TREASURE COAST PIONEERS
HIGH-HEELED
DEVELOPER
COURTESY OF NANCY COOK
Outdoing male counterparts, Jackie Zorn pioneered the
development of retail on Ocean Drive in Vero Beach
BY CHRISTINA TASCON
Bridges, highways and parks in Vero Beach may
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have been named after men, but Ocean Drive’s
sandy roads were first claimed by a pioneering
woman named Jackie Zorn.
Ralph Waldo Sexton and the conglomeration
of salvaged treasures he used to form his unique properties
— McKee Gardens, the Ocean Grill and the Driftwood Inn
— are legendary in Vero, but the oceanside shopping district
would not have come alive but for a few persistent and enterprising
women, especially Zorn.
Forgotten over time was the impact of the founding women
who worked tirelessly to build the district. Today’s Ocean
Drive shop owners — Callie Corey, Marty Bireley, Nancy
Cook and Gail O’Haire — still speak of Zorn’s influence.
In the 1950s and 1960s most people knew that if you wanted
to get something done without going before a committee
you went to Jackie Zorn or one of the other ladies who made
it happen. Streets were named, sidewalks were installed and
the beachside took shape.
Jackie Zorn Cochrane was born in 1909 in Macon, Ga. She
was a restaurant owner in Orlando when some Vero businessmen
persuaded her to move here in 1949. She bought the
Parkway Hotel across the street from the Patio Restaurant as
well as land along Ocean Drive.
In the beginning, there was nothing much on Ocean Drive
but sand, palm trees, the Driftwood Inn and the Sunny Surf
Cottages. Eventually she built and opened a small general
store that became known as the Beach Shop.
“Old-timers said I was five years before my time,” Zorn was
quoted as saying, “and they were right. Sometimes you would
only see five cars a day and none of them bought my wares.”
Nonetheless, she encouraged her friends, Frederick
“Bunny’’ and Eleanor Boyé, to open a retail yarn store with a
little space where Mr. Boyé could sell his stamps.
A real estate broker, Col. Joseph Walton, who owned most
of the land which is now The Moorings and Floralton Beach,
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Vero beachside business owners in 1950 included real estate salesman Sandy Snow, Eleanor and Frederick “Bunny’’ Boyé , Jackie Zorn and real estate
salesman Art Tameling.