Fun-N-Sun proved revolutionary — and gave birth to the term ‘Winter Texan'

Four decades ago, a nightmarish stop at a run-down trailer park drove Hank Stanley to launch a business that turned the Rio Grande Valley into the headquarters of  Winter Texans.

Down on his luck, Stanley pulled his old trailer into a Houston mobile home park.

"There were no hookups, and it was all covered with leaves," said Joan Cocozza, his former wife.

After Stanley had his money refunded, he devised a business plan as he drove back home to Harlingen.

"He felt the people who traveled in RVs were treated as second-class citizens," Cocozza said.

Then Stanley thought about the sprawling swaths of land that lay idle after the U.S. Air Force shut down old Harlingen Air Base and pulled out of town.

"He had a lot of vision," Cocozza said. "He thought, ‘We have to think about what we can do to change things.' "

In 1967, Stanley's plan to open Fun-N-Sun RV Resort helped transform the Valley's economy.

"He was the founder of the RV parks," David Allex, the former longtime president of the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce, said.

In the 1960s, Stanley leased city land at the site of the old air base, once a $25 million a year lifeline that fueled one-third of the local economy.

On one of the air base's barren tracts, Stanley built Fun-N-Sun into an RV park that lured Midwestern snowbirds away from their traditional roosts in Florida.

For years, Winter Texans pumped as much as $329 million into the Valley, making the industry one of the region's biggest economic engines, according to a 2001 study by the University of Texas-Pan American.

By the winter of 2007-2008, the economic impact on the Valley was measured at $606 million, according to the most recent UTPA study.

In the park's first year, Stanley opened with 150 trailer sites.

"People came and saw the Valley as a laid-back community of friendly people. They knew about the proximity to Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico was an attraction," Cocozza said. "Most were farmers from the Midwest. It became a place people came to spend the winter."

To lure winter visitors - known in those days as "snowbirds" - to the park, Stanley worked with travel trailer manufacturers to bring touring caravans to the Valley. As part of the package, tours took caravans into Mexico.

Within three years, the park boasted 550 sites.

While Stanley honed his business plan, his wife took care of the business office.

It took a lay minister to re-christen "snowbirds" with the term "Winter Texans."

"For many years they were called ‘snowbirds' and it had kind of derogatory connotations," said Jay Meade, who was a young Chamber of Commerce executive when he launched a billboard campaign to promote the catchy phrase.

After preaching at services that jammed the park, C.L. "Smokey" Boyle dubbed them Winter Texans.

"This caught on like wildfire," said Meade, now owner of an advertising agency who serves as a Harlingen city commissioner. "They embraced the term.

"They loved being Winter Texans. It provided an identity as Texans. They adopted Texas for the winter."

For years, Vance Greek played guitar behind Boyle's gospel rallies.

On Sundays, the services drew as many as 800 Winter Texans, he said.

"It was promoted as the only worship service in the world where there was never an empty seat, because everyone brought their own lawn chair," Greek said with a chuckle.

Today, Greek has taken over for Boyle, who died in 2004.

On Sundays, Greek's services draw as many as 1,500 Winter Texans, he said.

"People come and relax. It's really very high energy," Greek said. "It's just good old gospel music with a good gospel message."

At Stanley's park, his business plan centered around a program of exercise and aerobics classes, dances and live music.

"It continued to grow all the time, offering more," Cocozza said. "We had hundreds of activities going on. I don't think this had been exploited like that before."

Soon, Stanley's plan turned the park into a destination point among the nation's growing RV market.

For the park, business was booming.

"We had 85 trailers circling Fun-N-Sun, trying to get into the park the next day," Cocozza said.

In 1972, Stanley opened Texas' largest RV park in San Benito. The new Fun-N-Sun featured 1,300 sites.

"The amenities were much nicer, much bigger," Cocozza said.

At the park, entertainment turned into big business, with the annual Polka Fest luring dancers from across the Valley.

For the park's Luau, as many as 200 fans camped out on lawn chairs to buy tickets the next day.

"If you offer something worth the money, stand back - the people will come," Cocozza said.

Forty-odd years later, Stanley is known as the father of the Winter Texan industry, Allex said.

"It just exploded," Cocozza said. "I'd like to say we had a part in it."