Point Place marina's owner managed former Turtle Club
3/29/2009Betty Sabin, 86, who lived near the water since childhood and who owned a Point Place marina with her late husband, Chet, died Thursday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township.
She had congestive heart failure and other ailments, her son, Robert, said.
Last summer, she still walked from her Point Place home to Chet's Marine Service on Edgewater Drive, the business she and her husband bought in the early 1950s. She kept the books and did office work.
"She liked being around the water, and she liked Point Place," her son said.
She was also a manager of the Turtle Club, the former floating bar.
She was president of the Ottawa River Yacht Club auxiliary in 1952 and 1953. In 1999, she received the club's Ole Man of the River Award, previously reserved for men.
Her husband had won the award in 1979. She still helped with the club's breakfasts, her daughter, Judy Nemire, said.
She liked to help people. And many recognized her, if only from her daily walks.
"Everybody would see her walking, walking all over the end of the Point, three miles a day," her daughter said.
Born Elizabeth F. Santay in Ogdensburg, N.Y., she was the daughter of lake freighter cooks. The family moved to Toledo in 1935. She was a graduate of St. Ursula Academy.
She and her husband married in January, 1949. He died Feb. 6, 1986.
Surviving are her daughter, Judith Nemire; sons, Kenneth, James, Chester, and Robert Sabin; stepson, Tom Sabin; sister, Elaine Feudi; 11 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandson.
Visitation will be from 2-8 p.m. today in the David R. Jasin Funeral Home, with Ottawa River Yacht Club services at 5 p.m. in the mortuary. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in St. John the Baptist Church, where the body will be after 10 a.m.
The family suggests tributes to Hospice of Northwest Ohio.