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ZEPHYRHILLS - Zephyrhills Municipal Airport, of all places, is the local hot spot lately for celebrity sightings.
A week after former President George Bush came to town for a speaking engagement at Saddlebrook Resort, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas flew in and was whisked away in a limousine.
Ann Wightman, an administrative assistant at the airport, said the plane landed about 12:40 p.m. Tuesday afternoon carrying Thomas and two other people. The plane, a Gulfstream 4 bearing a large Miami Dolphins logo on the tail, arrived from Fort Lauderdale, where Thomas had done a question-and-answer session in the morning at Nova Southeastern University. The event was part of a lecture series at the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, named for the Dolphins owner.
Randy Pohlman, the school's dean, said Thomas spoke about his own background and views, court procedures and how cases are handled.
Thomas' arrival in Zephyrhills brought none of the fanfare of the former president's visit, which involved scores of police and sheriff's deputies and a motorcade.
"It was quite uneventful," Wightman said.
No details were available late Tuesday about what Thomas was doing in the Tampa Bay area. A spokesman for the Supreme Court said the justices' schedules are not routinely released.
Wightman said the U.S. Marshal's office called the airport last week to notify them of Thomas' visit but didn't say why he was coming to town.
But Wightman did note that Thomas' mode of transport was a cut above the former president's. She described the Gulfstream 4 as "a big, pretty airplane.
"It was actually bigger than Bush's," she said.