John Lawrence Tunnell was born in 1930 in the small waterfront community of Whortonsville in Pamlico County, N.C., the seventh child of Mack Lester Tunnell and Effie Mae Lawrence Tunnell.
Effie Mae was still a young woman when she died two years later during childbirth in 1932. Her baby died, too.
Mack Tunnell was a hard-working commercial fisherman, reported Kenneth Humphrey, Tunnell’s biographer.
Mack Tunnell was faced with “a daunting task, having to raise seven children” as a widower, Humphrey wrote. “The only solution” was to take 16-month-old John to Morehead City in Carteret County to be cared for by grandparents John Roe Lawrence and Mattie Frances Gillikin Lawrence.
John grew up fishing and oystering, just like all the other kids in the section of town known as “Promise’ Land.”
He got a real job at age 13, going to work for Alfred Braswell (A.B.) Cooper at the Idle Hour Amusement Center in Atlantic Beach in 1943. John would set up duck pins in the bowling alley there. He’d earn a penny and a half per game. That usually worked out to about a dollar a night.
This was during World War II, and there were military personnel stationed at Fort Macon and all along Bogue Banks, because of the German U-boats that were right offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. The servicemen proved to be good customers at Idle Hour, coming when off duty to relax, bowl, listen to the jukebox and down a few soft drinks.
John Tunnell found a new job when he was 15. He was hired as a cook at the Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant in Morehead City. He reported for his first day – July 15, 1945 –wearing bib overalls and work boots. Co-owner Capt. Ted Garner looked him up and down and said, “Come with me boy.”
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Everybody who worked at the Sanitary had to look sharp. That was all part of the “cleanliness image” that was so important to the restaurant’s reputation.
Co-owner Capt. Tony Seamon had a gift for marketing. He boasted: Our fish “slept in the ocean last night.”
Another promotional message was: “From our boats to your platter.”
Customers were invited to select a fish from the fish market counter, and it would be especially prepared just for them.
Or they could order off the menu that listed 15 items. The “famous deluxe shoreline dinner” was the featured entrĂ©e, priced at $2.50. It came with a few courses, John Tunnell recalled. The cold plate offerings included oysters, clams, shrimp salad and boiled shrimp. Next came soft-shell crab, mullet, bluefish, fried shrimp and fried oysters with helpings of hush puppies.
John Tunnell said Capt. Tony had a story about the fellow who invented hush puppies. Capt. Tony got the recipe and the scoop during a trip to Louisiana. It’s included in Humphrey’s book.
“A fisherman had come ashore down in the bayou and began to fry up some balls of cornbread in a pot of oil over the campfire, Cajun style. His dogs were tied up to a nearby tree, and as they smelled the aroma of the crispy cornbread balls, the dogs began barking loudly, wanting to share in the bounty.”
“The fisherman would pick
up two or three morsels and throw them to the dogs, calling out: “HUSH
puppies.”
^^^
When his sergeant major
found out he could cook, Pvt. Tunnell was assigned to manage the mess hall at
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock. That worked out great.
Havelock is just west of Carteret County. It meant John could keep on working
about every other night and weekends at the Sanitary. This went on for about
two years.
^^^
During this time period, North Carolina Gov. W. Kerr Scott consulted with his old fishing buddy Capt. Tony at the Sanitary about where to spend some road building funds that had become available for use in Carteret County. (This story is also captured within Humphrey’s book.)
Capt. Tony happened to mention to Gov. Scott that the Seamon family home was up near Conchs Point on Calico Bay, and that road was unpaved. “Done,” the governor replied.
Then, Capt. Tony let it be known that the man who supplies the Sanitary with soft-shell crabs lived up in the Merrimon-South River area. He had to travel a dirt road coming down to Beaufort. “Done.”
^^^
John Tunnell was 28 years
old in 1958 when he caught the 28th blue marlin to be landed on the dock at
Morehead City. The fish weighed more than 259 pounds and is mounted on a wall
at the Sanitary for restaurant patrons to view. This catch added to the
newfound interest in fishing for billfish offshore from the Crystal Coast.
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A group known as the
Fabulous Fishing Club had formed about a year earlier in 1957, meeting
regularly at “Table 15” in the Sanitary, John Tunnell said.
Club members had come up with a plan to pay a cash prize to the first person who could reel in a blue marlin and bring it to the Morehead City dock. (This led to the growth and development of the annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.)
On Sept. 14, 1957, Raleigh angler Jimmy Croy, fishing with Capt. K.W. “Bill’’ Olsen, hooked and reeled in a 143-pound blue marlin. According to the Big Rock archives, here’s what happened next:
“Capt. Olsen radioed Bump
Styron, who owned the Morehead City Yacht Basin, to report the historic catch.
Styron, in turn, notified Bob Campbell of WMBL Radio…and he got the word out to
the public. A crowd of about 100 gathered at the yacht basin to await the
arrival of the big fish.”
“Capt. Tony Seamon (of the Sanitary) and his son, Tony Jr., went to First Citizens Bank where bank president Jim Bob Sanders kept a sealed sack of silver dollars. Tony Jr. poured the coins (250 or more) into a little red wagon, donated by the manager at Rose’s department store.”
“Then, amid police sirens, car horns and as much vocal ruckus as could be mustered, the red wagon was pulled through the streets of Morehead City to the place where the fish would arrive.”
In 1958, Capt. George
Bedsworth of Morehead City earned $325 for a blue marlin that weighed more than
428 pounds, one of five he caught that season.
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John Tunnell married Gloria Faye Warren of Belhaven in 1962. The couple raised three children who followed in their father’s footsteps. All found jobs at the Sanitary and are still on the payroll. Renee Morris is the bookkeeper, Jonathan Tunnell is a cook and Rochelle Turner is a member of the wait staff.
John said that he and Gloria have lived in the same house in Morehead City’s Promise’ Land neighborhood since 1967.
^^^
John Tunnell has rubbed elbows with some of North Carolina’s most esteemed movers and shakers. One was Harlan E. Boyles, who served 24 years as North Carolina elected state treasurer before retiring in 2001.
Humphrey’s book contains
a copy of a note that Boyles penned in 1995, addressed to “Sir John Tunnell,”
whom he labeled the “best restaurant manager in North Carolina.”
In 2010, John Tunnell’s coworkers and many of his fans teamed up to nominate him for an “Outrageous Customer Service Award,” presented by the Carteret County Chamber of Commerce.
The effort was sanctioned by the Sanitary’s third generation of Garners, siblings Jeff and Lisa Garner, who now head up the restaurant’s leadership team, in an effort to show their gratitude to John Tunnell, a dedicated and loyal associate and colleague.
John’s selection was a slam dunk. Two memorable nomination letters collected by Humphrey were published in his book.
JoAn and Kenneth Putnam of Morehead City wrote: “We know of no one who deserves to be honored any more than John. To know him is to love him because of his dedication to people from all walks of life. He is known for his kindness and gentleness of spirit, and we are truly blessed to have him as part of our lives.”
A humorous letter came from a fellow named Crotty, who would frequently gather up a group of folks from Rocky Mount and drive down to Morehead City just “to eat with John Tunnell, the man who knows everybody’s name.”
“We never could remember
the name of the restaurant,” Crotty wrote in jest.
To be continued.
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