by Larry Chowning –
Susan Wade, owner of J&W Seafood in Deltaville, has been named captain of the 62nd Annual Urbanna Oyster Festival to be held Friday and Saturday, November 1-2.
Susan and her late husband, Kevin, started dating when then Susan (Schultz) was 15 years old. She was at Middlesex High School and Kevin, two years older, was at York Academy.
They dated all through high school and after Susan graduated from MHS she went away to Longwood College and stayed for one year.
In the meantime, in 1982 Kevin and his friend Joe Jenkins established a startup seafood wholesale business. The business was started in the upstairs of Taylor’s Restaurant. After a year in college, Susan came home, and in 1984 Susan and Kevin were married.
They along with Joe and Phyllis Jenkins ran J&W Seafood (J for Jenkins and W for Wade) until the Jenkinses decided to sell their portion of the business to Susan and Kevin in 1987.
After the business was sold people would ask what the J&W stood for and Kevin would humorously reply “Jerk and Wife Seafood.”
Through Kevin and Susan’s efforts, J&W Seafood grew into one of the largest wholesale and retail seafood distributors in the state of Virginia.
Unfortunately, Susan lost Kevin, the love of her life, 10 months ago when he died unexpectedly, leaving her alone at the helm of J&W Seafood. “I want to thank the Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation for this honor,” said Susan. “I realize this is as much for Kevin and his life as it is about me. It is a great honor for him and the life he led and I am very appreciative of this.”
Kevin served as vice president of Virginia Seafood Council and was a member of the legislative and nominating committees. He was a board member of the Virginia Seafood Association, and on the blue crab and shellfish committees of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC). Shortly after his death, the Virginia General Assembly honored him for his contribution to Virginia seafood by a unanimous resolution vote on the floor of the Capitol building in Richmond.
“We ran this business hand-in-hand,” said Susan. “We never made an important decision without talking with one another. I miss not having him now for that support and for many, many other reasons. Kevin would be tremendously proud of me for receiving this honor for us.”
Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation Chair Joe Heyman said, “Kevin and Susan have given so much back to our community and have played such a significant role in making our community a better place. We felt this was a good time to honor them and J&W Seafood for all they have done to support our community. We are extremely honored that Susan is our 2019 Oyster Festival Captain.”
Susan will be honored at the annual festival banquet and will ride in the Fireman’s Parade on Friday night of the festival and in the festival parade on Saturday.
