From NBC 15 News: Lucy Buffett talks about brother, Jimmy, and the Mobile museum exhibit that will honor him (by Darwin Singleton)
Let’s begin with a full disclosure: I am a Jimmy Buffett fan.
I am also a Lucy Buffett fan., so I will admit that I was pleasantly surprised at the announcement that Jimmy will soon be featured in a special exhibit that will occupy the first floor of the Maritime Museum of the Gulf Coast on the river’s edge in Downtown Mobile.
But I wanted to know how Lucy feels about it, which is why we sat down at her restaurant, LuLu’s, in Gulf Shores.
It’s been less than two years since he passed. So, before we talked about the museum, I wanted to know-
“Have you gotten used to Jimmy not being here?”
“Isn’t it interesting that when you work in media, your voice has been recorded for a while.,” she replied. “So, we get to hear Jimmy’s voice every day, if I want to, on the radio station, right? His radio station is still up and going. And that allows me to be very aware of me deciding that he’s still here. (laugh) And he hasn’t gone anywhere.”
It is precisely that omnipresence that still remains, especially among his millions of devoted fans, that makes this exhibit a promising addition to a museum that has underperformed up until now.
“Could Jimmy Buffett be the savior of that museum?” I asked.
“I think it’s a perfect home for a tribute to him. And I think, you know, he does have a fan base. And even though we are all… slightly getting older, I do think tourism is going to come into play because it’s going to be something that is really fun. Even if you’ve never followed Jimmy, you might have known he was famous. And so there are people who want to come and know more about him. And I think it’s gonna be a good, a good, juicy thing for the museum. Yes.”
Though the exhibit is likely to pull in Buffett “Parrot Heads” from around the world, it should have a very organic appeal for fans in Florida, South Alabama and South Mississippi.
Buffett was born in Pascagoula, raised in Mobile and often called Key West home. But Lucy believes Mobile rightly holds a lion’s share of her brother’s musical legacy. A museum exhibit here would be a natural.
“The city of Mobile wanted to do something,” Lucy said. “Which is kind of interesting, because, you know, they stepped up to do a hometown boy thing. And the Maritime Museum works with our history and my family and my grandfather and his themes and he would have loved that.”
Jimmy Buffett didn’t just sell records, he created a mood, a tropical escapism that shows no sign of slowing down.
So, what does Lucy hope his fans and former neighbors here on the coast will experience when they visit the exhibit?
“I want them to see a little behind the scenes and behind the scenes of the Gulf Coast boy that he always was. And Jimmy claimed a lot of homes and a lot of places claimed him because he spent time- Florida, he’s a Mississippi-born, Alabama-raised, Florida later, but he always felt that he was a Gulf Coast boy.”
The Jimmy Buffett exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Gul is projected to open in September of 2026.
