On the day after Valentine’s Day, Love City says goodbye to a Cruz Bay business couple, married 54 years before their deaths 18 days apart. Relatives say Conrad and Gladys Sutton got married on St. John in 1970 and started Conrad Sutton Jeep Rental one year later.
Conrad Sutton, 83 — described as a quiet, industrious man — died at home on Jan. 19; his wife, Gladys, 81, died on Feb. 7 at the Schneider Regional Medical Center. Chatting with a visitor from her hospital bed two days before her passing, she laughed when the visitor said they would miss “the boss.”
Daughter Carmen Sutton said her father would have laughed too. “He always thought she was the boss,” she said. Although her father’s name was on the business, the company started when the couple pooled their funds and bought one “rent-a-car.”
At the time, the two Nevisians — they met on the job after leaving home in Gingerland — were hard at work with multiple jobs. At day’s end in the evenings, Conrad waited to greet vacationers on their way to villas in Chocolate Hole.
It was a time when tourism was starting to appear on St. John and businesses renting cars were just getting started. As a gregarious housekeeper working at Serendip Vacation Condos, Gladys Sutton could see that property managers and their guests would need transportation. “They were just regular people and they believed in good, hard, honest work,” their daughter said.
Conrad Sutton remained busy but visible keeping the business going while repairing electronics at home, at night. Carmen Sutton said she remembered seeing her father at the kitchen table wielding a soldering iron on broken tvs and radios.
“He was a highly intelligent man of very few words, but he was also highly observant and analytical,” she said.
There were no romantic remembrances shared by the family, only reflections of a couple whose opposing personalities formed a magnetic connection. The one thing Conrad Sutton and Gladys Sutton shared were caring words and gestures toward visitors and neighbors and quiet acts of charity for those in need, their daughter said.
On the husband’s condolence page, one longtime customer affirmed those thoughts. “We met Mr Sutton years ago while on island for vacation. We rented our car there for years. He was a quiet but very kind man. Each year we visited with him and his family and considered them as friends that we would always remember. We are still very close friends with daughter Suzan. I know he will be missed by his family and the community of STJ,” said customer Nicki Akin.
Family and friends will gather for a funeral service Saturday around the corner from where Conrad Sutton Jeep Rental sits decorated with black ribbons. Husband and wife are being honored in a single service with their draped coffins side by side, followed by a dual burial in Cruz Bay Cemetery.
