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Program Information

 

Schedule: Friday afternoons, at 5:30 PM, during All Things Considered
Produced by: WUSF Public Broadcasting
E-mail: Diane Egner, Content Director degner@wusf.org

 
 

This Week on Florida Stories

 
Walt Shaffner and Mary Fischer

Walt Shaffner
and
Mary Fischer

Walt Shaffner and Mary Fischer
Today on Florida Stories, Walt Shaffner of Valrico talks with his sister Mary Fischer about the legacy of their parents - and how baseball bats and bullhorns represent the power of keeping a promise. (First aired on December 15, 2006, rebroadcast on May 2, 2008)

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Music Credits: Lean On Me by Bill Withers, Bill Withers' Greatest Hits, Sony Music Entertainment, Inc.
   
 

More Florida Stories

 
Dr. Henry A. Porter and Edna Holliman

Edna Holliman
and
Dr. Henry L. Porter

Dr. Henry L. Porter and Edna Holliman
Sarasota native, educator and musician Dr. Henry L. Porter speaks with his friend Edna Holliman about how his father influenced his outlook on education, and how he in turn uses that outlook to change the world in his own way. (First aired on November 17, 2006, rebroadcast on April 25, 2008)

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Music Credits: Selfless, Cold and Composed, Ben Folds Five, Whatever And Ever Amen, Sony BMG Music Entertainment
   
 

Dr. Sylvia Campbell and
Jeanne Hardin-Gres

Dr. Sylvia Campbell and Jeanne Hardin-Gres
Dr. Sylvia Campbell in a general surgeon at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa. She donates thousands of hours in service to charitable causes, including treatment of the working poor who visit the Judeo-Christian Health Clinic in Tampa. She also leads medical mission trips to Haiti and Uganda to care for the poor and sick. Jeanne Hardin-Gres, an Army reservist often called into active duty in recent years, is the nurse anesthetist who has accompanied Sylvia to Haiti. The two spoke about their commitment to service in a StoryCorps booth in Sarasota back in January, 2006. (First aired on February 17, 2006, rebroadcast on April 18, 2008)

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Music Credits: February Sea, George Winston, Winter Into Spring, Windham Hill Records
   
 
Eva Frank and Lynne Brolly

Eva Frank and her daughter Lynne Brolly

Eva Frank and Lynne Brolly
Eva Frank shares memories of a childhood in Hungary, born to Jewish parents just a few years before the outbreak of World War II. Among the tales she shares with daughter Lynne Brolly: escaping to Paris on one of the last trains out of her ancestral country at a time when a scarcity of food and freedom forced strangers to depend on each other for survival. Both women now live in Sarasota. (First aired on March 17, 2006, rebroadcast on April 11, 2008)

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Music Credits: Exit Music (For a Film) performed by The Brad Mehldau Trio, written by Thom Yorke and Radiohead, Art of the Trio vol. 4 - Back at the Vanguard, Warner Bros. Records
   
 

Valerie Wojciechowicz

Valerie Wojciechowicz
Valerie Wojciechowicz moved from New Jersey to Florida in 2002. She's living in Sarasota and working as an HIV/AIDS awareness educator in addition to personal training. Valerie told me, though, that her outlook on life wasn't always what it is now. Her father died when Valerie was 7, and when her mother went to work full time to support 2 children, Valerie found many adult responsibilities at an early age. She credits this responsibility as the foundation of her work ethic, and also as the start of a series of problems with alcohol and drugs. At 23, she found a new direction. She started our conversation with the events that took place at age 28, with a new start and a new marriage. (First aired on June 1, 2007, rebroadcast on April 4, 2008)

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Music Credits: Finer Days, Smog, Red Apple Falls, Drag City Records
   
 

MJ Burke and
Scott Nolan

 
   
  EXTENDED AUDIO: Mary Jane Burke describes a painting given to her father by a German POW interned at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts. Audio icon Listen now
MJ Burke and Scott Nolan
Mary Jane Burke, or MJ as her friends call her, was born in December 1937 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. As a child living in Cape Cod during World War II, she readily admits she has little recall of what day-to-day life was like for most people at that time. She spoke with friend Scott Nolan about one specific memory, though, involving her father that later became a family legacy. (First aired on August 10, 2007, rebroadcast on March 28, 2008)

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Music Credits: Organ Grinder's Swing, Jack McDuff, Brother Jack, Prestige Records
   
 

Lars Dohm with his
son David

Lars and David Dohm
Lars Dohm was born in Denmark, and was living in Miami by age 16. With his German father and Danish mother, he spent his early years on the Restmor, a sailboat bound for a round-the-world voyage at sea. Today on Florida Stories we’ll hear from Lars as he tells his son David that what some might consider an almost fairy-tale childhood later found him longing for a different family experience. We open with David asking how the journey started. (First aired on May 18, 2007, rebroadcast on March 21, 2008)

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Music Credits: Movement 1 from Nielsen's Little Suite A minor/Movement 3 of Nielsen's Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Carl Nielsen, music performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony, Nielsen: Symphony No. 1, CBS Records
   
 
William Russell

William Russell -
taken on Tinian
Island, 1945.

William F. 'Rusty' Russell and Catherine Russell
William Russell was nearly 18 years old in 1943 when he tried to join the Marines at a recruitment office in Louisville, KY. After being told the quota was met the day he tried to enlist, he was sent to a Navy recruiter. He took the physical exams and when accepted was told he'd be serving with the Seabees. 'Rusty', as his wife Catherine calls him, opens the story with a description of the Seabees and his experience in the South Pacific as we continue our focus on World War II-era stories. (First aired on August 3, 2007, rebroadcast on March 14, 2008)

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William Russell on leave, 1944.

MULTIMEDIA:
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Music Credits: Movement Four from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G major, Edgar Meyer, Suites Performed on Double Bass, Sony Classical
   
 

About Florida Stories

   
 

Former Bucs quarterback Shaun King interviews his friend and financial adviser Malcolm Taaffe.

Florida Stories is a WUSF 89.7 segment featuring the personal memories of Floridians as they were shared with StoryCorps, the national oral history project co-sponsored by NPR and the Library of Congress. 

Each week, Florida Stories presents unique and compelling stories told by the people who lived them. These are stories of hope and inspiration, fear and triumph, laughter and tears - personal and intimate conversations with people just like you.

Listen to Florida Stories every Friday afternoon at 5:30 PM during
"All Things Considered" on WUSF 89.7, Your NPR Station.

   
 

About The Producer

   
 
Florida Stories producer Eric Jordan and his trusty DAW.

Florida Stories Producer
Eric Jordan

Eric Jordan joined the WUSF staff in August 2005. The StoryCorps mobile booth arrived in Sarasota in January 2006, and Eric realized the potential for an engaging series of conversations from these interviews. Florida Stories was born out of that initial recording project. Eric is now WUSF’s Production Manager, overseeing many aspects of audio recording at the radio station, assisting Operations Manager Dustin Hapli with broadcasts of live performances, and completing other projects originating from the FM operations department.
 
 
Learn more about StoryCorps
  StoryCorps and WUSF in Sarasota
  The History of StoryCorps: Recording America
  StoryCorps Website
  StoryCorps Information on NPR
  WUSF's StoryCorps project was featured in the St. Petersburg Times.