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Ridgell, 84, former store proprietor and commissioner, dies
Ran business in Scotland 56 years
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
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Clarence "Buzzy" Ridgell, veteran, former county commissioner and proprietor of the famed country store in Scotland, died June 11. He was 84.
Ridgell was known as the straight-talking but welcoming man behind the counter at Buzzy's Country Store, located on a bend in the road on the way to Point Lookout. The quaint store turns into a pub of sorts each afternoon as folks pull in to grab a drink (often a 10-ounce beer) out of the fridge before catching up on the day's local happenings at the small counter or on the front porch.
Monday after Ridgell's funeral services, the southern county community gathered at the store to share their stories about a man everyone seemed to admire.
"Buzzy welcomed me from day one," said Sue Norris, one of the store's many regulars. "He was loved by many and a father to many."
Still, he was a business owner. "When he got tired of you he would turn off the lights and you'd know it's time to leave," Norris said.
Buzzy was born and lived much of his life in Scotland, although he was known as a world traveler. "He has been everywhere," Jack "Coach" Kirsch said as evidenced by a world map covered in thumb tacks showing Ridgell's travels. "This is like the ‘Cheers' of Ridge … The information flows through here."
Ridgell would know most customers by name. If it had been awhile since a person stopped in, the proprietor might take a glance at a sheet behind the counter with a list of names and identifying physical characteristics, just to jog his memory. "Everyone was so amazed he could remember their names," his wife, Jean Raley Ridgell, said. "He was one of a kind."
And many days Ridgell would hang a handwritten notice announcing a regular's birthday, complete with a short bit of alliteration, a kind of St. Mary's haiku.
They were his customers and then they also were his friends," his wife said. "He was a very generous man and always ready to entertain or be entertained."
The store often made it onto a final exam at St. Mary's College of Maryland with a bonus question that asked "what was the oldest thing in Buzzy's, other than Buzzy," said his son, J. Scott Ridgell, who took over running the store early last year. The answer: an 1880 tobacco chaw cutter.
Ridgell, the 12th of 14 children, graduated from a cadet program at Texas A&M and received his wings in November 1944. He spent time at several bases in Japan and in the United States. "He was very proud of his military service," his daughter, Donna Taylor, said.
Later after returning to St. Mary's and running the country store for about a decade, he was elected as a St. Mary's County commissioner in 1962 and served one term.
"In the old days this was a little country store. We sold one of everything," Taylor said. Her father took over the store some 56 years ago from his father-in-law, James Harry Raley.
The Ridgells lived at a house connected to the store until a fire June 8, 1983, destroyed much of the building. The store was intact, though, and opened for business the next day.
He is survived by his wife and four children, including Steven Ridgell and Lila Hofmeister. "He used to say, ‘Every night's Saturday night and every Saturday night's New Year's Eve,'" J. Scott Ridgell said.
