Cafe Owner To Lead 4th of July Parade

For her contributions to Surf City, Sugar Shack Cafe owner Michele Turner will serve as a grand marshal in next week’s Fourth of July Parade.

“I’m kind of overwhelmed,” said Turner, 42, who has watched the parade since she moved to the city at age 4. “I’m so honored. It’s like a dream.”

Turner is known for feeding homeless people, befriending customers and hiring young people to give them a start.

“Michele Turner is like a landmark down at the Sugar Shack. Everyone knows her, from old people to young people,” said Maureen Rivers, parade chairwoman.

“She is a hard-working and a very generous lady. She takes care of a lot people in a quiet way.”

Because of their community contributions and accomplishments, two other people also were named grand marshals, one posthumously, for the 92nd annual parade, titled “Salute to the Olympic Games.”

They are Anne O’Brien, 84, a two-time Olympian, and Darrell Stillwagon, who was activities director at Huntington Beach High School for more than 30 years and died suddenly this month. The parade will be dedicated to Stillwagon’s memory, and his family will participate in it.

O’Brien, who now lives in Tustin, recalled a time 60 years ago when the Huntington Beach community raised $150 to send her to the Olympic trials so she could realize her goal of competing in the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin.

She made the Olympic team and competed in the 80-meter hurdles.

“We were right in the middle of the Depression, and no one had money for anything,” said O’Brien, whose late husband, Howard, an independent oil producer, helped her train for her Olympic competitions.

O’Brien also competed in the 100-meter dash in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

“Huntington Beach has been very kind to me,” O’Brien said. People were kind to raise the money for me. . . . If it wasn’t for them, I would have never been able to make it to the Games.”

The other grand marshal in next week’s parade began working at age 11 at the Main Street cafe that her parents, Pat and Mary Williams, opened in 1967. Now her three teenage children work there.

Turner, married to husband Tim for 21 years, said she likes helping people and making them feel comfortable when they’re at the cafe.

“The Shack is a place to be kind to everyone. I try my hardest to make this a better place for all of us to live.”