Mrs. "lovey" Howell represented the deadly sin of Sloth. She was a lazy person whose only desire was to maintain the "country club" type atmosphere that she was used to back home. When Thurston Howell established a "member only" Golf Club on the island (the Howells being the only members of course), Mrs. Howell got her thrills by drinking exotic beverages and listening to her soaps on the radio. She did nothing else on the island.

Ironically in an opposite twist- the episode when radioactive vegetables wash ashore, Mrs. Howell eats the mutated beets which gives her an insane boost of energy. This enables her to perform tasks never done before by her, such as cleaning the huts as well as sweeping the sand in the lagoon.

But in reality, her laziness was her weakness. The fact that she didn't do anything at all was another reason why they never left the island.