Their parents were Samuel David
Whidden, better known as Sam or S.D.,
and Alice Leslie Gregory Whidden. She
was known as Leslie. Their father was born in
Grove City on Dec. 28, 1900, and their mother
was born in Boston on Sept. 27, 1902, after her
parents immigrated to the United States from
England.
Sam and Leslie met in the early 1930s in Boca
Grande, while he was running the Red Gill Fish
House. Leslie, who had been working as a
companion for a lady on the East Coast of
Florida, was not particularly happy with her position.
She quit and applied at two resorts on
the West Coast: the Boca Grande Hotel and
Gasparilla Inn. Sam loved to throw parties and
entertain the young ladies who worked at the
hotels. He met and fell in love with Miss Leslie
Gregory, and they were married in 1933.
44 GASPARILLA ISLAND September/October 2018
Soon the young couple built Whidden’s
Marina adjacent to the Fish House. Their first
daughter, Isabelle, was born on Feb 12, 1934,
and 18 months later on July 26, little Barbara
was born.
When Leslie Whidden was only in her
thirties, she suffered from a heart condition.
Sam would put his young wife on the train in
Boca Grande for appointments with her
doctors in Tampa. Unknown to him, she would
stay for a couple of days without keeping those
appointments. Her health was failing, and on
March 29, 1940 she succumbed to nephritis, a
rapidly progressive kidney disease.
Isabelle was just six and Barbara was five years
old when they lost their mother. Their only real
memory of her was when they traveled by train
to Tampa so that their young mother could tell
them goodbye. They remember the hearse and
the flowers from her funeral, but all other
memories of their mother have been gained
through photographs.
HISTORY
Story by Becky Seale Paterson, originally published in
Pirate Coast Magazine’s, September/October2003 issue
Photos from the Boca Beacon Archives
Above, Isabelle and Barbara at the old soda
fountain at the Marina. At right, the sisters
(Isabelle seated) in the Gasparilla Island
Maritime Museum.