Ouida Baggett Regan

Ouida Baggett Regan went to be with her Lord and Savior on Tuesday, January 10, 2017, after 89 years of a life well lived.  A Pensacola, FL native, Regan was the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. T.L. Baggett, Jr.  She attended Pensacola schools and was a graduate of Pensacola High School. She attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery, AL, where she was a violin and voice major. She was a past member of the National Alumni Board and was a frequent speaker.  Regan was well known as one of Pensacola’s early builders and land developers and owned Baggett Construction Company. She built thousands of houses in Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Sarasota, FL and in Puerto Rico. She is perhaps best known for building The Bayshore, in Pensacola, the first residential high-rise building in Northwest Florida, while she was in her early thirties. She was ahead of her time in not only being a female builder but in helping develop financing techniques to assist low-income buyers in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Regan was an astute business woman whose focus was on her children, the late Daniel T. Regan and Marcia Regan Shannon. She raised them as a loving and selfless single mother. Regan had an innate sense of style and grace and in her early years was a gourmet cook and talented hostess. She had a beautiful soprano voice and enjoyed singing in the choir at Christ Episcopal Church in Pensacola. Regan enjoyed hunting, floral design, gardening and traveling the world.

In Pensacola she was a founding member and past president of the West Florida Home Builders Association. She was the first woman in the US to be elected president of a Home Builders Association, the first woman National Director of the National Association of Home Builders, the first woman to serve on the NAHB Executive Committee where she was elected a Board Member for Life by her peers. Regan helped establish the Florida Home Builders Association and was a Trustee and Chairman of the National Housing Center Council. Regan served as a trustee of the Episcopal Day School, where Marcia was a student, Director of the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce, the first woman President of Fiesta of Five Flags, recipient of the Jaycees Outstanding Award for service to the community and trustee and President of the Pensacola Art Museum. She also enjoyed supporting the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra.

Regan made Dallas her second home in 1971 so that her daughter could attend The Hockaday School. She made many close friends in Dallas and considered it her home later in life in order to be near her daughter, her son-in-law, Dr. Don Shannon and her grandsons, Donelson, William and Robert. Regan enjoyed being a member of The Dallas Woman’s Club, Brook Hollow Golf Club, Crystal Charity Ball, Les Femmes du Monde Board, Dallas Museum of Art Board, Northwood Institute, a trustee of the North Texas Chapter of The Arthritis Foundation and the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Board.

Regan was a 38 year breast cancer survivor who valiantly and courageously lived with Alzheimers Disease during the last 12 years of her life. The family thanks Licha Castandeda and Dollie Smith for their years of lovingly caring for our mother.

Regan is survived by her daughter, Marcia Shannon and her husband Don; grandsons, Patrick Brewer Regan, Donelson Shannon and his wife, Meghan, William Shannon and his wife, Sarah, Robert Shannon and his wife Samantha; great-grandchildren, Daniel and Susan Regan, and Daniel Shannon. Regan is also survived by her brother, Bob Baggett and sister-in-law, Gloria, as well as nieces, Cindy Edgar and her husband, Pete, Vicki Hinson and nephew, Bob Baggett, Jr.

A private family memorial service and burial will be held at Clear Springs United Methodist Church Cemetery in Robertsdale, AL.

Memorials in lieu of flowers, may be made to Episcopal Day School (Scholarships), Christ Episcopal Church in Pensacola, The Salvation Army or the charity of your choice.