I'd recommend either the Tamiya DD-445 Fletcher or Trumpeter DE-635 England. Both are relatively inexpensive and testing things like photo-etch will not break the bank. The Tamiya kit is not perfect (gun turrets are a little undersized, for example), but the fit is better in my opinion than the Trumpeter kit.
With the number of these ships that were built you should probably even find a South Carolina tie in; perhaps a ship in the classes was named after a SC hero.