America’s nudist movement was once centered in May’s Landing, New Jersey, and a Delaware County family was there, writes Robert Moran for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Baptist minister The Rev. Ilsley Boone was the leader of the 1930s movement. He created a nudist colony, Sunshine Park, which operated until the 1980s. 

Linda Secor spent time at Sunshine Park as a child in the 1950s and ‘60s.  Her family lived in Prospect Park but spent summer weekends in Mays Landing living in a Greyhound bus that had been converted to a mobile home.

Secor’s mother, Marjorie, was actually featured in an October 1951 edition of the magazine Sunshine & Health, a magazine published by Boone.

She was also crowned queen during a nudist convention at Sunshine Park and interviewed by the Chester Times, now the Daily Times.

“The Secors have found the nudists a very respectable group,” reported The Chester Times. “Ministers, bankers, doctors, and lawyers are included among the members at Mays Landing.”

When their cover was blown, the Secors were treated with hostility by their Prospect Park neighbors. Linda recalled being “labeled, ridiculed, bullied, shunned” at school.

Even so, Linda, who now lives in Alaska, said she is proud Sunshine Park was part of her life.

Read more about this nudist camp in The Philadelphia Inquirer.