded this scholarship,” he said. “Paying it forward is how we leave this place better than we found it, and everyone at Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital shows up daily to make patients and families feel lighter.”
The scholarship keeps those nurses moving forward, LeBar said.
“It’s helping the next generation of nurses,” she said. “I think it also allows the profession of nursing to continue to advance and shine, and the voice of nursing to be heard, which is really exciting.”
That it comes from Rucker is extra special, LeBar said.
“We’re so grateful to be the recipient of a scholarship like this that really honors Darius’ mom, who was a nurse here at MUSC,” she said. “We are lucky to be the beneficiaries of that and also to have such a great partner who shares our mission that’s focused on community and really supporting the community we serve.”
Kalyn Oyer contributed to this report.
Reach Tom Corwin at (843) 214-6584 or tcorwin@postandcourier.com. Follow him on X at @AUG_SciMed
Health Reporter
Tom Corwin is the Health Reporter for The Post and Courier. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri and has covered science, medicine, politics and state legislatures for newspapers in Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina.
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