Orange Beach, Ala. – (OBA) – Mayor Tony Kennon and the Orange Beach City Council recognized longtime resident, author and historian Margaret Childress Long during Tuesday night’s council meeting. 

Long recently stepped down from the Baldwin County Historical Development Commission and on Sunday celebrated the 75th anniversary of her family’s homestead on Cotton Bayou. 

Mayor Kennon welcomed the council’s very special guest and “local historian of record,” saying that Long needed no introduction. 

The Certificate of Recognition reads as follows: 

Whereas, Ted and Dorothy Childress moved to Cotton Bayou in Orange Beach on July 14, 1949, when their daughter Margaret Childress Long was just shy of 2 years old; and

Whereas, having lived on Cotton Bayou in the same place for most of those 75 years since, Margaret can tell a few stories; and

Whereas, with those stories and historical knowledge of Orange Beach, she first co-authored “The Best Place to Be – The Story of Orange Beach, Alabama” with Michael D. Shipler in 2006, followed by “Orange Beach, Alabama – A Pictorial History” in 2016; and

Whereas, Margaret’s love of Orange Beach is undeniable and she has shared her passion for history and education here and throughout Baldwin County; and

Whereas, she served as a teacher at Fairhope Middle and High Schools, and Elberta Middle School and also as a Baldwin County school board representative for six years; and 

Whereas, Margaret recently stepped down as a member of the Baldwin County Historical Development Commission after serving for nearly a decade; and

Whereas, she has been an exemplary ambassador and historian of Orange Beach, and the main catalyst of the installation of historic markers throughout the City, including Perdido Pass, Romar Beach, Municipal Complex, Bay Circle, Caswell, Bear Point, Backcountry Trail, and Intracoastal Waterway/Portage Creek, all of which added to older ones at Orange Beach Community Cemetery and at the original Orange Beach Hotel site at the Coastal Arts Center; and

Whereas, Margaret has created a legacy for generations to come by documenting the community’s early founders and families in the 1800s to its official municipal incorporation in 1984 and all of the years in-between and after; and

Now, therefore, on behalf of the Mayor and Council, we Honor and Recognize Margaret Childress Long for her Love of the City and to sincerely thank her for her contributions to what is truly the best place to be – Orange Beach, Alabama. 

After the certificate presentation, Long said she sincerely appreciated the recognition. 

“I cannot thank Tony and all of you council members, and everybody else that works for my city, for what you have done for this city,” Long said. “You just don’t know how much I appreciate it and having lived here for as long as I have.”

Long went on to describe her celebration of her parent’s buying the property on Cotton Bayou on July 14, 1949, and putting out a few fusées, ground flares, along her seawall to celebrate on Sunday night. 

“Y’all just don’t know how much I appreciate you but there’s one thing I’m going to do and I’m not going to sing it,” she added, alluding to some song lyrics in her hand on an old newspaper cutout. “But this was on June 1st of 2000 when the new Community Center over there had a dedication done. That was the last event that my mother was able to go to, and Brent Burns sang this song, “Ode to Orange Beach.” Now, I’m not going to sing it but I do want to say it because it means a lot to me.”

She read the lyrics as follows: 

Orange Beach

There’s a magnolia tree here 

A palm tree over there

Take a deep breath of that fresh salt air

It’s somewhere special and quite a treat

To be standing on the ground they call Orange Beach

Orange Beach, Orange Beach 

I’m proud to say you’re home to me

Orange Beach, Orange Beach 

When I dream of heaven you’re what I see

Don’t have to look far for it’s clear 

Our life is better here

Orange Beach, Orange Beach 

I’m proud to say you’re home to me 

We’ve got the ocean, we’ve got the bay

That’s why people come to visit and they stay

A magical place, always something to do 

For a day or a week or a lifetime, too

Councilman Jeff Silvers recalled being 17 years old in the Summer of 1982 and running his brand new catamaran into Long’s pier. After a tongue-lashing from Long, Silvers said her husband Buddy came out and smoothed it all over. “He said, ‘It’s OK, son. Don’t worry, I hit them all the time.”

Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Boyd said he caught his largest ever speckled trout from Long’s pier many years ago, 10 lbs, 2 ounces. “Closest I ever got to a state record,” he said. 

Long recalled when Shipler helped her with publishing her first book in 2006, he asked, “What do you want to call it?”

“And, I said, ‘The Best Place to Be’ because that’s what I think,” she said. 

And she’s right.