As of October 2020[update], the position was vacant following the resignation of Marjory Heath Wentworth after 17 years in the post.
The position was created by a joint resolution of the South Carolina General Assembly in 1934.
[2] The term of office is not officially set, but generally it has been a life-time appointment.
[5] However, this honorarium was cut by Governor Mark Sanford in 2003 when Wentworth agreed to serve without the pay.
[6] Prior to the official creation of the position in 1934, William Gilmore Simms had been often recognized as South Carolina's poet laureate.