The two Tampa natives grew up with a close set of familial and educational ties that somehow kept them from meeting.
By AMY SCHERZER
Published June 18, 2004
VIRGINIA PARK - Kerry Fogarty heard about Stephen McGucken Jr. more times than she can remember. Their paths could have crossed dozens of times growing up in South Tampa, but they never did.
They might have met at the ballpark when they played for Bayshore Little League. They probably both went for ice cream afterward at the Old Meeting House.
During the summers, Stephen swam at the Tampa Yacht Club. Kerry was nearby showing her pony at yacht club horse shows.
He graduated from Jesuit in 1992. She finished Academy of the Holy Names a year later. Surely she saw him play defensive end at a Jesuit football game. He probably noticed her dancing at the Academy's Christmas formal.
Their mothers belonged to the Junior League. Their fathers were pirates in Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla.
But their kids never met.
He went off to the University of Florida for a bachelor's degree in political science and stayed for law school.
She headed to Florida State.
Relationships with others kept them occupied.
New Orleans was their favorite escape, especially a during the two-week Jazz and Heritage Festival. They just went on different weekends.
Cooter Brown's was their bar; Frankie and Johnny's was their place for crawfish.
They timed their trips to hear their favorite Southern rock band, Widespread Panic. Both have seen them in concert at least 100 times. They even stayed with a mutual Tampa friend, Sergio Mordini, who was attending Tulane University.
"Everyone stayed with Sergio," Kerry said. "He had an open door policy."
They just missed each other for six or seven years, Stephen said.
Sugar Bowl?
"I was there," she said.
"So was I," he said.
Mardi Gras?
Of course.
More near hits.
Convergence finally arrived in October 2000 after hearing Widespread Panic rock the University of New Orleans Lakefront Arena. Both met up with Mordini and a gang of friends from Tampa.
Afterward, Kerry called one of them for post-concert plans. Stephen answered the phone.
"Instant attraction," he said. "We met up after the concert and hung out all night."
"I knew instantly. This was it," she said.
Stephen returned to Gainesville. Kerry went back to Tampa where she was living at home with her mom, Chuck Fogarty.
He called from Gainesville to ask her out. They went to Clearwater Beach the next weekend.
"It felt like we'd known each other forever," said Stephen, 29, a commercial Realtor with Prudential CRES Florida. "They say opposites attract. Well, we're two likes that attracted," said Kerry, 29, who is earning a master's degree in history at the University of South Florida while working at ATC Associates, an environmental consulting firm.
Stephen knew he had to propose in New Orleans. Last year's Jazz Festival was the perfect time.
They arrived too early to check into the hotel. "C'mon, just leave the bags in the car," she said.
Not a chance, Stephen thought. The engagement ring was packed in one of those bags.
That night, when Widespread Panic played Papa Johnny's Road >, he screamed in her ear: "I WANT YOU TO BE MY WIFE."
"WHAT," she mouthed?
He flipped open the jewelry box.
"YES!!!," she shouted as loud as she could.
They married April 24 on Clearwater Beach at Carlouel Yacht Club. The bride wore flip-flops with heels. Bridesmaids went barefoot.
Two family friends walked the bride down the aisle. Her mother's significant other, Bill Tyre, and her late father's law school friend, Harley Riedel.
Riedel spoke for everyone when he said how proud her father, Michael Fogarty, would be. Kerry was 19 when her dad, former Tampa city attorney Michael Fogarty, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1994 at age 43. He died of pneumonia six months later.
At the reception, the band Full Circle dedicated Brown-Eyed Girl to him. Several of the band members knew Fogarty.
Guests left with a favor from New Orleans: Aunt Sally's pralines.
Not surprisingly, Mr. and Mrs. McGucken, who live in Virginia Park, began their honeymoon at the jazz festival in New Orleans. Then it was on to Virgin Gorda for a week.
- To pass along tips to Amy Scherzer, reach her at 226-3332 or scherzer@sptimes.com
