Who was Odell Williamson? Several locations are named for him in Brunswick County
BY: John Staton, Wilmington StarNews
Odell Williamson in 1977.
If you head to Ocean Isle Beach in Brunswick County, you might pass by Odell Williamson Auditorium and/or Odell Williamson Airport. To get on the beach itself, you’ll have to drive over the high-rise Odell Williamson Bridge.
Who was Odell Williamson?
The short answer is Williamson, who died in 2010 at the age of 90, was a visionary politician and developer who made Ocean Isle Beach into the thriving beach town it is today, not to mention bringing many miles of new roads to Brunswick County.
Born on Nov. 19, 1919, Williamson was a lifelong resident of Brunswick County. In 1946, he was elected to the N.C. House of Representatives, where he would serve until 1968.
In 1950, Williamson and Mannon C. Gore started a ferry taking cars from the mainland to what is now Ocean Isle Beach and was then known as Hale Beach. By 1953, Williamson had purchased most of the island for some $218,000, about $2.5 million today.
In 1954, his sister, Madeline, died on Ocean Isle Beach along with eight others during Hurricane Hazel.
In 1957, Williamson and his wife, Virginia, who he was married to for just under 70 years, built the first Ocean Isle Beach Fishing Pier in the location of the current pier. When Ocean Isle Beach was incorporated in 1959, Williamson became its first mayor, a post his wife, Virginia, would hold from 1969 to 1973 followed by his daughter, LaDane, from 1973 to 1987.
By the 1990s, Williamson had become the wealthiest man in Brunswick County, with holdings valued at more than $65 million.
In 1989, Williamson donated $500,000 toward the construction of the 1,500-seat Odell Williamson Auditorium on the campus of Brunswick Community College. In addition to Virginia Williamson Elementary School in Brunswick County, the Virginia Williamson Event Center at Odell Williamson Auditorium bears his wife’s name.
In 1991, Williamson built the Ocean Isle Beach Chapel so that his religious wife and others would have a place to worship on the island. In 1998, he donated the property that is the site of the Museum of the Coastal Carolinas to the trustees of the museum.
Williamson’s life was not without controversy.
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