Memorable Reunion At The Inn - May 2009

On May 28, a memorable reunion was held at the Oakwood Inn Bed & Breakfast between the original first guests of the inn and the original Innkeepers from 25 years ago. Paul and Jean Higgins were the first guests that stayed at the Inn when it first opened on June 2, 1984. They were driving down from Virginia and stopped at a visitor center just into the North Carolina border. They asked the visitor center staff if there were any B & Bs in Raleigh. They told them that they just received information that one just opened that weekend. Paul and Jean continued on to Raleigh and registered as the first guests at the Inn.

An interesting side line on how all of this evolved is shared by Gary Jurkiewicz, one of the current Innkeepers. Gary read an old copy of the Raleigh Times given to him from Janet Wellman about two years ago. The article there was about the grand opening fo the Oakwood Inn Bed & Breakfast and had some facts about a couple who was coming in as the first guests of the Inn. I decided that during the 25th year anniversary we would try to get Chris, Steve, Donna and Oakley all together with the origin guests, once the original Inn Guest could be contacted about the anniversary. I wrote a short press release and sent it to the USA Today and ask if they could help find the original guests by publishing a story on it. Gary heard nothing from the newspaper.

Then as luck would have it, like in the movies. On the 25 of May, I received a call.

“Hi, I’d like to rent a room for Thursday, May 28.”
I said, “ Not a problem, do you know which room you would like?”
“Well, we’d like a room on the second floor, however, is the Polk room available.”
“Yes, it is,” I reply.
“That is the one my husband and I stayed in 25 years ago. We were the first guests that stayed at the Inn.”

Yeah, right, I thought. “Oh really, and when was that?”
“June second, I believe, it was the first weekend of June.”
She could be the one, or at least one of the first guest if there were more than one couple, I thought, I asked a couple more questions, and decided that Jean and Paul, must be one of the original guests. I then promptly called the four innkeepers and asked if they could come to the inn on Thursday and have a little reunion, Chris, Oakley, and Donna all agreed to come. I then wrote the N & O and they agreed to come out and do a story. The rest just fell into place.

The Innkeepers at the time were Oakley and Donna Herring, Chris Yetter and Steve Zamparelli, and Donna’s mother, Olive Colman. Back on that momentous day, Oakley and Donna were there to greet the couple at the Oakwood Inn B & B. Twenty five years later on May 28, 2009, Chris Yetter, and again Oakley and Donna Herring welcomed Paul and Jean to the Oakwood Inn, along with the current innkeeper Doris Jurkiewicz. As soon as they all saw each other, they quickly recognized each others face, and June 2, 1984 was reborn once again. Hand shakes and warm greetings were exchanged. Everyone introduced themselves, including Josh Shaffer the writer from the News & Observer. Josh took copious notes and listened to the stories and memories shared by the two guests and three innkeepers. He heard how Donna made dinner and asked for Paul and Jean to join her and Oakley. Later, Doris Jurkiewicz took everyone on a tour of the Inn which again had Innkeepers sharing stories from back when the Inn first opened.

After an hour or so of reminiscing, Paul opened a bottle of champagne which he brought to celebrate the occasion. As was stated in the recent N & O article, Oakley said that after they sold the inn, he didn’t think the new owners would be able to make it work. Business was bad and the Inn not profitable. Eventually the Inn was sold to Vera and Jim Cox who worked the inn for 4 years until they sold it to Billy and Darlene Smith. Billy and Darlene ran the inn in 1996 and sold it to Doris and Gary Jurkiewicz. Gary and Doris are the longest running innkeepers of the Inn. The others were on an average four years for each group.

When you realize that many B & Bs are just people’s homes that are rented out to strangers, and many innkeepers just seem to handle the pressure for about 4-7 years. Many B & Bs, close down or return back to personal residences after a short run. Those that run longer maybe go about 10-15. But to make it 25 years, is a major achievement according to the Professional Association of International Innkeepers. The Oakwood Inn be has made it this far. Hopefully it will go on to see its 50h… golden anniversary. Doris and I hope we are here to see that accomplishment….. and, I doubt we will be the innkeepers , but we we’ll have the glowing pride that Chris,Donna and Oakley had on May 28, 12009.