Alan and Annie Levinsohn

Alan Levinsohn was an only child, born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1930. His mother, Rose Lipman, was a teacher, and his father, Alex Levinsohn, was a pioneer in the retail auto business. Alex owned a Hudson Terraplane auto dealership, as well as other local business ventures, and was president of the Michigan Auto Dealers Association in 1951 and 1952. When Alan was only twelve years old, his father taught him to drive a car, and at age fourteen, Alan would hitchhike to Detroit and ferry new cars to dealers all over the state of Michigan. This was the beginning of Alan’s love of cars. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in business administration, he worked

in the Oldsmobile division of General Motors in Oklahoma City for two years.

He then moved to East Lansing, Michigan, to work for a Chevrolet dealer.

​

Annie Lurie was born in 1937 and grew up with her sister and brother in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her paternal grandfather emigrated from Poland, and her father, Lewis Lurie, was an only child who had to quit school when he was thirteen to work to support his family. Annie’s mother, Betsy Kahn, was a native of Indianapolis and attended Smith College for a year before she and Lewis eloped. After a few years away, they returned

to Indianapolis where Lewis went to work in Betsy’s family business—Capital Paper Company, a conglomerate in wholesale building materials. One of Betsy’s many community projects was translating books into braille for the Library of Congress.

After Annie graduated from high school in Indianapolis, she went to the University of Arizona in Tucson for one year and then transferred to the University of Michigan.

​

While living in East Lansing, Alan would drive back and forth to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, to see his steady girlfriend. One weekend in 1955, he made the hour-long drive to take her out, but she had made other plans. He looked around the room at the sorority house, spotted Annie Lurie, and asked if she would go to dinner with him. Annie was hesitant because she had not signed out for dinner that night

and would be fined fifty cents, but after some coaxing, she agreed to go. They had dinner at the local Howard Johnson and then walked around campus and talked.

When Annie returned to her room, she told her roommate that even though it

sounded crazy, she knew she was going to marry Alan. The next September

she did just that, and in 2022 they celebrated 65 years of marriage.

​

For a year after they were married, Alan and Annie lived in East Lansing, and then they moved to Indianapolis where Alan went to work for Annie’s dad selling wholesale building materials. They had three children—Jim, John, and Jane, and as the kids grew up, Annie was involved in their school and scouting activities. After a few years, Alan left the family business and bought his own auto recycle yard called Mickey’s Auto Parts, which he ran for several years. He also bought and ran several car washes.

​

Once the kids were older, Annie and some friends started a catering business out

of a little restaurant in Indianapolis. Annie had always loved cooking, so she

really enjoyed baking and teaching classes part time with her friends. They

even traveled to California to see the Julia Child television show. Annie has

done a lot of volunteer work, but her favorite was at the crisis and suicide help

line in Indianapolis, where her job was to listen to troubled people who

called in and help direct them to the right place to get help.

​

When he retired, Alan decided that he wanted to get a vacation place in Florida.

In 1977, despite Annie’s questions and concerns, he went on his own to

Florida, discovered Sanibel, bought a condo at Sundial West and arranged

for it to be fully furnished and decorated. Their family then started

spending their Christmas and spring vacations in Sanibel.

​

The Levinsohns have seen their share of success and hardship. Annie’s parents liked

to travel with their adult children, and the eight of them took some wonderful trips together. In 1985 they went to St. Maarten to celebrate Annie’s father’s seventy-fifth birthday. One afternoon during their stay, Annie’s brother David took a small plane to a nearby island for the day. They waited for him to return so they could all have dinner together, but he never came back. The police and private detectives questioned a lot of people over the next days, weeks, and months, but to this day they still don’t know what happened to him. This loss has had a lasting impact on their extended family as has their journey of nurturing a granddaughter with special needs. Through it all, Annie maintains such a positive attitude that her family has nicknamed her Pollyanna.

​

Today Alan and Annie’s oldest son, Jim, is a professor at Yale and the founding

director of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Their second son, John, is

in commercial real estate, and their daughter, Jane, is a reading specialist.

They have six grandchildren and one great-grandson.

​

Alan’s first love is cars, but he also loves the stock market and has been an avid collector of model cars and baseball cards. For many years, Alan and Annie did a lot

of biking in Indianapolis, taking several trips in the U.S. and Europe that were

organized by Backroads. As time passed, they started spending more of the year

in Sanibel and continued biking together there until 2018, when Annie had a scary accident that made her decide to give up riding. Then Alan broke his hip and transitioned to a recumbent bike. In Sanibel, Annie played a lot of golf and tennis

at The Dunes and became friends with several people who are now neighbors in

the Enclave, including Jeanne Lindman, Julie O’Neill, and Carol Brodersen.

​

Alan and Annie moved to Shell Point in 2019 and have been very happy living

in the Enclave. Annie has joined the walking club and plays golf with the

“nine holers,” and Alan has been seen riding his recumbent bike around Coastal Commons. They still spend the summers at their home in Carmel, Indiana,

a suburb of Indianapolis. Even after more than six decades of marriage,

Alan likes to remind everyone that he and Annie are still dating.