Hudson’s founder dies

The man for whom Hudson’s Grocery was named, John Hudson, has passed away.

John died on Sunday, April 27.

John’s son, Brian, said that the family always loved Boca Grande and they will be spreading John’s ashes in Boca Grande Pass in June.

A memorial service for John will be held on May 10 at 10:30 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of Sarasota, 1661 Main Street.

John was a Florida native, born in Sarasota. He always fished the waters around the island, and loved it so much that when he saw an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal for a Boca Grande grocery store for sale, he jumped at the chance.

“He bought it as a way to live here on Boca Grande and as a legacy to his kids and his family,” Brian said. “He bought the store in 1975 when it used to be Whidden’s and one of his first acts was to rename it Hudson’s. When we moved to Boca Grande, the population that day went up 10 percent because he brought his wife and five kids with him.”

Hudson’s family, John, David, Brian, Paul and Ann and his wife Kathleen, operated the store for six years.

“My mom worked side by side with him in the store,” Brian said. “Isabel (Joiner) was working there as well until her dad passed away, when she went over to work at their family’s marina.”

In 1981 John sold the store and he and Kathleen went to work for Mark Spurgeon at Boca Grande Real Estate.

“I remember him standing on the corner right outside our office and being the official greeter and first unofficial mayor of Boca Grande,” Spurgeon said. “He would stand on the corner and have a cigarette, waving and greeting people as they walked by.”