Eddie Savoy receives FBBA Spotlight Award on August 9, 2017
Jennifer Welp, Flour Bluff Business Association President, presented Eddie Savoy, owner of Savoy Homes, the Keep It in the Bluff Spotlight Award at the regular FBBA meeting held August 9, 2017, at noon in the Raceway Cafe’ at Funtrackers in Flour Bluff. Savoy has been a member of the association since 1968. The FBBA has been in existence since 1951.
Savoy’s family moved to Flour Bluff in 1927 and settled on a 2-acre tract of land on Laguna Shores. It was on this property that Savoy built his first development in 1968. Starting out at Corpus Christi Shell Company and working off and on as a tugboat captain since 1958 when he wasn’t building, Savoy went on to grow his business by providing housing for a community that has shown steady growth since the coming of NAS Corpus Christi in 1940. In 1969, Savoy built the first zoned mobile home subdivision in Corpus Christi on the north side of Flour Bluff. In 1971, he built Padre Palms RV Park at the end of Skipper Lane near the what was then known as the Boat Hole Marina. He went back to work on the tugs while his wife Leona ran the RV park. Savoy continued working offshore until 1983 when OPEC deliveries to Egypt slowed down, and he returned home. It was at this time that he decided to build stilt houses on three lots just down the street from the RV park. These were the first of many.
In between working on the tugs, building houses, and developing subdivisions, Savoy stayed involved in the Flour Bluff community. He served twelve years on the Flour Bluff School Board, was an active member of the FBBA, and was even a member of the Flour Bluff Volunteer Fire Department, where he served as president. Savoy said he left the volunteers after he responded to a fire on Yorktown where he had to dodge bullets. “The owner was a gun collector,” said Savoy, “and his ammunition kept going off. That ended my firefighter career.” Savoy laughed and said, “I guess you can say I went out with a bang!”
Savoy is often found at the Ethel Eyerly Senior Center in Flour Bluff where he continues to serve his community. When asked if he had considered retirement, he said, “I tried once for a couple of years, but I had to get back to it.” It turns out that he is still building elevated homes and just recently finished two, one on Knickerbocker and another on Laguna Shores Road.
Retired from education after serving 30 years (twenty-eight as an English teacher and two years as a new-teacher mentor), Shirley enjoys her life with family and friends while serving her community, church, and school in Flour Bluff, Texas. She is the creator and managing editor of The Paper Trail, an online news/blog site that serves to offer a glimpse into the past and present of the little community of Flour Bluff. She wrote for The Flour Bluff Messenger, wrote and edited for The Texas Shoreline News, a Corpus Christi print newspaper that existed from December 2017 to April 2020, served as copy editor on three books, and continues to tutor students of all ages in the lively art of writing.
