To Coney, with Love
To Coney, with Love, preserves a fragment of our Coney memories that will forever live in our hearts, not just memories of Coney Island the amusement park, but of family and friends, and the times of our lives.
Memories compiled by Katy Mark, Rob Lowe and Briton Publishing
To Coney, with Love
Coney Island was the finest amusement park of its day, not only in the minds of its patrons but in the esteem of its peers. A visit by Walt Disney in 1953 seeking advice on his new dream, Disneyland, confirmed the park’s stature.
To Coney, With Love will fill your heart with memories from grandparents who rode the Island Queen to dance the night away at the nationally acclaimed Moonlite Gardens, or the young Aquanaut swim team kids who spent numerous days in Coney’s pool in the early morning hours. You will read the stories from married couples who met while working their first jobs at the park and have created future generations of Coney Island memory-makers, and stories about the rides that made for thrilling moments while creating memorable experiences. Many felt such a deep connection to Coney Island that they spread their loved one’s ashes there, much like Rob Lowe did with his dad’s.
During the winter of 2023, the shocking news of the park’s closing was announced. It was then that a friendship was kindled between Rob Lowe and Katy Mark. Their lives were connected in search of a Coney plaque that was missing and they quickly realized there was synergy between the two of them.
Release Date Nov 1st!
Rob Lowe, whose dad was Bob Lowe, “Captain of the Guards” at Coney Island’s Sunlite Pool for 50 years, grew up at the park creating day-to-day memories that turned into a lifetime of love for the park. Katy was one of the “full-timers” as the Coney kids called the few that worked year-round as most employees were seasonal. She was there the day the city came out to enjoy the amusement park rides for the last time in 2019 and also experienced the loss the day she found out that Coney would be closing its doors forever. Together, each with unique perspectives, Katy and Rob set out hoping to bring a grieving city together and allow Coney’s loved ones, the opportunity to keep their memories alive, each with their unique points of view as to how the park affected their lives.
Katy Mark was born in Cincinnati, OH but moved around as a kid for her dad’s job. She lived in Phoenix, then Philadelphia, and finally came back to the Cincinnati area. After attending NKU, she moved to Dayton, OH, where she met her husband, Tim, and they have now been married for 20 years. In Dayton, Katy worked for the Entertainment Book for 13 years and then started and ran a magazine called Dayton Parent. These were her first experiences in the print world. Tim and Katy moved to Hebron, KY. Katy was then asked to start working for Cincinnati Parent Magazine and share her knowledge of event planning, which she did for the Dayton magazine. Relationships were built with local venues like Coney Island and that is where Katy landed next as a Group Sales Account Executive in 2017. In 2019, when Coney Island closed the rides, they also let go of the majority of the Group Sales team so she went to work for Aramark at Paul Brown Stadium as the Director of Community Relationships. That wasn’t long lived as Covid happened and games and events were canceled.
To stay busy, Katy started a new magazine called Neighbors of Independence that went home to about 3500 homes in Independence, KY each month and highlighted all of the great families, students, events, and businesses in the area. Coney Island reached back out when they realized things were picking up again and they needed someone to manage things. Katy happily went back to Coney Island and in 2024 brought in over one million in group sales in the picnic grove by bringing on clients like Cincinnati Insurance, P&G, Kellogg, GE Aerospace, Hard Rock Casino, Fifth Third, and Heidelberg. Sadly, in December of 2023, full-time employees learned about the owner, Rob Walker Jr., deciding to close Coney Island and sell the land. Katy was very fortunate to have landed on her feet quickly with the Florence Y’alls Baseball team in NKY as the Group Sales Director. Katy has two daughters, Abby and Ellie Mark who keep her quite busy.
Rob Lowe was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and from a young age, the entertainment business attracted his interest. As a young boy, he regularly sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, at Crosley Field, and to this day you can still hear Rob playing the piano and “crooning” some of the best love songs of The Great American Songbook, throughout some of the finest restaurants in the greater Cincinnati area. In high school after seeing Maynard Ferguson, he knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. After an early association with the Beverly Hills Supper Club where he began a career in promotions, his hopes of being in the entertainment industry were temporarily put on hold. In 2008, he and his wife, Brinka, began the entertainment management business, Casting New Lives. Rob relocated to Southern California, and over the next several years worked with many of the legends of both the music and movie industry. Unfortunately, the pandemic led to the end of that business, but up from the ashes, rose Briton Publishing.
As one of the founding members of Briton Publishing, he is now co-authoring To Coney, With Love. The book is a compilation of stories born out of the historic amusement park, Coney Island, submitted by its patrons, with decades of memories and pictures.His dad, Bob Lowe was well known in Cincinnati, from his association with Coney Island’s Sunlight Pool as Captain of the Guards, which would span 50 years. Rob’s fondest memories were the many years he spent at Coney Island. As a young child, he would take his naps under his dad’s guard chair and eventually worked in promoting concerts at Moonlight Pavilion. Growing up at Coney at such a young age was quite an experience. His dad who was well-connected in the music industry would take him to Moonlight Gardens where he met the biggest names in music and some who he would later work with as an adult. Rob lives in the Cincinnati area with his wife Brinka. He has a son Wes, a daughter-in-law Sandy, and a stepson Alex.
