HELLO, SUMMER
By Rowena Meigs
FEBRUARY 19, 2020
My goodness, but February has already been a month of happiness, heartbreak, housewarmings, and all-around change in our charming little village of Silver Bay.
Cupid’s arrows were zinging right and left this past year, resulting in a slew of engagements and nuptials.
Most recently the Beacon’s own star reporter and Silver Bay native Miss Sarah Conley Hawkins, daughter of the late Mr. Chester W. Hawkins and Melinda Conley Hawkins, and the granddaughter of Mrs. Lorraine DuBignon Conley and the late Woodrow Conley, exchanged wedding vows with Mr. Sean Patrick Kelly, son of the late Dr. Patrick Kelly and June Sewell Kelly.
Sean, of course, is also a Silver Bay native and the owner-manager of Kelly’s Drugs, a Silver Bay institution, who grew up two doors down from his blushing bride, who now prefers to be called Conley. Like many modern career gals, Conley says she will keep her maiden name as a tribute to her late father Chet, who was the longtime president of the now-defunct Silver Bay Savings and Loan.
The nuptials took place on Valentine’s Day, at sunset on the beach behind the bride’s grandparents’ home, The Dunes. Officiating at the service was the bride’s close friend, Branson “Butch” Culpepper, of Atlanta, who became a minister for the event. The blushing bride was breathtaking in a tea-length silk organza gown with exquisite hand-beaded pearls over imported French lace, which was handed down to her by her maternal grandmother, who wore it at her debutante ball. The bride’s bouquet consisted of a rosette of miniature palm fronds, white roses, and gardenias from the family garden. The groom wore a blue suit accented with a red bow tie which was his late father’s favorite. Neither wore shoes.
The bride’s sole attendant was her older sister, Grayson Hawkins Willingham, who wore a floral silk tea-length dress accented with a bouquet of miniature palm fronds and pink, yellow, and orange roses.
Following the ceremony, guests gathered under a festive tent and enjoyed an unusual repast of barbecued pork, coleslaw, chili dogs, and miniature ice cream sandwiches, all prepared for the reception by cooks from Kelly’s Drugs’ luncheonette. Dance music was provided by Mickey Mannington and the Mellowtones.
After the newlyweds return from their honeymoon they will be “at home” at the groom’s childhood residence on Felicity Street. A sad note to this happy occasion is that the wedding was preceded, by only a month, by the death of the groom’s mother, June Sewell Kelly, a beloved lifelong resident of this community, who passed, peacefully, in her sleep, at home. She was sixty-six.
In other Hawkins family news of note, our own Silver Bay Beacon managing editor and publisher Grayson Hawkins Willingham and her husband Tony recently completed construction of their new home on the site of her grandparents’ former family home on Felicity Street, just in time to welcome the arrival of twins Lorraine, called Lolo by her adoring family, and her brother Chester called Chet. With Grayson’s little sister Conley living just two doors down, and great-grandmother Lorraine a frequent guest, these twins will have plenty of family to cuddle and babysit them.
Although the Hawkins-Kelly nuptials have been in the works for some time now, your columnist admits she was caught off-guard by the whirlwind romance and subsequent marriage of Kennedy Marie McFall to Davis Whelan, of Panama City, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Whelan. The marriage represents a business as well as romantic union, as the groom’s family, who owns a chain of funeral homes in Northwest Florida, have acquired McFall-Peeples Funeral Home. The bride will assume the role of marketing manager for the newly formed partnership. Some may recall that Kennedy, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George McFall, was briefly engaged last year to our town’s most eligible bachelor, Charlie Robinette.
And speaking of whirlwind, Vanessa Robinette stunned many here when she eloped recently with retired entrepreneur Osbert Tracy, less than a year after the death of her first husband, U.S. Rep. Symmes Robinette. Mr. Tracy, 80, is the billionaire founder of PayDay Pawn. A little bird tells us that the two lovebirds met through the online dating site Silver Singles, following Vanessa’s unsuccessful bid for her late husband’s seat in Congress. The new Mrs. Tracy has sold her oceanfront mansion on Sugar Key, and the couple will reside in the groom’s home in Palm Beach.
Vanessa’s estranged son Charlie Robinette has also quietly pulled up stakes and put his home here on the market, following his upset defeat in the general election by the Democratic candidate, popular Bronson County Sheriff Merle Goggins. Charlie has reportedly accepted a position with a Washington, D.C., firm of lobbyists.
Also saying a temporary farewell to our fair community is former railroad titan and would-be political king-maker Miles Schoendienst, who is due to report to federal prison following his conviction for mail and insurance fraud. The charges stemmed from Schoendienst’s filing of a spurious insurance claim last May, following a theft from Miles’s Mercedes while it was parked at the Silver Bay Country Club. Among the items he claimed stolen from the unlocked car was a pair of $36,000 diamond and sapphire earrings belonging to his wife. The insurance company filed charges against Miles after receiving a photograph of Candace Schoendienst, Miles’s vivacious wife, wearing the “stolen” earrings at a campaign fund-raiser for Charlie Robinette, sent by an anonymous source.
And now, dear readers, for a farewell of my own. Your longtime correspondent has decided to hand over the reins of Hello, Summer to her respected Beacon colleague Lillian King. But not to worry, Tuffy and I will still be keeping you filled in on all the local Silver Bay social notes as we start an exciting new chapter in our lives. I am pleased to report that we’ll be live and local on radio station WSVR with our brand-new Sunday night broadcast Talk of the Town with Rowena and Tuffy! So, #TTFN. (That’s ta-ta for now!)