Castaways of COVID

Gilligan's Island is a slice of nostalgia cut straight from the heart of my own childhood. 

On air from 1964-67, the show hit a cultural sweet spot with an audience still enamored with the supposed simplicity of the 1950's. Mary Ann, the proverbial "girl next door," was a real life beauty queen. Crowned Miss Nevada in 1959, Dawn Wells played the ingénue of the castaways with an understated flair.

What I didn't know until I became a minister was that creator Sherwood Schwartz crafted the characters, including Mary Ann, on the seven deadly sins.

Miss Wells died just a few days ago from COVID-19. One last castaway on the island. 

Bon voyage sweet Mary Ann........

"You were always great fun and loved to laugh. Decades of laughter and good times together will remain with me always. Off the island, but forever in our hearts." – Barbara Eden (star of I Dream of Jeannie)