"Margaritaville"...(1973-1991)

   Charlie and Shirley English operated the hotel until 1978 when they sold it to German-born Harold Nabors. During the late 70's, there was more emphasis on bar operations and less on the restaurant and hotel. Nabors remodeled the bar and opened the annex garden to outdoor entertainment. He sold the hotel to Marcia Rogers in 1980.
   Rogers was a New England educator who stumbled upon Cedar Key while searching for a lifestyle change. She found it with the Island Hotel. As Marcia described it, she was looking for "a place in the sun", "an oasis out of the fast lane", phrases that were often later quoted by travel writers trying to capture the ambiance of the Island Hotel during the 80's.
   Florida songwriter and balladeer Jimmy Buffett visited the Island Hotel often during these years. He sometime would give impromptu concerts in the Neptune Bar. During one arts festival he sat on the balcony and serenaded people passing along Main Street. A reference to Cedar Key and mystery writer John D. McDonald's fictional character Travis McGee is among lyrics from the song 'Incommunicado' on Buffett's 'Coconut Telegraph' album.
   Marcia Rogers biggest success was perhaps the restaurant. Working with Chef Jahn McCumbers, she put the Island Hotel back on the gastronomic map as one of the best places in Cedar Key to eat good fresh seafood. The restaurant drew favorable reviews from food critics. Articles complimenting the restaurant's success appeared in regional, national and international newspapers, magazines and travel guides.
   Marcia took an active interest in historical preservation. Working closely with the Cedar Key Historical Society, she lobbied local, state and federal officials to formally recognize the Island Hotel as an important historic landmark. The effort was rewarded when, in1984, the Island Hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
   Marcia's lifestyle occasionally placed her at odds with some of the locals. For example, few Cedar Key citizens could comprehend what it was all about when Marcia invited the Padmasambhava Society to the Island Hotel for what was known as the Full Moon Wakefulness Retreat.
   In the late 80's, she closed the Neptune Bar to the public and turned it into a coffee and juice bar. This caused great consternation among some of the locals who considered the bar their personal watering hole. The night the bar closed they buried Marcia in effigy in front of the Post Office, a dubious honor that had been previously awarded only to politicians who lost in the local city commission elections.