Jazz Corner business neighbors of Bob Masteller saddened at news of body discovery
Word that Jazz Corner owner Bob Masteller's body may have been found was just beginning to spread to most of the Hilton Head Island jazz club's neighbors early Monday afternoon.
Many of them had spent the past six days hoping for an outcome that seemed increasingly unlikely -- for Masteller, 76, to be found safe. On Monday, their uncertainty -- shared among Village at Wexford owners, employees and regulars -- gave way to news that authorities were working to recover and identify a body found at a Brams Point Road dock.
"Obviously it's not the news we were hoping for," said Wally Smith, owner of Smith Galleries, who has worked closely with Masteller's wife, Lois, for about eight years.
"I'm sure everybody's going to still wonder, people will have questions. But that's not really our business," he said. "My heart just goes out for Lois."
Lois Masteller has served on several committees for the village, most recently for the owner's association, according to Smith, who serves as president of the Village at Wexford Merchant's Association.
His board also holds a few meetings a year at the Jazz Corner, discussing community decisions over coffee and danish, Smith said.
"I don't think there was a separation for the business and personal with Lois," he said after he opened his copy of The Jazz Corner Story to the inside cover, where the Mastellers had penned, "Special neighbors, special friends."
(Lois is) so loyal and kind and thoughtful and caring," Smith said. "They're just such nice people."
Ashton Hayes, one of the owners of British Open Pub, said she hoped the community, and in particular Bob Masteller's family, would find the closure in the days ahead that they couldn't while his whereabouts were unknown.
"I can't imagine how hard it's been the past six or seven days," she said. "He was such a well-liked man on the island."
Hayes has gotten to know the Mastellers and the Jazz Corner's staff well over the years, since the restaurant opened just a year before the jazz club.
The businesses would sponsor each other's annual golf tournaments and employees would rely on each other to share everything from marketing advice and patronage to spare napkins, Hayes said.
Many of the pub's regulars had been hoping for good news as well, she said.
"It's just been hard to see how the customers reacted, and how sad they are."
Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.
This story was originally published March 16, 2015 at 12:31 PM.