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Arnold Palmer Remembered for Visits at Shawnee

SMITHFIELD TOWNSHIP — Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort has been around for more than a century. It has had its fair share of visitors over the years. Among its...
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SMITHFIELD TOWNSHIP -- Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort has been around for more than a century. It has had its fair share of visitors over the years. Among its most famous visitors is legendary golfer Arnold Palmer.

Inside the Pocono resort, you'll find pictures of Palmer. There's one picture of Palmer getting his hair cut back when Shawnee used to have a barber shop. There's also the well-known picture of him golfing with actor Jackie Gleason in 1960.

Of all the pictures, the resort cherishes a digital copy of Palmer and his first wife Winnie. The two met while Palmer was at Shawnee during a 1954 golf tournament at Shawnee.

"He arrived and met her on that day actually right here coming down the steps that are right here and stayed here for three days. On the third day, he basically asked her to marry him," Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort general manager Robert Howell said.

From there it was history. Palmer and his wife were married 45 years until she died in the 1990s.

Palmer died on Sunday.

Now that Palmer is gone, golfers are reflecting on the man they consider a legend in the golf community.

"I have a signed picture in my room at home that says, 'To Jason, all the best, Arnold Palmer.' My dad got it for me and I have the envelope it came in. He's just a class guy and he will be thoroughly missed everywhere," said Jason Hartline, an employee at Shawnee.

Even though the golf community has lost one of the greatest of all time, Shawnee's general manager says they are lucky for the time Palmer spent in the Poconos.

"You can play a lot of great golf all over the world, right? To play a historic course somewhere where Arnold Palmer met his wife and hung out, and Sam Snead and all of those other great golfers, not a lot of places can say that," Howell said.

Palmer's family announced a public event is planned in the Pittsburgh area to celebrate Arnold Palmer's life next week.

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