Gone in 8 Seconds

The Hotel Dixie Grande was built near the end of the roaring 20s and taken over by a John W Fieldhouse.  One of the first hotels to be open year-round and where many a ball team spent their time!

1930-1945

His daughter Annette learned the business and eventually ran it with her husband, Vernon Lawrence Arbuckle.

courtesy of George Schumacher

Vernon was born in Massachusetts to Robert Lee Arbuckle & Rosie McAloon.  A musician who left home around 1925 or so and landed in Orlando, Fl where he married a girl named Lillian Irene Cobb but the marriage didn’t last as they divorced in 1953.  

courtesy of George Schumacher

By 1955, Vernon had remarried to a woman 20 years his senior!  Vernon was born in 1899 and the hotelier's daughter was born in 1877 - Vernon was her 3rd husband.  As a musician, perhaps he started out playing in a band at the hotel but given the times, how absolutely progressive of the pair!

As this article points out, Annette died before her husband in Jun 1970 and during probate, Vernon died in Apr of 1971 leaving the courts to settle the estates with his only living relatives - a brother, sister, two nieces & a nephew.  That is, his brother Robert Lee Arbuckle Jr & his sister Evelyn Ruth Arbuckle; nieces Kathleen & Virginia; and nephew Gilbert - the children of his late brother George W.

Sadly, the Dixie Grande Hotel did not survive much longer after the deaths of Annette and Vernon - it was demolished in 1974 in 8 seconds!!