OUTER BANKS VISIONARY

Remembering the remarkable life of Diane Baum St. Clair, the woman who helped shape Kill Devil Hills

Visionary

Amid the papers, photos and other memorabilia housed at the Outer Banks History Center on Roanoke Island is a collection of unpublished biographies written by local author David Stick. Included in those documents – which were compiled as Outer Bankers to Be Remembered prior to Stick’s death in 2009 – is an entry that pays tribute to his longtime personal friend, a woman whose legacy is arguably responsible for the shape of present-day Kill Devil Hills and numerous other aspects of daily life on the Outer Banks: Diane Baum St. Clair. Besides recognizing her name from street signs and other local institutions, you’d be forgiven for not knowing much about Diane’s life and near-endless contributions to this area. By all accounts, Diane didn’t necessarily seek out the spotlight during her lifetime – though it often had a way of finding her. BORN IN NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, ON FEBRUARY 1, 1909, as the only child of

Thomas and Annie Baum, Diane’s family had deep roots on the Outer Banks that traced back as far as the 1700s – so despite being born across the state line, Diane reportedly traveled by train and mail boat to spend her summers with relatives in Nags Head from as early as five years old. Fiercely independent by nature, Diane caused a minor scandal when she ran away from home to New York City after graduating from high school, where she promptly landed a career as a professional model after she was rescued from being run over by a taxi. Though her career credits were said to include show dancing, horse racing and appearing in television commercials for Marlborough Lights, she eventually struck a deal with her parents to attend college. Easily proving that she wasn’t just a pretty face, Diane went on to graduate with degrees in both abnormal psychology and chemistry from John Hopkins University before earning a doctorate in abnormal psychology from Yale University.

BY CORINNE SAUNDERS

OUTER BANKS

In her role as an academic, Diane worked as a clinical psychologist in Philadelphia hospitals and helped isolate tumors through the use of vibratory sensation under a research fellowship prior to pursuing biological research at John Hopkins University – but this part of her distinguished career was cut short when her father suffered a heart attack in the 1940s.

THOUGH DIANE’S FATHER, THOMAS, MANAGED A FERRY COMPANY IN VIRGINIA when she was born, he was an entrepreneur at heart. For his initial solo venture, he established the first ferry lines to the Outer Banks, with four routes up and running by 1928. About a decade later in 1939, he branched out into hospitality by opening the Wilbur Wright Hotel. As legend has it, Orville Wright was a guest at the hotel when he gave Thomas permission to name the business in honor of his brother – and, again with Orville’s blessing, the family named their next property the Orville Wright Hotel.

But, when Thomas’ heath began to decline, Diane knew she had to return to the Outer Banks. As the Baums’ only child, she inherited both the ferry business (which the state of North Carolina later purchased from her) and the hotel business. As far as the latter was concerned, Diane ultimately chose to make that her longest-held occupation – after a waterspout destroyed the Wilbur Wright Hotel several decades later in 1978, Diane forged on by renaming the surviving structure the Orville and Wilbur Wright Motor Lodge.

That hotel still operates today as part of the Days Inn on the beach road in Kill Devil Hills – a fact that likely would’ve thrilled Diane. Although she sold the business and retired sometime in her late 70s, she was still going strong at the age of 75 when she declared herself the oldest innkeeper in the area during an interview for The VirginianPilot. The resulting article, which was published on August 5, 1984, was appropriately invested in Diane as its star subject, running under an oft-repeated headline that hailed her the “Grande Dame of the Outer Banks.”

Diane Baum St. Clair chats with Dare County Commissioner Bobby Owens at the dedication ceremony for the Thomas A. Baum Senior Center (which was named in honor of her father) in 1987. Photo by Drew Wilson, courtesy of the Outer Banks History Center.

PIECING TOGETHER A TIMELINE OF DIANE’S LIFE TODAY CAN BE SURPRISINGLY DIFFICULT given how active she was in the local community for much of her life. In addition to keeping her family’s hotel business afloat, Diane served on the Kill Devil Hills Board of Commissioners for several years in the ‘60s before being appointed mayor of the town in 1968.

In addition to her civic roles, Diane was married four times over the course of her life, though she only kept a last name from her final marriage to Edward St. Clair. That relationship began after Diane purchased 72 acres west of the Wright Brothers National Memorial off Colington Road (which Dare County had foreclosed on during the Great Depression), and she hired Ed to help develop the property that she’d named Baum Bay. (According to David Stick, their marriage ended prior to Ed’s death in 1981 when he left to return to his previous wife.)

Above all, however, Diane was a nimble businesswoman in many regards – and she had the foresight to invest heavily in property early on. This was of particular benefit to the Outer Banks as a whole when Diane took unprecedented steps to partially gift and partially sell nearly 323 acres of land to the town of Kill Devil Hills in the 1980s.

KNOWN AS THE “BAUM TRACT,” Diane’s land was bound on the north by Ocean Bay Boulevard, on the east by Norfolk Street, on the south by a realty subdivision, and on the west by Colington Creek. The purchase price for the sprawling 322.68 acres was $1.5 million, according to the minutes of a 1983 Kill Devil Hills Board of Commissioners’ meeting. The purchase was financed at the rate of 5% per annum for 15 years.

Despite the incredible deal, however, public opinion on the purchase was mixed.

Two local residents shared concerns over entering into such a debt, given the town road conditions at the time (which one called “bad” and the other, “deplorable”). Other residents hesitated over the public tax burden. But the majority – including all the commissioners – were in favor of the proposition. The motion to submit the contract passed unanimously on March 8, 1983, with a vote of 5-0.

Later, in response to being asked why she sold the property for a mere fraction of its worth, Diane said simply, “The town needs the land.”

The Kill Devil Hills post office. The First Flight middle and high schools. The town’s senior center, administrative offices and police station. Dare County’s water department, parks and recreation facilities, and the Outer Banks’ Chamber of Commerce building – the list goes on and on. Without Diane’s contributions, none of these services would look quite the same today.

Road designations such as Baum Street and Baum Bay Drive continue to pay tribute to her legacy in their own small ways, and the Thomas A. Baum Senior Center was named for her father by Diane’s request in 1987. Always a supporter of education, Diane also donated more than $500,000 to the College of The Albemarle’s Dare County campus – and even though she passed away at the age of 94 in 2003, she attended a dedication ceremony for the college’s new Diane Baum St. Clair Education Center in 2000

In honor of her parents, the Thomas and Annie Baum Memorial Fund was also created posthumously with the Outer Banks Community Foundation in 2005. Since then, more than $200,000 has been distributed for educational and cultural purposes in keeping with Diane’s last wishes – and with the foundation’s management, her gift will continue to give back to the local community for many years to come.

Which is exactly how Diane would have wanted it. In a 1989 Outer Banks Current article, at the age 80, she described not earning a cent during her time as a town commissioner to a reporter.

“I lost more money being a commissioner because it took so much time, [and] I neglected my own business,” she said without an ounce of regret. “But I enjoyed it.”

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