Pride and sadness: Meet the grand marshal of the Hilton Head Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Diane Reilley has marched all of her life in a parade of humanity so it’s fitting she’ll the grand marshal of the 40th Hilton Head Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

She comes from a family of six children — including five girls. Her husband, Tom, is the oldest of eight children. And they had seven children of their own over an 11-year period.

Until now, Diane has kept a low profile while her husband and their Reilley’s Grill & Bar became Hilton Head Island institutions.

But that will change with Sunday’s parade.

The parade has grown like the Reilley family, and like their business that today is known as Coastal Restaurants and Bars. With various investors and partners, the group now has 11 restaurants, including the two Crazy Crab locations, Benny’s Coastal Kitchen, the Old Oyster Factory, and Fish Camp locations on Hilton Head and in the town of Port Royal outside of Beaufort.

When her husband walked in the unofficial first parade, Diane was working in the kitchen at Reilley’s.

“My plan was to join them in the parade but it ended, because we did not have a permit, before I could make it there,” she said.

The story of Diane’s life is like the story of the community her family has helped to shape. They claim “Irish luck” but show signs of hard work.

Diane and Tom came from Rhode Island in 1977, with no plans to stay on Hilton Head, a place with a swing-span bridge and one traffic light. They weren’t yet married, and they had no game plan. But it was February and they were glad to get away from the cold. They stayed with Tom’s late sister Mary Rankin and her husband Bill, then a golf pro.

They never really left.

Diane waited tables at the Calibogue Café in Harbour Town, a space that is now a Crazy Crab, at the Hofbrauhaus restaurant and at Serge Prat’s Gaslight restaurant, and Tom had several jobs in the food and beverage industry.

They got married by a justice of the peace in Charleston, and later celebrated it with a ceremony at Holy Family Catholic Church. They bought their own place down the street from Mary in the Squiresgate neighborhood, and Tom bought a vintage red Mustang convertible, which became his pride and joy.

In 1982, they seized a chance to open their own place with the help of investors. It was to be like “Cheers.”

Tom said he would work out front and Diane would be in the kitchen, while somehow managing her four children under the age of 5.

I asked her recently how she knew what to do in the small kitchen of a café they took over in the Gallery of Shops near Sea Pines Circle.

“I didn’t,” she said. “I just learned. It was on-the-job training. I mean, I knew how to cook.”

The newspaper story from the time about the new business said Diane was the “head cook whose specialties include homemade sauces, dressings and mustards.”

For many years, “Diane’s Mustard” was placed at each table in special pots, along with the novelty of a telephone in each booth.

Diane played a hand in menu mainstays like the cottage pie and meatloaf. After leaving the stove on a daily basis, she has also been credited with cooking specials and helping design and redesign menus over the years.

It was Diane who came up with the “Crazy Crab” name.

All but one of their children still live on the island, and all are involved in some fashion with the businesses. Diane remains involved as the food photographer.

She volunteers with the Palmetto Animal League, and for 20 years has taken a mission trip to Jamaica through Mustard Seed Communities.

She said she loves what the parade has done for the community, pulling together some 30,000 people one day each year for frivolity.

She’s proud to be the grand marshal. But there is sadness too.

This will be the first parade Tom Reilley has missed.

Diane said that since mid-February, he has been in an intensive care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina hospital in Charleston.

She said he is not responsive and they cannot find a reason for it.

She’s with him most of the time, but she won’t miss a beat back home at Sunday’s parade.

“If Tom were awake, he’d be figuring out a way to get there,” she said.

This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 6:00 AM.