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Archived Stories

 
Jan. to March, 2008 Oct. to Dec., 2007 July to Sept., 2007 April to June, 2007
Jan. to March, 2007 Oct. to Dec., 2006 July to Sept., 2006 April to June, 2006
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Past Florida Stories

 
Delano Stewart and Arthenia Joyner

Delano Stewart
and Arthenia Joyner

Delano Stewart and Arthenia Joyner
Law partners Delano Stewart and Arthenia Joyner relate the good times (successes in the courtroom) and the bad (racism inside and outside the judiciary) as their persistent pioneering spirits earned them many “firsts’’ in Tampa’s struggle to become an integrated community at home and at work. Arthenia now represents Tampa in the Florida Legislature.
Audio iconListen now. (First aired on April 7th, 2006, rebroadcast on March 30, 2007)

Music credits: Why Can’t We Live Together by Joan Osborne, How Sweet It Is,
Compendia Media Group.

   
 
Lawrason Clement and John Clement

Lawrason Clement and John Clement

Lawrason Clement and John Clement
“It takes about 13 facial muscles to smile and about 87 to frown’’ says 83-year-old John Clement. Laughter and good humor connect the generations of the Clement family. Daughter Lawrason Clement brings out her father’s best stories as they chuckle through decades of family lore, including the time his infant great grandmother “disappeared,’’ only to be returned safely by a baboon, the trip that persuaded his father to buy him a Shetland pony and the honor of rubbing elbows with famous politicians and important leaders. 
Audio iconListen now. (First aired on June 9th, 2006, rebroadcast on March 23, 2007)

Music credits: Magnolia by Jon Brion, Magnolia: original motion picture soundtrack,
Reprise Records
   
 

Carrie Wharton and Robert D. “Bob’’ Carter

Carrie Wharton and Robert D. “Bob’’ Carter
Listen to the story of a grapefruit tree that survived a beating from hammers and nails wielded by Bob Carter’s sons - who enthusiastically built a treehouse meant to last an eternity, but jeopardized the life of the tree. Carter shares the tale with his daughter, Carrie Wharton, as the two reminisce about family life.

Audio iconListen now. (First aired October 20, 2006, rebroadcast on March 16, 2007)

Music credits: Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Deja Vu, Atlantic Recording

   
 

Magda Santos and Afsaneh Noori

Magda Santos and Afsaneh Noori
Afsaneh Noori of Tampa tells her best friend, Magda Santos, about the trials and tribulations she faced as an Iranian immigrant coming to America. Thirty years later, Noori now flourishes in Tampa as a motivational speaker and consultant. Santos, a native of the Bronx, is the program director at USF's Preschool for Creative Learning. Both women can't imagine life without the other.

Audio iconListen now
(First aired February 10, 2006, rebroadcast on March 9, 2007)

Music credits: Only You by Portishead, Portishead, GO! Beat/London Recordings
   
 
Dr. Sylvia Campbell and Jeanne Hardin-Gres

Dr. Sylvia Campbell and
Jeanne Hardin-Gres

Dr. Sylvia Campbell and Jeanne Hardin-Gres
Dr. Sylvia Campbell, dubbed “Saint Sylvia'' by friends and admirers, is a general surgeon at St. Joseph's Hospital. She donates thousands of hours in service to charitable causes and perhaps is best known for her tireless service to the working poor who visit the Judeo-Christian Health Clinic in Tampa. She also leads medical mission trips to Haiti and Uganda, carrying thousands of pounds of donated supplies and performing routine as well as extraordinary surgeries on people who otherwise wouldn't survive. Jeanne Hardin-Gres, an Army reservist often called into active duty in recent years, is the nurse anesthetist who accompanies Sylvia to Haiti. Both recently returned from a pilgrimage to do similar volunteer work in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.
Audio iconListen now. (First aired on February 17th, 2006, rebroadcast on March 2, 2007)

Music credits: February Sea by George Winston, Winter Into Spring, Windham Hill Records

   
 
Kristie and Myron Thomas

Kristie and
Myron Thomas

Kristie and Myron Thomas
Myron describes seeing Kristie for the first time as a disc jockey during the disco era, and thinking that she was so beautiful that she “was out of my league.’’ But their shared love for the popular dances of the mid-1970s soon brought them together again. The Bradenton couple married three months later, and today enjoy a mutual affection for the beaches, arts and culture of West Central Florida after almost 30 years of rarely being apart. Audio icon Listen now. (First aired on July 7, 2006, rebroadcast on February 23, 2007)

Music credits:
The Hustle by Van McCoy, The Hustle And The Best Of Van McCoy, Amherst Records
Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel by Tavares, Tavares: Anthology, from T.K. Records
(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty by KC And The Sunshine Band, The Best Of KC And The Sunshine Band, T.K. Records
Turn the Beat Around by Gerald Jackson/Pete Jackson; Never Gonna Let You Go,
RCA Records
Love’s Theme by Barry White, Rhapsody In White, UMG Recordings
Upside Down by Bernard Edwards/Nile Rogers, Diana Ross: The Motown Anthology, Motown Record Company
Dancing Queen by Abba, Abba Gold – Greatest Hits, UMG Recordings
 
 
Arthur and Patricia Bastille

Arthur and Patricia Bastille

Arthur and Patricia Bastille

The Tampa couple recount an eerie yet amusing tale that connects her father’s holy reverence for collecting human body parts for research with her mother’s awkward experience coping with a flat tire on the New Jersey Turnpike. Audio icon Listen now.

(First aired September 8, 2006, rebroadcast February 16, 2007)

Music credits: She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby, The Golden Age Of Wireless, Capitol Records
   
 

Ernest C. Simmons
and Joe Mercurio

Ernest C. Simmons and Joe Mercurio
Florida wildlife artist Ernest C. Simmons talks with his fishing buddy, Joe Mercurio, about his obsession for detail and technique in painting Florida birds and outdoor scenery. The Dunedin resident and gallery owner depicts blue herons, anhingas, pelicans and common seabirds like no one else in the world. Some compare his work to that of John James Audubon.

Audio icon Listen now. (First aired on February 24, 2006, rebroadcast February 9, 2007)

Music credits: Run Through the Jungle by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Chronicle, vol. 1, Fantasy Records
   
 
Shaun King and Malcolm Taafee

Malcolm Taaffe and Shaun King

Malcolm Taaffe and Shaun King
Former Bucs quarterback Shaun King of St. Petersburg and good friend Malcolm Taaffe of the Bronx, N.Y., talk about the importance of families spending time together, and the significant role that parents play as role models and disciplinarians in the raising of children.

Audio icon Listen now.
(First aired on August 11th, 2006, rebroadcast February 2, 2007)


Music Credits: Shotgun by Junior Walker & The All Stars, Shotgun, UMG Recordings

   
 
Scott Nolan and his mother Marilyn

Scott Nolan and
Marilyn Nolan

Scott Nolan and Marilyn Nolan
WUSF's Scott Nolan interviews his mother, Marilyn, about his sister, Renee. Renee died from complications of a brain tumor that developed when she was a college student. Celebrate Renee's life and learn how much joy she brought to her family and friends. The story was captured during StoryCorps' visit to Florida in January 2006.

Audio icon Listen now.



(
First Aired Jan. 20th, 2006, rebroadcast January 26, 2007)

Music credits: Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles, Abbey Road, Capitol Records
   
 
Schoenwether

Paula Schoenwether
and Nancy Wilson

Paula Schoenwether and Nancy Wilson
Paula Schoenweather, an artist and photographer, and the Rev. Nancy Wilson, moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches, talk openly about their 28-year-old civil union as partners in all aspects of life --- living as a married couple, taking out a mortgage, blending families, caring for children, sharing debt - elements of a long-term relationship not always recognized as a legal arrangement. “The older we’ve gotten, the more in some ways we’ve peeled away our own internalized issues.’
Audio icon Listen now.
(First aired June 16, 2006, rebroadcast January 19, 2007)

Music credits: Wicked Little Town by Ben Jelen, Give It All Away, Maverick Recording Co.

   
 
Eva Frank and Lynne Brolly

Eva Frank
and Lynne Brolly

Eva Frank and Lynne Brolly
Eva Frank shares memories of being young, Jewish and scared in Hungary following the outbreak of World War II. Among her tales as told to 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.
Audio icon Listen now.



(First aired March 17, 2006, rebroadcast January 12, 2007)

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

   
 

Cherie Johnson and
James Ransom

James Ransom and Cherie Johnson
Cousins James Ransom and Cherie Johnson are third-generation Floridians from a large, extended family that settled in Tampa, Bradenton, New Smyrna Beach and Daytona Beach. Each generation has served in the community as volunteers and community activists beyond their varied professions of farmers, tailors, insurance salesmen and running a variety of businesses. James' mother, HalliqueRogers, a much loved dental hygienist, taught her children to be community-oriented  “people servants.''  “It's part of our genetic strain,'' says James.

Audio icon Listen now.
(First Aired January 27, 2006, rebroadcast January 5, 2007)

Music credits: Testifyin' by Benny Green, Who It Is You Are, Savoy Records
   
 
Learn more about StoryCorps
  StoryCorps and WUSF in Sarasota
The History of StoryCorps: Recording America
  StoryCorps Information on NPR
  StoryCorps Website