MERCEDES FAVATA: 1916-2004. The woman known as "No!No!" was friendly to all: courthouse visitors and new neighbors.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published May 28, 2004
YBOR CITY - Mercedes Favata was always a charming and outgoing woman, the kind who would start conversations with strangers in a checkout line.
So her nickname was something of an anomaly.
To family and friends, she was "No!No!" "She had a lot of nice things in her house," said her granddaughter Angela Weck. "So when her grandchildren were running around she'd wag her finger and say "No! No! No!'
"So everyone called her No!No!," Weck said. "Even my college roommates, when I called to tell them, I said that No!No! died. That's how everybody knew her."
Mrs. Favata was strict with her children and grandchildren and demanded that her children behave. But her devotion was always evident.
She died Sunday (May 23, 2004) at age 87.
Mrs. Favata worked hard all her life, but it wasn't until the 1970s that she found her ideal job. For more than a decade, she was the information receptionist at the Hillsborough County Courthouse. She retired in the 1980s.
"She was right there in the lobby, and that was in the days before the security entrances," said her son, Martin Favata, a professor of languages and linguistics at the University of Tampa. "She just loved talking to the people, the judges and the politicians and the regular people who came to the courthouse. It was the perfect job for her."
Mrs. Favata was often the first person visitors would meet when they came through the courthouse door. She was the one who told people how to get to a certain courtroom or where to go to register to vote.
Mrs. Favata was born Mercedes Gonzalez in West Tampa, the daughter of Spanish immigrants. She was a young girl when her family moved to Ybor City, and she lived in various homes in Ybor until 1991.
Like many girls of her day, she left high school before graduating and started working. Perhaps because she wasn't highly educated, she insisted her children concentrate on their studies.
She had a short marriage and mostly raised her children, Martin and Cecilia, on her own. Her truncated education meant that she never had high-paying jobs, but she still managed to put her children through Catholic schools.
"Education was always very important to her, and she took great pride that her son was a professor," Weck said. "She was always very devoted to her children, and she was so proud that her son had a Ph.D. and her daughter, my aunt, had a master's degree."
After her children were grown, and after she retired from the courthouse, Mrs. Favata continued to live in the Ybor home where she raised her family. For many years she shared the house with her mother, who died in 1991.
She was always an active woman, family members said. Even when she was in her 80s, she woke up at 6 a.m. every day. If she couldn't find anything to do, she'd call one of her relatives to chat.
"You didn't want to be on the other end of the phone when she was bored," Weck said with a laugh. "You'd be on the phone forever."
Advancing age didn't slow her down. In her later years, she traveled frequently, taking her grandchildren to Europe and touring the United States with friends.
After her mother died, Mrs. Favata moved to an apartment in South Tampa, where neighbors soon became friends and she continued her active lifestyle.
Eventually, Alzheimer's disease made Mrs. Favata give up her fast-paced life. A few years ago, she moved into a nursing home.
For her children and grandchildren, watching No!No! lose her abilities was painful.
"Here was someone who couldn't sit still for five minutes, and she was immobilized," her son said.
Mrs. Favata is survived by her children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
