Ms. Bea

There is an old adage about making a great first impression.

For the past 10 years Mexico Beach could not have had an ambassador more suited to providing that impression than Bea Sheeder, or as I called her Ms. Bea.

Ms. Bea passed away last week due to complications from heart surgery.

That passing is one Mexico Beach will surely feel.

For if there was a stronger advocate for her community, who provided more of a valuable first impression of the city that she loved than Ms. Bea, I haven’t crossed paths with that person.

And she did it all on her own time, energy and spirit.

These kinds of folks a community finds a hard time replacing.

 As a volunteer with the Community Development Council, the city’s organizational equivalent to a Tourist Development Council, Ms. Bea’s tenure pretty much overlapped my own at this newspaper.

There have been changes at the executive director position, changes on the board of directors, but they seemed almost ephemeral to me because for me, Ms. Bea was the CDC.

She loved her city and if you wanted to know the places to eat, the places to worship, the places to stay, the people you’d want to meet, Ms. Bea had the answers.

No need for fancy pamphlets or handouts, Ms. Bea was an encyclopedia on all things good in Mexico Beach.

And I emphasize “good” because if Ms. Bea had anything negative to say, whether about a person or what was happening in town or whatever, she certainly never seemed to share.

She wore grace and style, with a constant smile, as if adorned in Vera Wang.

As a newcomer to most things Mexico Beach – I lived and worked in Panama City for a decade and can attest to the foundation of the feeling some in Mexico Beach hold as being red-headed stepchildren in their own county – Ms. Bea was the font of knowledge I would seek out.

She could answer most any question off the top of her head, but if she didn’t have it, she’d find it. And unfailingly call you back and make sure you got it.

She was also a magnet for her town.

Name a special event that occurred in Mexico Beach, from fireworks to gumbo cook-offs to art and wine festivals, chances were pretty good that Ms. Bea was in the middle, lending a hand, always at the ready, a welcoming face and smile.

The CDC, of course, was not all Ms. Bea was, as her obituary on Page B4 of this newspaper spells out far better than I ever could.

But what Ms. Bea was to the CDC, her role in making that precious first impression on visitors to Mexico Beach, her quiet and efficient demeanor in carrying out the tasks asked of her by locals, well, those are some mighty large shoes to fill.

So it was only fitting that on news of her passing midweek, officials in Mexico Beach decided that one way to honor Ms. Bea was to fly flags at half-staff for the remainder of the week.

And while that gesture was appropriate and proper, something more needs, must, be done to honor this ambassador of goodwill the city will not soon replace.

Oh, the city will find another human being to fill that chair at the Welcome Center, but replacing that, yes, a recurring but fitting theme, first impression will be like copying a Picasso.

So here is one suggestion.

Ms. Bea started serving the CDC well before the Welcome Center was created, working from cramped and tiny offices at the Civic Center.

The transition to the Welcome Center seemed to only provide Ms. Bea the platform she deserved, the accommodations and comfort she earned.

Her name deserves to be on that Welcome Center.

The building should become the Bea Sheeder Welcome Center so that everybody will know and remember one of the finest ambassadors any city could hope for, and one that in her passing leaves behind a wound for an entire city.

She was the first impression of Mexico Beach. That impression deserves permanent casting.