THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 28, 1997 TAG: 9701280217
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OCRACOKE LENGTH: 52 lines
Driving home to West Virginia several years ago from a vacation on Ocracoke Island, George ``Buffy'' Warner sneaked a loving look at the woman riding with him.
``Ann,'' asked the West Virginia state senator, ``Do you want to keep on driving back and forth from West Virginia to Ocracoke or do you want to marry me right now so we can move down to Ocracoke and live there?''
That was eight years ago. Ann Shabb, 37, and the 45-year-old mountain man have been married ever since. They're also permanently wedded to Howard's Pub and Raw Bar Restaurant, a popular watering hole in this Outer Banks island town.
``When we pulled up stakes and came down to live we wanted to be useful and give something back to the island,'' Warner said Monday.
The restaurant was for sale and a challenge to a couple of newlyweds who were more familiar with politics than pasta or pastry.
In West Virginia, Ann worked as a trouble-shooter for the governor, and Buffy was settling into a career as a politician.
``As soon as we got married and prepared to move down, I resigned from the state Senate and notified my political friends that I wouldn't be running for any West Virginia office,'' Buffy said.
Now, during the summer season, Ann and Buffy employ 50 people at Howard's Pub and Raw-Bar.
And this month Buffy got a plate full of new responsibilities. He was named chairman of the Tourism Development Advisory Board of the Northeast Economic Development Partnership.
The partnership covers 14 counties in Northeastern North Carolina where tourism directly and indirectly is often the biggest business of all. Chairman Jimmy Dixon, head of the partnership, thinks Warner, trained as a journalist at the University of West Virginia, will contribute to the right kind of economic development in the northeast.
Both Ann and Buffy pointedly squelch questions about their political future in North Carolina.
As a Republican, Warner expected to run into a certain amount of heavy weather in traditionally Democratic North Carolina.
``Conservatives are the same in West Virginia or in Hyde County on the Outer Banks,'' he said. ``It's wonderful here and we couldn't feel more comfortable.''
Both go out of their way to avoid any moves that could be construed as politically motivated.
``Both of us come from families that were brought up to believe that young people owe their hometown, their state and their country the best of themselves that they can offer,'' Warner said.
That idea is being passed along to their two young children: a boy and a girl blessed with the opportunity to grow up on Ocracoke.