Feb. 18, 2008 — Chances are if you've lived on St. Thomas for a while, you own a pair of Zora's sandals. The sturdy shoes are as emblematic to St. Thomas as the hook bracelets are to St. Croix.
And Zora Galvin is just as much a part of the community — sandal maker, mother, businesswoman, musician, traveler, band director — as her famous footwear, which she has been turning out for the last 45 years.
Seated firmly on her work stool, Galvin looks up, a bit preoccupied. "I really am busy," she says. However, after a moment, she comes up with a genuine welcome, pulling her work stool back a bit. She invites questions and conducts a tour of the premises, the historic yellow brick building across from Franklin D. Roosevelt V.I. Veterans Memorial Park.
The shop is chockfull of more than sandals. The walls are adorned with bright canvas bags in the shapes of the sea, a blue and yellow snapper, a green turtle backpack, or a casual black stingray. Glass bead jewelry made by her daughter, Timisa, is on display.
Galvin is an attractive woman with arresting hazel eyes, a few freckles and a neatly styled white bob. She is nothing if not independent. She says she learned the sandal business from the ground up, so to speak. "No sandal classes," she says. "It makes you think when you're self taught."
Galvin creates each sandal perfectly to fit the customer. "Every sandal is for you alone. I take an outline of your foot, and you look over the styles and the leather that you like.
I have you walk around on the sole I prepare so I can tell how you walk, what is your metatarsal structure, if you favor one side, if you have a tendency to walk out of the back of your sandal," she says.
Galvin is a traveler. Two large, handsome Vietnamese chairs are situated on a platform where she measures your feet. "We have huge customers sometimes, so we need huge chairs," she says. Galvin picked up the chairs on a trip with her youngest daughter, Shansi, an artist, and Shansi's husband, Drew, owner of the popular Frenchtown Deli.
A Missouri native, Galvin was teaching school in Hawaii when she met her first husband, merchant marine radio officer Patrick Miller. "We moved to New York for a bit, but Patrick wanted to get out of the cold," she says. "We had a choice of living in Puerto Rico or St. Thomas. I didn't want to live in Puerto Rico — they wear high heels" she says.
The couple moved here in 1960. "It was tough here at first," Galvin says. "We didn't know anybody. Patrick worked three months on and three months off, so he could commute to New York.
"I didn't want to teach," she says, "and I needed something to do. I'd made a few sandals as a hobby when I was in Hawaii, so I started that again, still as a hobby."
By that time, she says, they had met Harry Drier, an attorney, and his wife, who suggested Galvin start making sandals commercially. They rented her a room underneath his law offices in the old British Cable building. "The room was 9 feet by 15 feet, and it was $75 a month," she says. "I had two people working for me, so there were three of us in the close quarters," she says. "Actually, three and a half, because I was pregnant with Timisa then. We had to move in 1965 when it was torn down in a renewal project."
Galvin then moved to a Back Street location where the business grew as she incorporated canvas work, creating the sturdy bags that also have become a signature item. In 1980, she moved to her present location, the yellow brick building across the street from Roosevelt Park. Prospective customers can also check out her website.
The sandals are only one of her passions. She is an accomplished musician who studied at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. She plays French horn and cello, among other instruments. In Hawaii, she was first horn in the Hawaii Symphony.
On St. Thomas, she is well-known in the community as a band director. For years, the diminutive Galvin was a familiar sight, leading the St. Thomas Community Band — head held high, a branch of bougainvillaea attached to her baton for more height, marching before the 30-piece band wherever a parade called.
She says she was a stern taskmaster, bringing the same meticulous attention to the band as to her sandal making. "We rehearsed twice a week, year round," she says.
Meantime, Galvin has raised two daughters, successful artists on their own. The youngest, Shansi, is an accomplished painter; her portrait of Judge Thomas Moore hangs in District Court.
Timisa is a jeweler. Her work is on display in the shop, and she has a workshop on the lower floor. The sandal workshop is on the second floor.
Galvin springs up as a customer comes in for a fitting. "Sit down right here," she directs the customer to the oversize chair. "Now hold up your leg," she tells May Del Bianco, slipping on the sole.
"My union won't let me touch your leg," she says with a laugh. She pulls at the straps and clips the ends of a sole she had awaiting for the fitting.
DelBianco says, "I'm so happy to finally get a pair of Zora's. We've been coming here for years, and I've always been meaning to do this. I'm an art teacher and I'm on my feet all the time."
Galvin says many of her customers are from off-island. Thinking about it, she figures she has shod three generations of local sandal-wearers.
She holds up a familiar model with a large middle strap and a toe-hold. "This is the original Zora sandal, Denmark Hill," she says.
"People still come back for it. The styles always change," she says. "These never do."
Galvin's website is www.Zora of St. Thomas.com
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