CHARLESTON – The Ashley House is a large cube-shaped building on the western edge of downtown. Clad in brown brick, it was built in the mid-1960s, when high-rises were often seen as symbols of progress, especially in smaller southern cities like Charleston that had economies moving in slow motion.
Ashley House stood out with its 13 floors, among the tallest buildings on the peninsula at the time. It had more than 140 apartments, all managed by Charlotte Humphries, described in a 1967 News and Courier story as “The Lovable Landlady.”
The article said Humphries provided “tender, loving care to 144 tenants,” and that these tenants “seem to regard her as more of a friend than a landlady.” Time passed, the peninsula changed. Taller buildings went up in the nearby medical district; the city’s fortunes swelled as its tourism engine revved higher.
But Humphries remained a constant at the Ashley House, setting up a real estate office on the ground floor and living in two units on a top floor. Some longtime residents considered her such a close friend they asked her to manage their affairs when they died.
Yet, over time, a few relatives of deceased Ashley House owners, along with some residents, began to question her handling of the estates, public records show. Two widows left their condos to Humphries, who sold the units for more than $300,000 combined, according to probate court and real estate filings. Humphries also received at least $210,000 in additional funds, both as an heir and for her work as a personal representative overseeing estates, documents reveal.
In 2018 and 2019, a niece of a deceased Ashley House resident sent letters to Charleston County Probate Court alleging that Humphries inherited a unit that had been promised to her. Records show city officials and police were alerted to the niece’s allegations. In one email to the city’s Office on Aging, a detective wrote: “This case is in very much a gray area between probate and criminal. It is not going to be fast and is going to take a lot of time, so please be patient.”
In the end, no charges were filed, and the probate case was closed.
Humphries is in her mid-80s now. She still has a company, Ashley House Realty, that manages apartments in the building, records show. In a brief interview, she said she properly handled the estates of her fellow property owners. In a letter to The Post and Courier, her son, Francis Humphries, an attorney in Myrtle Beach, said his mother “always treated the Ashley House as a community rather than a business.”
He said she often cooked more food than her family needed on weekends so “she could feed a number of the residents who did not have family locally (or at all).” He wrote that the county’s probate court approved all of the estate cases that she handled. And he said his mother has been unfairly targeted by factions in the building that have their own leadership agendas.
“Charlotte,” he said, “is a deeply caring and loyal friend.”
Friend and estate handler
From its upper floors, the Ashley House offers sweeping views – sunsets over the Ashley River to the west and sunrises above Charleston’s historic district to the east. The Ashley House began its life as a block of apartment rentals. But in 1980, the building’s owner converted the apartments into condos and began selling them off.
Over time, the Lowcountry’s drenching rains and salty air took their toll on the building, as has happened with many other high-rises along the southeastern coast. A group of Ashley House condo owners are pushing for a $20 million overhaul to fix longstanding water intrusion problems and refresh the building’s stark façade.
This effort gained new urgency with the city’s recent emergency evacuation order of Dockside Condominiums, a 1970s-era high-rise on the other side of the peninsula. Engineers say Dockside has potentially catastrophic structural issues that could cost $151 million to fix.
As with Dockside, the Ashley House’s repair issues generated tense meetings among owners. Some want the repairs, others don’t. One owner filed a lawsuit against the property owners’ association.
Throughout the Ashley House’s history, Humphries remained deeply committed to the building and area, professionally and socially. She volunteered at the Medical University of South Carolina across Calhoun Street, handing out teddy bears to children with cancer. She handled many Ashley House real estate transactions and served as building manager, records show.
As the building aged, so did the demographics of the residents. Many were empty nesters. Humphries forged bonds with some owners that spanned decades. One such friendship was with a widow named Irma Nagle, who went by Toni.
Nagle was a registered nurse who lived on the ninth floor. In 1982, she revised her will and named Humphries as executor – the person responsible for handling her affairs after she died. Nagle also made Humphries the sole beneficiary of her estate, which included her Ashley House studio unit.
Ten years passed, and Nagle died at age 74. Humphries took over as executor. She filed documents in probate court that listed Nagle’s condo in the Ashley House as her only asset, valued at the time at about $50,000, and $26,351 in debts. Humphries sold the condominium a year later for $50,000, keeping the proceeds after paying off the estate’s debts, according to records and Humphries’ son.
Nagle’s probate case is just a handful of documents, reflecting a relatively straightforward matter. In his letter to the newspaper, Humphries’ son Francis said Nagle had no close relatives, and that she chose to bequeath her unit “based on their long term and close friendship.”
But a case a few years later involving another Ashley House widow would prove more complex, and, for Humphries, more lucrative.
A widow’s complex will
This one involved a wealthier resident named Adeline Dyches, who bought a second-floor condominium in 1981, records show
On July 25, 1989, Dyches signed a will appointing Charlotte Humphries as her executor, saying she had “complete confidence” that “her friend” would carry out her final wishes after she died. Dyches died nine years later at the age of 92.
Dyches’ probate files are about 2 inches thick, hinting at the legal knots she left behind to untangle. The will itself was 10 pages long and outlined how her estate should be divided among nearly 40 people and 13 charities.
As for Humphries, the will said she would get 3 percent of the estate and $5,000 for handling it after Dyches’ death. The will also directed Humphries to serve as the real estate agent for the sale of Dyches’ condo and receive a “reasonable realtors’ fee.”
All told, Dyches’ estate was worth about $1.9 million, including $1.3 million in securities, according to an inventory Humphries filed with probate court. As the probate case wore on, Humphries’ lawyer asked the court to increase her executor’s fee. No future beneficiary appeared to challenge that increase, records show, and Probate Judge Irvin G. Condon agreed. In an interview, Condon said the Dyches case was unusually complex, and that Humphries sought a fee that was typically allowed under state statutes.
In the end, Humphries received $30,880 as a beneficiary and about $95,000 in fees as executor – much more than the original $5,000 fee in the will, records show.
In his response to The Post and Courier, Humphries’ son also noted the complexity of Dyches’ estate case.
“Inventorying the estate was also very difficult (because) Mrs. Dyches had many unknown assets including cash and keys to safes among her personal effects.” He said the fees his mother received were “proportionate to the estate and assigned by the Probate Court.”
Records show Charlotte Humphries also sold Dyches’ Ashley House condominium for $135,000, the proceeds of which went into the overall estate. (Humphries’ son acknowledged that his mother likely received a commission.) Ruth Smith, another widow, was the buyer.
A decade later, Humphries would serve as Smith’s executor, as well.
A widow’s decline, a new will
Smith died in 2009 of kidney failure and dementia. Her probate case was relatively simple. The will was three pages long. Smith’s heirs asked Humphries to serve as personal representative, and Humphries facilitated the transfer of most of Smith’s assets to her daughter in Texas, who has since died. For her estate work, Humphries received $8,725.95, records show.
A more recent probate case would attract the attention of police and city officials. And this one involved a remarkable woman named Edith Combs.
Combs was born in what is now the southern African nation of Namibia. She and her husband moved to South Carolina after World War II. Combs went to the University of South Carolina. After graduating, she became the state’s first female IRS revenue officer. She retired in 1983. Over time, Combs bought three units in the Ashley House, records show.
Combs and Humphries knew each other for decades. Humphries notarized Combs’ real estate documents for two units Combs bought in 1980, records show. Combs also loaned Humphries money – $55,000 in 1992 and $32,989.72 in 2001, mortgage records show. (Humphries’ son said in his letter that the “purpose of the loans is not material,” but they were “repaid in a timely fashion with interest.”)
Combs’ family shrank over time, though she had a circle of friends in Charleston. She was a member of the French Huguenot Church of Charleston and Ladies Benevolent Society of Charleston. Her husband and sister died, leaving a niece and nephew in Germany as her closest relatives.
In an undated letter in German, Combs wrote her niece, Gudrun Uerlings, that she planned to give her fifth-floor apartment to her and Uerlings’ daughter. “At the moment, the apartment is worth $220,000,” according to the letter, which was later filed in probate court.
In his response to The Post and Courier’s questions, Humphries’ son said his mother and “Edi,” as he referred to Combs, were so close they visited with Combs’ family in Germany during a family trip.
In 2016, Combs signed a new will. Witnessing and notarizing the will were three Ashley House maintenance workers, records show.
In this document, Combs named Charlotte Humphries as executor of her estate and the beneficiary of the fifth-floor unit.
Combs’ will specified that her fourth-floor condo would go to Earlie Smith III, who was described in probate filings as her hair dresser. (He sold it a few months later for $250,000 and has since died.) Combs’ third unit went to one of Combs’ friends, who also has died.
Combs suffered a stroke less than a year after she drew up the new will. And Humphries appeared to take on the role of an important caretaker, according to letters written by one of Combs’ neighbors, Mabel Pace.
Pace lived on the same floor as Combs and visited her once or twice a day, she wrote in letters, which were eventually filed in probate court. One dated in 2017 went to Combs’ doctor of 30 years. In that letter, Pace pleaded for help, writing that she feared her friend wasn’t being fed properly or getting effective physical therapy.
“Edith can’t die fast enough for Charlotte,” Pace wrote to the doctor.
Combs died in 2017, and Humphries took over her estate. She submitted an initial inventory to the court identifying about $1.08 million in assets, including stocks, bonds, real estate, and antiques and jewelry.
As the probate process unfolded, Pace wrote another letter to court officials. “I have good reason to believe that Edith’s will was wrongfully changed a few months before she died.”
Pace also wrote that “a large part of Edith’s assets were not disclosed to the Probate Court,” and that she believed that “Charlotte coerced my friend, Edith (shortly before her stroke) to give Charlotte a large part of her estate.” Pace died in 2019.
By then, Combs’ niece in Germany, Uerlings, and nephew also had begun writing to probate court officials. In one letter, Uerlings challenged Humphries’ handling of the estate, alleging that she had “used her position as a PR (personal representative) to deceive other people.”
Uerlings also emailed a city of Charleston police detective and the city’s Office on Aging, records show. Both urged her to hire a private lawyer.
Uerlings searched for a lawyer. One wrote back that her case had merit, but he declined to take it because of language barriers and the complexities of challenging probate cases, records show.
Neither Uerlings nor her brother responded to emails and texts from The Post and Courier seeking comment.
A probate hearing eventually was scheduled. Uerlings submitted a statement to the court saying she couldn’t travel to the United States, but that she’d spent a great deal of time putting “all the pieces of the puzzle together.”
Uerlings concluded that the Ashley House “is like a big store where you get everything,” a place where “parties for you and your friends are organized, you can get help from the maintenance crew, you can get independent witnesses, if you need them, you can get help concerning your testament, and you can get a PR.”
Humphries’ son said in his response to the newspaper’s questions that his mother had “no material role in the ‘creation’ of the will.” He said the witnesses for Combs’ will were there only to verify that Combs was actually signing the document. “Their employment is not relevant,” he said of their roles as maintenance workers at the Ashley House, adding that “it is entirely likely that the will was signed in Charlotte’s office and that she was present.”
Humphries’ son also alleged that Combs became estranged from her niece in Germany after a family death, and that the bitterness that often follows the death of a loved one is important context to what happened. He said that Combs considered “Earlie Smith to be a long-standing friend whom she chose to benefit from her will.”
And of Mabel Pace’s allegations, he wrote that the friendship between Combs and Pace began to falter as “Ms. Pace’s health began to fail. Per Mrs. Combs, Ms. Pace became bitter.” He wrote that his mother “cared for Mrs. Combs daily after her stroke … They were very close friends.”
Ultimately, probate court approved the plan to distribute Combs’ assets according to her new will. Probate filings show that Humphries received at least $77,000 from the estate, along with one of Combs’ units. Real estate records show she sold that unit for $269,000 in 2020.
In the garden
Humphries’ son provided five letters from residents and family members of residents who described how Humphries helped them and their loved ones.
“When I was away with my daughter receiving medical care in Boston, Charlotte watched over my husband and even gave him a job in the office,” said Linda Hewson, who said she was sickened by the “personal attacks Charlotte has been forced to endure.”
Dominique Godfrey wrote about how Humphries took care of her aging parents and the Sunday meals she cooked for residents.
“If you did come eat with her, she would sometimes ask you to bring a plate to another person in the building who couldn’t get it themselves … I’m truly shocked to think anyone ever suggested Charlotte was anything other than a kind and loving lady.”
Yet, in recent years, several Ashley House residents contacted the city’s Office on Aging, an education, advocacy and referral program for Charleston seniors. In emails obtained by The Post and Courier, the residents said they were concerned about Humphries’ actions in the Ashley House.
The Office on Aging’s lone coordinator, Jamie Roper, declined to comment about the Ashley House’s specific issues but said the probate system in general can be frustrating and prone to power imbalances.
Executors and personal representatives often have tremendous leverage over deceased people’s assets with few checks and balances to verify what they’re doing, she said.
"If you suspect an illegality,‘’ Roper said, “you have to get a lawyer.” But the costs of hiring a lawyer can quickly drain an estate, she said.
Transparency is the best defense against potential conflicts after a loved one dies. She advises older people and their families to “get past” the discomfort of talking about death.
“Make a will, and talk about it before you die,” she said.
The consequences of that silence can send loved ones down uncertain paths – in probate court and outside it, she said, mentioning what happened in the Ashley House as an example.
“The probate process can be very intimidating, and it’s not something you’ll know until you experience it.”
Outside the Ashley House, a small garden offers hints of the stories left behind after residents died. Steps away from the window into Charlotte Humphries’ real estate office, a plaque says “In Memory Of” and lists the names of 11 people, including the widow Edith Combs.
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