way down the dock, and set it sideways so it
was almost impossible to get out of there.
On Halloween we would take everything we
could fi nd – including Miss Rachel’s car – and
block off the four-way stop in the middle of
town. One year we were all warned by the
sheriff’s deputy (who at that time was Johns
Knight) not to block off that road or we were
all going to jail. He went home that night and
went to bed, and the fi rst thing we put in the
middle of the road was his cop car. I’ll never
forget his face when he came up upon that
while he was on his bicycle, looking for his
car.”
One of Dumplin’s favorite Miss Rachel
June 23, 1969 Tampa Times -
memories was when they turned a cormorant
Rachel’s obituary.
loose in her dress shop.
“Cormorants relieve themselves frequently, especially when they’re scared,” he said. “So one
day we opened the door to the shop and just threw that cormorant in there. She came around
the corner with a broom and started swatting at the bird, which of course made it fl y … and
then it pooped everywhere. The next day she had a 25 percent off sale on everything in the
shop.”
Another fond memory of Miss
Rachel included a day when she
inadvertently parked her little car
on top of a pile of smoldering
pine needles while attending
Methodist Church services.
“There were a whole bunch of
pine trees in front of the church
back then, and they would always
rake them up and burn them by
the side of the road,” Dumplin’
recalled. “Everyone was sitting
there in church, then someone
looked out and saw Miss Rachel’s
car on fi re.”
Rachel was a true workaholic.
She established her own business
in 1917 on Park Avenue, which she
August 30, 1930 News Press article.
rebuilt and enlarged in the 1930s. She operated “Rachel’s” until her death, at which time she
was still a beautiful and active woman. Some said she was proof that not getting married was
good for the mind, the soul and the body.
Whether that is the case or not, she passed away on either June or July 21, 1969 (there are
confl icting reports), in Boca Grande at her home over the shop on Park Avenue, at the age
of 77, having never been married. Pallbearers at her funeral included Dick Nosti, Joe Tomko,
Frank Futch, Lonnie Futch, Tom Toia and Robert Dempsey. She was interred at Myrtle Hill
Cemetery in Tampa.
At the time of her death, she had been a Boca Grande resident for 55 years, and most
certainly earned her place in the island’s history books.