Country western dancer loves the water

Yvonne Murray

Home Port: New Baltimore, Mich.

and North Fort Myers, Fla.

Joined GLCC: 2008

Title: Office Manager Extraordinaire

By Director/Port Captain Dee McClure

This month we highlight GLCC’s extraordinary Office Manager, Yvonne Murray. Yvonne is the first person new members interact with when joining the GLCC and is the go-to person for questions. As the Club continues to grow, we thought it would  be interesting to learn more about Yvonne, all that she does for GLCC members, and her interesting hobbies.

• Dee McClure: What is your occupational background?

I worked for Household Finance/Household Retail Services (revolving charge division of Household Finance) for 32 years, and actually retired from that company twice. My position progression included account exec, branch manager, collection branch manager and Assistant Vice President of Operations. In my Operations management role, I was responsible for over 270 employees, which of course required a huge amount of HR work as well as multitasking and juggling priorities. I retired out of that role in 2000, and a year later agreed to come back as Regional Quality Compliance Manager for five states. I was very proud that our team was No. 1 in the country for three years in a row.

I retired a second time in late 2007 when HFC was going to downsize the quality compliance department. Quality Control runs in the family. My husband, Greg, was also in Quality Control, first in automotive, then in aerospace for Black Hawk helicopters, retiring after COVID.

• Dee McClure: How did you end up at GLCC?

When I retired the second time, I was given the option of retiring or being laid off. Being laid off provided unemployment benefits for a few months, so that option was attractive. 

In late 2007, the Board was looking at the geographies of our members and found that the vast majority boated more on the east side of Lake Michigan as well as Lake Huron and Lake Erie. The GLCC headquarters was in Chicago at the time and the Board decided that Port Huron was more centrally located based on member locations. GLCC was therefore looking for an office manager who would be based in the Port Huron area and coordinate the move.

A requirement to obtain unemployment benefits is to post your resume on MichiganWorks. GLCC called me for an interview in December 2007. I was one of five candidates interviewed, and after an hour and a half with the executive officers for GLCC, I was offered the position, and the rest as they say, is history.

• Dee McClure: Were there particular challenges when you arrived at GLCC?

Bringing GLCC accounting from paper based to QuickBooks was certainly a challenge. I had to convert all the bookkeeping into QuickBooks in less than 60 days, before the April Board meeting. Fortunately, the Board understood the enormity of the task and allowed me to hire some part-time help.

Thankfully, my daughter had her own business and used QuickBooks. We worked together over those first 60 days to accomplish the conversion. Using QuickBooks was a game changer for GLCC and allowed us to track and manage budgets and income/expenses efficiently. We still use QuickBooks now.

• Dee McClure: You and Greg had a unique hobby. Tell us about it.

I have always liked to keep busy. I am involved in the Stephen Ministers Program – a trained Christian listening ear for people in need.

The “unique” hobby you are alluding to is our foray into country western dancing. In 1989, a few couples in our neighborhood would get together weekly and take turns picking an after-dinner activity. One night, the activity picked was a country western bar where we were introduced to couples country western dancing. It was so much fun that several of us took an introductory course. Greg and I were hooked and jumped in with both feet -- literally.

Fast forward to that summer, we were all-in and purchased the boots, the fancy outfits, including cowboy hats and boots, and were competing for fun. By January of 1990, we were teaching country western classes. We sometimes had 200 to 300 people or more on a Saturday,

We were asked to teach at many national competitions. We attended our first National Competition in 1990 and made it in the top 5 for the weekend in the beginners’ division.

We became hooked on competition. We were to compete in the Intermediate group at a weekend seminar and competition in 1992 in the Poconos. However, there were no other Intermediate dancers, so we had to dance in the Advanced group, and took third place. Effectively, we went from Beginner to Advanced in six months.

We participated in several National Competitions, including Rochester, NY (placed first in all categories), the Kentucky Derby, Georgia, Denver, Chicago and Houston.

Greg and I were interviewed quite a bit in the media, including on the local NBC and ABC morning shows, Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight and Good Morning America. In 1991, Reba McEntire invited us to provide entertainment during her costume changes for her concert at the Saginaw Civic Center.

Interestingly, we made more money teaching country western dancing on the weekends and in the evenings than our “professional” jobs. We at one time considered quitting those, but eventually decided the traveling to country western events was a bit too much and stuck with our professions.

In 1995, we decided the country western chapter of our lives was complete and, after seven years, we sold our clothes and equipment.

Dee McClure: What was the next chapter after you “hung up your dancing boots”?

In 1992, when we were still dancing, we did weekend dance lessons/parties for marinas and boat clubs, so we always had an interest in the boating side of things.

We started looking at boats again in1993. We bought a 36’ SeaRay aft cabin and kept her on Clinton River and explored the Great Lakes for nine years. We served as officers of the North Channel Yacht Club (North Channel of the St. Clair River).

In successive years, we purchased a 35’ SeaRay Sundancer we named Quality Suite. The name was fitting given both of our professions. We did our big cruising on that boat, venturing to Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, Georgian Bay and the Trent Severn. We sold the 35’ Sundancer and purchased a 28’ AmberJack SeaRay for more local cruising. 

Work was hectic for me and we downsized to a 19’ Bowrider, then eventually a pontoon boat which we enjoyed using for day boating. We sold the pontoon boat in 2023 when we took up a winter residence in North Fort Myers.

• Dee McClure: In your Office Manager role, you are involved in handling the budgets and finances for all events and typically attend the Annual Rendezvous. Do you have stories to share?

Lots of great stories! A few that come to mind: In 2008, Jim Acheson and his staff at Acheson Ventures worked with GLCC to produce a dedication weekend celebrating the move to Port Huron. It was a magnificent event, one of the largest we have ever done. Anyone who was anybody in the boating community attended that event.

Small world story: Back in early 1990s, when Greg and I were both officers in North Channel Yacht Club (St. Clair River), we would have dinner at the club on the weekends when we weren’t dancing. One evening we saw some (reciprocal) visitors and spoke with them. They enjoyed the area and stopped by the yacht club every year. In 2008, when I was preparing the GLCC directory, I recognized the name of the couple – Rich and Patty Barzyk! Small world indeed!

GLCC is like family. In 2018, my daughter, Kimberly, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. This was just before the big April Board meeting. The Board and execs supported my family and me, the motto being “family first” and told me not to worry about getting everything ready for the meeting, the Club would handle it.

On top of that, the Vice Commodore and Execs set up a GoFundme account to help maintain the life of my daughter and grandchildren. My daughter passed in August 2019 and 25 GLCC members took the time to support our family and travel for her memorial and funeral, some from Canada.

The GLCC execs and members treated Greg and me like family and with such respect and support throughout Kim’s illness. How could I ever leave this organization?