The year gone by: In Memoriam

A fond remembrance of those members of the Tampa Bay arts community we lost in 2022

Ron Bobb-Semple

Ron Bobb-Semple, Jan. 13. A native of Georgetown, Guyana, Bobb-Semple moved to the bay area in 2005 and acted in four August Wilson plays at American Stage — Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney and Seven Guitars. He directed A Raisin in the Sun and others at Stageworks, and – most memorably – delivered a powerful, self-penned one-man show about Black nationalist Marcus Garvey. “I loved him so, so much,” says Stageworks’ artistic director Karla Hartley. “Any time I’d see him, or when I saw his name in my phone, it just made me smile. He had an infectious laugh. He was one of the good ones.” He was 69.

Hugh Boyd, Jan. 26. Anyone who stepped on board the HMS Bounty, the replica 18^th century sailing ship docked at the St. Pete Pier between the 1960s and ‘80s, heard Hugh Boyd’s voice – “Well, ha-ha, hello there mates. Welcome to the Bounty. Say, have you noticed a special kind of flavor in the air since you came? Why it’s oakum, tar, black spruce, oak, pine and manila … yes, and even old sweat …” Boyd, from Nova Scotia, was not only the manager of the Bounty attraction, he was ship’s captain, a seasoned sailor who’d signed on when MGM and Marlon Brando took the then-new vessel to Tahiti in 1960 to film Mutiny on the Bounty. When the Bounty, a working ship, left St. Pete for anywhere, he was the man in charge. And he raised a family in St. Petersburg. He was 86.

Joe Parra

Joseph Parra, March 4. Parra was a longtime actor who’d worked in the professional houses on both sides of the bay. “He was one of the kindest souls you’d ever meet,” actress Colleen Cherry wrote on Parra’s Facebook tribute page, “and lit up every room he walked into, never holding back his joy and enthusiasm for whatever theatrical experience he shared with you onstage, or as everyone’s biggest fan in the audience, or cracking jokes in the audition room.” Later in life Parra transitioned into a reviewer, attending and writing about (nearly) every produced show with a combination of wit, whimsy and wisdom. He was 68.

Dirk Armstrong, April 14. An art curator and preparator who worked at the Salvador Dali Museum for nearly 30 years, and became an expert on the Surrealist artist, he also worked at the Tampa Museum of Art. Said his sister Sharon Armstrong Bailey on Facebook, “He was a passionate art expert, walking sci fi, movie and music encyclopedia, avid reader, world traveler, the life of the party, soooo drily funny, and was deeply loved by many. He was entirely his own person.” He was 55.

Jimmy Breen

Jimmy Breen, June 23. The multi-talented artist, muralist and graphic designer had an “inspirational” effect on other artists in his orbit, said fellow creative traveler Chad Mize. “Very professional. He was just prolific, and he also was a mentor to a lot of people.” Breen was a designer for Warner Music Group, and as such his work was known globally. But he had set his sights on something bigger, as he told Jenee Priebe in a 2021 Catalyst interview: “It’s really valuable to be an artist here. I think in another 10 years, to say you’ve been an artist in St. Pete is going to mean something to people all over the country. Maybe the world.” He was 37.

Georgiadis teaches Martin Milner about hose-breathing, 1963.

Bonnie Georgiades, July 19. As a 17-year-old high schooler from Tarpon Springs, Bonnie Jean Staley Georgiades took her first deep breath as a “mermaid” at the Weeki Wachee Springs attraction. The year was 1953; she spent the next 15 years doing three-times-daily underwater performances, then became the park’s choreographer, and when she retired (after 37 years) she was in charge of the birds of prey in the attraction’s live animal section. She was waterbound when a famous episode of TV’s Route 66 was filmed at Weeki Wachee in 1963. “I was asked to train Diane Baker and Marty Milner to do their underwater parts, how to hose-breathe, and how to clear their ears if they didn’t already know – and they didn’t,” Georgiades says in the book Vintage St. Pete Volume II. She was 86.

Patrick Brafford, Aug. 8. The native Missourian, who moved to the bay area from New York in 2015, had an extensive professional history as a writer, producer and director. His “retirement” to Florida including serving as a member-judge for Theatre Tampa Bay (TTB), and working on a series of shows with the Gulfport Community Players. Brafford also directed for Early Bird Dinner Theatre. “He was a real New York, professional theater guy,” said TTB director Kim Rosenthal. “So that really brought a pointed edge to the judging panel that we’re going to miss. Because he was the only one on the panel who brought that level of professionalism from New York City.” He was 73.

Tom Kramer

Tom Kramer, Aug. 11. A professional Detroit photographer whose wife Paula was a working dancer and choreographer, Kramer always said he got pressed into becoming a dance photographer out of necessity, “and then I got good at it.” Indeed, said St. Pete dancer (and close friend of Tom and Paula) Helen Hansen French: “Tom was a perfect photographer for dance because he saw not only the big virtuosic movements, but more importantly he saw the little details, the essence of movement. He knew how to capture vulnerability.” He was 87.

The Glories 

Frankie Gearing, Sept. 12. A St. Pete resident since the age of 10, Frances Yvonne Gearing won a singing contest at the Royal Theatre, saw everyone from Little Richard to B.B. King at the Manhattan Casino, and got as close to the brass ring – record stardom – as anyone from the city ever did. From the late ‘60s through the mid ‘70s, she was the powerhouse voice in the trio the Glories, renamed Quiet Elegance after Temptations Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin became their managers. The trio toured as Al Green’s opening act, and appeared onstage as his backup singers. The Quiet Elegance single “You’ve Got My Mind Messed Up” peaked at No. 54 on Billboard‘s R&B singles chart in 1973. Gearing returned to St. Petersburg in the 1980s and raised a family. She was 77.

Janice James, Oct. 2. A prodigiously talented watercolor artist, James lived in St. Petersburg for more than 40 years, where her depictions of local landscapes and landmarks found their way onto note cards and into books, and “retired” to Hillsborough County’s Sun City Center in 2004. A member of the Florida Watercolor Society, a member of the Stuart Society/Museum of Fine Arts, the Morean Art Center in St. Petersburg, the Art Club of Sun City Center, and the Phoenix Art Group. She was 96.

Marshall Rousseau, Oct. 12. A patron of the arts in every sense of the phrase, Rousseau was Executive Director of the Dali Museum from 1991 to 2001, with a long list of accomplishments, including leading it through its initial first accreditation and facilitating the museum’s first loans of art. He was, before that, executive director of The Florida Orchestra, and post-Dali became a professor of museum studies at Eckerd College. He was 89.

Kai Warren

Kai Warren, Oct. 19. Among other things, he was actively involved in the restoration and preservation of the historic Roser Park neighborhood. Wrote former mayor Rick Kriseman: “Kai Warren was a super citizen in St. Pete, a neighborhood leader, longtime preservationist, volunteer, member of our pier selection committee (look for his name engraved there), and friend. I was thankful for his support throughout the years. My condolences to all who loved him.” He was 69.

Gallagher, Nov. 11. The nationally-known comedian was famous in his 1980s heyday for his outrageous stage shows, which (in the beginning) were done on roller skates. He was a prop comic, and his big finale was the Sledge-O-Matic, an oversized hammer with which he’d pummel and splinter everything from walnuts to watermelons. In his later years he’d throw candy into the audience in between bouts of flinging pulverized fruits and vegetables at them. Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr. graduated from Tampa’s Plant High School, and from the University of South Florida, and got into fulltime showbiz as the road manager, and onstage foil, for Winter Haven’s guitar-playing comedian Jim Stafford. He was 76.

Carl Fuerstman

Carl Fuerstman, Nov. 15. The consummate piano bar entertainer, the North Carolina native had been a St. Petersburg fixture since his arrival in 1983 (before that, he’d been a rock ‘n’ roll player). Fuerstman had an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music. In a 2013 Tampa Bay Times profile, he was asked for sage advice: “Stay on the train,” Fuerstman said. “When you’re on the train, you can’t see how fast you’re going. When you get off, you can see in three seconds how fast you’re going. You pat yourself on the back but then the train is gone. Stay on the train. Don’t worry about the accolades, they’ll come.” He was 67.

Scott Dempster, Nov. 20. One of the bay area’s most prolific rock ‘n’ roll bass players, he spent most of the 1980s and a good bit of the ‘90s handling the bottom end for the punky, spunky Headlights, and following that in a succession of well-liked groups. “Scott was the kind of guy who loved his old friends and loved playing rock music,” says keyboardist Brad Trumbull, who’d known (and performed with) Dempster since they were teens – most recently in the tribute band Peace of Woodstock. “And he loved being a rock star and playing that part.” He was 67.

Scott Dempster

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