Yes, Mrs. Santa Claus, it was 'extraordinary'

ST. PETERSBURG -- When Florine Lajeunesse came back to St. Petersburg last spring, she drove by her former home where "something extraordinary" happened each Christmastime.

For 18 years, she and her husband, Rene, dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus and waved greetings to thousands of people from the rooftop of their house on Coffee Pot Boulevard NE. People came on foot, in pickup trucks, cars, tour buses, motorcycles -- even stretch limousines -- in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Mrs. Lajeunesse, 88, died Tuesday (Aug. 20, 2002) in a Canadian nursing home.

Over the years, her home became the site of one of the area's biggest Christmas parties. Choirs sang from the front steps. Inside, Mrs. Lajeunesse prepared cookies, cake, turkey, sandwiches and hot drinks.

"It's cook, cook, cook to get ready for the visitors," she recalled in a 1985 interview.

From the beginning of December on their front yard, multicolored lights twinkled. Decorations sparkled. Mr. Lajeunesse even built a manger scene.

In 1987, health problems caused the jolly couple to cease the annual tradition. They moved to a house in the Tyrone area, then to a condominium in Gulfport. Rene Lajeunesse died in May 1992, and the couple's son, Pierre, died that October.

Last March, Mrs. Lajeunesse made a farewell tour of St. Petersburg, which she called "the most beautiful city in the world."

With a friend, she drove by her former home.

"Something extraordinary happened inside my house," she said.

Ill with cancer and heart problems, she spent her last days in a nursing home in Grandy, near Montreal, and her physician and family members urged her not to make the trip.

"Well," she said in a telephone interview at the time, "what I did was to put my name and what to do with me if I die in the plane.

"You know, when I arrived at (Tampa International Airport), I felt like the pope," she said through tears. "I threw myself on my knees and kissed the floor. I was so glad to be back in my St. Petersburg.

"I'm very happy to be in St. Petersburg for the last time," she said. "I will come back in my coffin next time."

C.E. Prevatt Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

-- Information from Times files was used in this obituary.

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