Using "Did Have" in a sentence

[tekchik]

This is the sentence I used:
"Some of the people at the party did have some redeeming qualities."
I know I could have used "had," but wanted more emphasis. My friend tells me it smacks of poor grammar commonly used in the South. True? Thanks.

[MrPedantic]

Hello Tekchik, welcome to UsingEnglish!

In British English, it would be fine, if you did indeed want to emphasise the fact that they had some redeeming qualities:

"Most of the people there were very dull. But some of them did have some redeeming qualities..."

MrP