Folk artist dies at 65

Taft Richardson Jr., a Tampa folk artist, teacher and community leader famous for his elaborate, biblically inspired bone sculptures, died Sunday after a battle with prostate cancer, his family said. He was 65.

"He felt strongly about children and making the community better, teaching wisdom and letting children have something to do to broaden their life experience," said former daughter-in-law Jacquelyn Green.

Mr. Richardson, a longtime vegetarian, first realized his artistic calling as a young man, when he envisioned a giraffe in a plate of rib bones. He spent the rest of his life collecting animal bones, which he melded with a mix of crushed bone and glue. He devoted his life to teaching children to paint, sculpt and grow plants. Neighborhood kids painted colorful designs on the walls of his home, which many referred to as the Garden of Eden.

"If the child can walk, he can dance,'' Mr. Richardson told the St. Petersburg Times in 2006. "If he can color with a crayon, he can paint. ... It's a struggle, man, from the womb to the tomb. We have to take care of our children.''

Read a 2006 profile of Mr. Richardson by Jeff Klinkenberg here.

Stephanie Hayes, Times Staff Writer. Photo by Times photographer Joseph Garnett Jr.

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Belleview Biltmore pioneer Bernie Powell dies

Bernie Powell, philanthropist and former owner of the Belleview Biltmore, died Thursday. He was 96.

Mr. Powell was born in Detroit, where he graduated from law school at age 22. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court, and he had his own law firm. In 1946, he and a partner bought the run-down hotel, restoring it to greatness over 44 years. "There is something about that hotel that has charm," he told the St. Petersburg Times is 2005. "I felt it right away."

In 1990, he sold the hotel for $27.5-million and devoted his life to philanthropy. He gave millions to charities including Morton Plant Hospital, establishing a cancer center in his late daughter's name. Christy Powell Higgins died of breast cancer in 1981.

Stephanie Hayes, Times Staff Writer

Times Photo: Ted McLaren, 2005

Second suspect arrested in Hernando double murder

BROOKSVILLE - Three months after authorities arrested a Tampa man in connection with the brutal slaying of an elderly Hernando County couple in 2006, sheriff's officials on Friday announced the arrest of a second suspect in the case.

Robert William Jardin (left), 33, of Brooksville was arrested by the Hernando County Sheriff's Office on Friday morning on two counts of murder and one count of burglary of a structure. He was being held at the Hernando County jail.

The arrest report gives this account: Detectives late last month were working on information that Jardin may have been involved in the DePalma murders when they received a tip connecting Jardin to an unrelated case. While interviewing Jardin about the other case, they brought up the murders. Jardin initially denied knowing anything about Patrick and Evelyn DePalma, who were stabbed to death in their home in remote Masaryktown.

On Thursday, detectives searched the home of a Brooksville man who was allowing Jardin to live in a motor home at his property at 6498 Zagnut Lane. While seaching the home and the motor home, authorities found several items that serial numbers confirmed had been stolen from the DePalmas' home. A further search of Jardin's 1989 Chevy pickup truck found the DePalmas' car keys and other stolen items.

Detectives interviewed Jardin again and this time he admitted that he was at the DePalmas' home at 333 Korbus Road when the couple was slain on Oct. 29, 2006 and that he had watched two other people remove stolen items from the home. He also acknowledged that he saw the two victims lying dead in a hallway. Jardin also proved details of the crime scene that had not been made public, detectives said, including the kind of weapon that had been used in the killings.

In April, deputies arrested David Alexander Bostick, 18, a distant relative of the DePalmas, on two charges of first-degree murder. Bostick told authorities that he was with two other men at the DePalmas' home and that he left to get a phone from a car. When he returned, the DePalmas were dead and one of the men was yelling at the other about controlling his temper.

Bostick said he helped the men remove items from the house, including a vacuum cleaner and a stereo. Among the items discovered at the Zagnut Lane homes on Thursday were a Bissell vacuum cleaner and an RCA stereo system.

- Times editor

Police, medical examiner rule 'D.C. Madam's' death a suicide

The scene last week outside the mobile home where Deborah Palfrey, known as the "D.C. Madam," hanged herself in a storage shed under the carport of her mother's Tarpon Springs home. The mobile home was tucked in the back of the Sun Valley Estates mobile home park. [JIM DAMASKE | Times]

TARPON SPRINGS -- Last week's death of 52-year-old Deborah Jean Palfrey -- the woman known as the 'D.C. Madam' -- has been ruled a suicide by the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiners Office, police said today.

Police said they had no reason to believe that Palfrey's death on Thursday was anything but a suicide. Palfrey's body was discovered hanging in a shed beside the home of her mother, Blanche Palfrey, in the Sun Valley Estates mobile home park on U.S. 19.

In suicide notes released by police this morning, Palfrey told her family she regretted leaving them to deal with her death, but was unable to face prison and saw no other way out. She also left a short note saying she was not to be revived or, if found alive, fed under any circumstances.

Former Times obituary writer Craig Basse dead at 77

Craig Basse, editor and obituary writer at the St. Petersburg Times for more than  three decades, died Tuesday at St. Anthony’s Hospital after a battle with several cancers. He was 77.

Mr. Basse was born in Tennessee and was editor of his college newspaper at the University of Arkansas. He spent 17 years as an editor with the Associated Press before joining the Times in 1972.

He was known for his quiet demeanor, his dedication and old-fashioned journalism values. Colleagues said Mr. Basse was able to pull details from several reporters and weave them into a clear story on deadline.

As obituary editor, he edited the Times' daily funeral announcements and wrote story obituaries numbering in the thousands on subjects notable and obscure.

"He was the consummate professional, steady and unflappable" said Paul Tash, chairman, CEO and editor of the St. Petersburg Times. "He honored the humanity of countless people with dedication to the record of their lives. But I suspect he would find his own passing unremarkable."

Services will be private.

Stephanie Hayes, Times staff writer

Barnes scholar Emily Lester dies at 18

Emily Lester, recipient of a 2008 St. Petersburg Times Barnes Scholarship, died early Saturday morning. She was 18.

A two-time cancer survivor, Emily was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2001. Then a sixth grader and captain of her school soccer team, Emily noticed herself becoming tired.

“I had lost that spark, the love of the game, a drive that had usually led our team to victory,” she wrote in her application for the Barnes Scholarship.

The diagnosis, she wrote, “was like a giant boulder plunging into the calm waters of my existence. Suddenly, I was soaked by a splash of fear and uncertainty.”

She went into remission after chemotherapy and entered St. Petersburg High as a freshman in the International Baccalaureate program. But the next year, she relapsed. Her younger sister, Catherine, donated bone marrow to her sister in 2006, and Emily enrolled in classes at Seminole High.

In January, she relapsed again. She was being treated at St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, searching for a new marrow donor.

Emily, of Largo, loved Harry Potter books and wanted to visit Africa and Europe. She planned to major in journalism and pre medicine at Duke University, where she had been accepted. She dreamed of becoming a pediatric oncologist — journalism training, she said, would give her the tools to accurately and succinctly deliver information.

She was ranked fifth in her high school class and had a 3.89 unweighted grade point average. She belonged to the National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta math club, Key Club, and Interact Club.

She spent her time volunteering for the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and St. Jude’s Hospital. As a team leader for Relay for Life, Emily and her “Chemo Crew” raised more than $40,000 in six years. She also helped organize the Bay to Bay Bone Marrow Drive, bringing more than 200 people to the bone marrow registry.

In February, while at St. Jude’s, she learned the St. Petersburg Times had awarded her a Barnes Scholarship. Established in 1999 and named in honor of former Times chairman and CEO Andrew Barnes, the scholarships are given to high achieving high school seniors who have overcome obstacles. They are worth up to $60,000 over four years at an accredited U.S. college or university.

Emily told the Times that she was more determined than ever to overcome her disease. And despite it all, in her application, she wrote, “I believe my life has played out the way God intended.”

- Stephanie Hayes, Times staff writer

WWI veteran Harry Landis dies

Harry Landis, one of the last surviving U.S. World War I veterans, died Monday in Sun City Center. He was 108.

Although both of his parents died in their 70s, Mr. Landis stayed healthy his whole life -- eye drops were his only medication. About four weeks ago, he developed a fever and didn't recover, said his caretaker, Donna Riley.

He was born on Dec. 12, 1899. He enlisted in October 1918 because the government was drafting. A month later, the war was over.

"He didn’t think it was a big deal, him being a World War I survivor," Riley said. "But when I would tell him, 'You're in the paper again,' you could tell he liked it."

About 4.7-million Americans served during World War I. In April, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs listed three known veterans: Landis; Frank Buckles, 107, of Charles Town, W.Va.; and J. Russell Coffey of North Baltimore, Ohio. Mr. Coffey died in December at 109, according to an obituary in the Washington Post.

Sign guestbook

Previous coverage: And then there were three (April 12, 2007)

- Stephanie Hayes, Times staff writer

James H. "Jim" Shimberg Sr. dies at 84

TAMPA -- Pioneer developer James H. "Jim" Shimberg Sr., best known for building Town 'N Country and University Community Hospital, died of lung cancer Friday (June 15, 2007). He was 84.

Mr. Shimberg was born in Syracuse, N.Y., and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant. After the war he attended the University of Chicago Law School where he received his law degree in 1949 and practiced law in New York until 1958.

It was in 1958 when Mr. Shimberg moved to Tampa with his wife Amy, and became one of the area's major developers. With his brother, Hinks Shimberg, he developed much of the Town 'N Country area, as well as numerous homes throughout the Bay area.

A celebration of James H. Shimberg Sr.’s life will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, June 18, at Congregation Schaarai Zedek, 3303 Swann Ave. in Tampa, with Rabbi Richard Birnholz officiating.