| From the Tampa Times, Jan. 6, 1923 [Via newspapers.com] |
| As I drove my daughter and her friends to school last Friday, they tied pirate bandanas to their outfits in honor of "dress like a pirate day." “I love living in a place where every year people dress up as pirates!” I declared. They mostly ignored me. Gasparilla, which started in 1904, is a Tampa tradition I love (even though I only ever go to the children’s parade the weekend before). It’s weird, like Florida, and has evolved from a segregated affair to one that reflects our community. “The all-male, all-white founders of Gasparilla bear little resemblance to today’s roster of more than 60 krewes that now include Latin, female and Black krewes and other ethnic, cultural and historical themes,” wrote the Tampa Bay Times’ Sharon Kennedy Wynne last week. I’m even OK with the fact that the history is pretty shaky (here’s a great read on the highlights and lowlights of the whole thing from Smithsonian Magazine). But did any real pirates leave a lasting mark on Tampa Bay the way Jose Gaspar did? That’s debatable. Oaklawn Cemetery in Tampa is full of history and contains the headstones of two men identified as pirates. In 2020, the Tampa Bay Times’ Christopher Spata went looking for their stories. He mostly just found more questions. But maybe? Spata speculates that “Mr. Hubbard, Cuban Pirate, found dead in the woods, June 18,1850” could actually have been a Kentuckian who joined a volunteer army to invade Cuba. Here’s what Spata discovered: Newspapers around the country labeled the Americans who invaded Cuba with euphemisms like “adventurers” and “expeditionists.” A few of the more critical writers called them “pirates.” A Cuban paper even described them as “sacking” a defenseless harbor in search of “pillage and booty.” Is the Mr. Hubbard buried in Oaklawn a Kentuckian who dropped dead in the woods outside Tampa after a clandestine invasion of Cuba? The theory has never been published before, but the dates match up, and it would explain how a so-called Cuban pirate got an English surname. His original tombstone had one additional line: A white man. Do you have a favorite tradition or bit of history from Tampa Bay? Reply to this email, I’d love to hear about it. |
| Here are some obituaries from the past week that I found in the obits section of the Tampa Bay Times, in the news and from local funeral homes. If you see any with great details, please share them.
• Deysi Miro, 80, of Tampa "retired from the Marriott Hotel after working in the hospitality industry for over 20 years. She made many friends along the way. She loved socializing, dancing, cooking, gardening, putting together puzzles and most of all, her little dog Rocco."
• Robert Clark, 85, of St. Petersburg "was born April 27, 1937, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida into a pioneering family that settled near the Everglades in the late 1800s."
• Henry Robinson of Tampa "was a self-employed Truck Driver for over 60 years and traveled the road and highways. The love for driving trucks carried over to his son, the late Henry Jr. and two of his Grandsons, Henry, and Dontae. Henry drove Big Rigs (tractor trailers) until he was 84 years old. Henry has mentored many aspiring truck drivers and befriended so many more. Cowboy boots, hat, blue jeans, button down shirt, hands in his pockets, that was Mr. Henry."
• Leonard Black, 95, of Tampa "joined the military where he proudly served his country for 25 years in the US Air Force and attained the highest enlisted rank of Chief Master Sergeant... In 1970 Leonard retired from the Air Force and moved to Tampa, Florida where he owned and operated the Fish'n'Chips restaurant for 30 years."
Thanks for reading, hug your people,
Kristen |
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