Junior League marks a moment in history

Aweekend of anniversary celebrations began Friday evening as members and friends crowded the St. Petersburg Museum of History to acknowledge the Junior League, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary in St. Petersburg and its centennial in the United States.

Two displays -- one chronicling the Sunshine City league's accomplishments, the other a traveling exhibit commemorating 100 years of service in the United States -- will be open through April 1.

The organization's focus is volunteerism, and it is impossible to imagine living here without the initiatives the league has begun or staunchly supported throughout the years.

Among them are the Florida Orchestra, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Arts Center, American Stage, the Palladium, the Center Against Spouse Abuse, Great Explorations, All Children's Hospital, the St. Petersburg Public Library, the Pinellas Association for Retarded Citizens, the Science Center and WEDU-TV.

Many of those who attended are familiar volunteers throughout the community. Here is but a sampling: Peg Wilson, Mary Christian, Madge McFall, Mary Ellen and Tom Shevlin, Joanne and Joe Fleece, Dorothy Seiter, Jan Herzik, Bebe Chandler, Linda Berset, Elaine Hearn, Mary Joan Mann, Margaret Bowman, Susan Wallace, Malinda Larson Hill, Jacqueline Cotman, Bette and Hugh Smith, Jan Boxer and Melody Stang.

Judy Stanton and Mary Wyatt Allen were among a dozen or so former JLSP presidents recognized at the history museum. Afterward, they stopped at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg for the unveiling of The Persistence of Memory (1931), on loan from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, along with The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952-54), which is in the Dali's permanent collection.

As you doubtless have read elsewhere, the two paintings are now exhibited together for the first time as the Dali museum celebrates its 20th anniversary. Both are small in size but represent an enormous achievement for the St. Petersburg venue, which which was founded by A. Reynolds and Eleanor R. Morse.

Friday's cocktail party, presented by the museum's Zodiac Group, honored the artist's surrealism in costumes and decor.

Above the door leading into the galleries, red balloons formed the mouth and white balloons the teeth of a re-creation of Dali's "Ruby Lips" brooch. Balloon ants and flies were on display in other areas, and gummy worms slithered benignly on hors d'oeuvre tables.

Spoons filled with pipings of sour cream and hard-boiled egg, then topped with caviar were an especially artistic presentation of appetizers by Orange Blossom Catering.

Chris Allen is chairman of the Zodiac group and Perry Iannaconi dressed the mannequin homages to Dali works. Bill and Jane Emerson wore festive masks. Also in the crowd were Bill and Hazel Hough, Susan Glickman, Dan and Harriet Harvey, Chuck Lamar, Jack and Mary Critchfield, Jim and Suzanne MacDougald and Mike Chasar.

Museum director Marshall Rousseau gave a luncheon at Mattison's on Saturday for members of the original steering committee who planned the museum's elaborate opening in 1982.

Royce Haiman reports that Rebecca Bishop flew in from her home in Tryon, N.C., for the occasion, joining Ron Mason and Martha Wallace. Betsy Anderson Little, who now lives in Virginia, was unable to work out flights to get to St. Petersburg and back to Charlotte for big games at the Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball tournament. Founders and board members Jim Lang, Jim Martin and Katharine Ann Lake and Eleanor Morse were in the group as well, helping remember the museum's conception.

At Saturday night's anniversary dinner, hosted by Northern Trust and served in the galleries, the inaugural Morse Award, sponsored by Tiffany & Co., went to Rousseau, who plans to retire in July. Hank Hine, most recently director of Graphicstudio at the University of South Florida, will succeed him.

Tina Douglass, co-chairwoman of the anniversary committee along with Karol K. Bullard and Eleanor Morse, had a Maalox moment late Saturday afternoon, hearing of tremendous traffic backups on the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Michael's on East, principal caterer for the evening, is in Sarasota.

My sources tell me that all ended well, with patrons enjoying hors d'oeuvres, dinner and a Dali-esque dessert that featured a pocketwatch crafted of white chocolate.

Across the bayway at Isla Del Sol Yacht and Country Club, students from John Hopkins Middle School, dressed as movie stars, greeted guests at "Lights! Camera! Auction!" It was the fifth annual Tables From Film benefit for Great Explorations, the Hands On Museum.

This was a mix-and-mingle crowd enjoying such a high degree of camaraderie that members of the Great Explorations guild who put together the fundraiser occasionally steered guests away from their clusters of friends and toward the silent auction tables.

There was much on which to bid, with items chosen to complement movie themes such as The Princess Diaries, 007, The Rookie, Cocktail, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, even Beach Blanket Bingo. A charming puppetry theater available at The Sound of Music table was designed by Breck Moorefield, who said she enlisted construction help from friends and family, including her father, Hayden Knowlton.

The guild honored David Brett, president of Southeast Cos., and Shawn Ulrich, public affairs director at Clear Channel Outdoor, who were instrumental in establishing Great Explorations in 1986. Both are members of the board of trustees.

Seen in the crowd were Alice Thompson, Robin and Bill Serne, Mickie Breen, Kristen Brett, Scott and Lee Silbert Burgess, Janet and Allen Allweiss, Murray and Doug Beairsto, and Terry and Kanika Jelks Tomalin, with her mother, Yvonne Jelks, and an aunt, Carrie Johnson, visiting from New York City. The museum expects to move to Sunken Gardens from its current home at the Pier this summer.

-- Mary Jane Park can be reached at (727) 893-8267; fax (727) 893-8675; e-mail park@sptimes.com; P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.

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