Ann L. Showell, who with her husband developed and owned Ocean City's Castle In The Sand Hotel for more than 50 years, died Friday of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at her West Ocean City farm. She was 85.
"Mrs. Showell was the last survivor from the glam era of old Ocean City. She came to town in the late 1940s and was an instant smash," said John M. Purnell, a longtime friend and retired Worcester County Times reporter who lives in West Ocean City.
"She was a glamorous and posh lady who always lived well. She was always stylishly dressed, and you never saw her in a pair of jeans unless she was gardening," recalled Mr. Purnell.
"She was a striking, dark-haired woman who had the most beautiful, honey-dripping Southern drawl. It was a very kind and endearing accent," Mr. Purnell said.
Ann Lockhart, the daughter of a farmer-banker and a homemaker, was born and raised in Wadesboro, N.C.
In a recently completed unpublished memoir, "My Wonderful Life," Mrs. Showell recalled the economic hardships of the early 1930s.
"I grew up in the Great Depression. We had people who would come to our door for food. My mother would always give them food, but never money. She always put the food on the back porch," she wrote.
"I was nine years old in 1933, but I didn't realize at the time how bad things were. My father closed his bank before the government closed it. He got all the banks in the county to go along with his idea," she wrote, adding that none of the banks failed because of her father's actions.
After high school, Mrs. Showell enrolled at Duke University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English literature in 1946.
During her senior year at Duke, she met a fellow student, John Dale "Johnny" Showell III, who was a member of one of Ocean City's most prominent and oldest established families and a returning World War II Marine veteran.
The couple married in 1947 and moved to Ocean City the next year.
"We didn't have any choice but to move to Ocean City because of Johnny's ties. I didn't care where we lived. I loved Ocean City, Johnny's family, and everything about the Eastern Shore," she wrote. "We fit right in. Ocean City was very small back then."
Mrs. Showell managed a duckpin bowling alley and soda fountain that had been owned by her in-laws, as well as several other Division Street businesses, including a movie theater, where she sold tickets.
Mrs. Showell also worked for the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, where she compiled daily reports from sport-fishing charter boat captains that were later published in The Baltimore Sun and Philadelphia Inquirer.
The first business the couple owned was the Washington Cottages on Fourth Street, which they purchased in the early 1950s. They added the Cruiseway and Balharbor, both apartment buildings, to their holdings in 1957.
In 1958, they purchased oceanfront property on 37th Street for $25,000, borrowed $60,000 and began construction of a hotel, which they named Castle In The Sand.
The hotel, which opened for the summer season of 1960, originally had 30 units that rented for $15 a night.
"We absolutely struggled with running the hotel at first. We didn't really have anyone to teach us about how to run the business. We basically figured it out ourselves," she wrote.
While her husband, who had a gregarious and outgoing personality, handled the vacationers, Mrs. Showell took care of the financial and business side of the enterprises they owned.
In 1960, Mrs. Showell and Shirley Phillips were the first women to be named to the board of Atlantic National Bank of the Eastern Shore.
When her husband turned 50, he retired.
"I asked what was going to happen to the business and he entrusted it to me to run," she wrote. "He just retired, and I continued working. I ran the whole business, and I worked all the way until I was 75."
Her husband died in 1992.
"Even though she had retired, she was still president until her death of Castle In The Sand Hotel Inc.," said a son, Adam L. Showell of Ocean City, who now co-owns and operates the hotel with a sister, Ann S. Mariner of Sinepuxent.
"What a gracious lady who was a great inspiration to all of us in helping keep Ocean City a family resort," said Del. James M. Mathias Jr., former Ocean City mayor. "Thank God for people like Ann Showell. She was an important mover and shaker in the community. Both she and her husband had been a great team."
He recalled that whenever Mrs. Showell entered a room, she was a "sunny presence" and a woman who was "greatly respected."
In 1997, in recognition for her life's work, Mrs. Showell was one of six local women considered to be Ocean City pioneers who were recipients of the Steel Magnolia Award.
From 1980 to 1984, the couple enjoyed sailing aboard the Maryland Lady, a 118-foot steel yacht formerly owned by the state, which they purchased and kept berthed most of the year in Palm Beach, Fla., where they spent winters.
Mrs. Showell, who was an avid bridge player, enjoyed sipping Manhattans and, in recent years, wine, her son said.
Mrs. Showell attributed her success in life to "hard work," she wrote.
She was a communicant of St. Paul's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Third Street and Baltimore Avenue in Ocean City, where funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday.
Also surviving is another son, John D. Showell IV of Wellington, Fla.; another daughter, Sarah E. Showell of Salisbury; a sister, Elizabeth L. Taylor of Wadesboro; and five grandchildren.