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On the Town

By MARY JANE PARK
Published March 18, 2007

03.10.07

Elegant in honor of Dali

It's hard to imagine St. Petersburg without the Salvador Dali Museum, but the elegant 25th anniversary commemoration dinner reminded patrons that one of the city's prime destinations has been in place only a short time.

Eleanor Morse and her late husband, Reynolds, were friends of the artist and his wife, Gala, from the 1940s to the 1980s and collected his work before establishing the museum.

Mrs. Morse was a bit under the weather and did not attend the gala, but the couple's son Brad, attending with his fiancee, Mary Ann Berens, received the Morse award from board of trustees president Tom James and committee on trustees chairwoman Karen Lang Johnston.

Numerous people have been pivotal in supporting the museum, but special mention should be made of Jim Martin, who read a Jan. 18, 1980, Wall Street Journal report that the Morses were having trouble finding a home for the museum. Why not St. Petersburg? the lawyer and civic leader asked.

Rick Dodge, then the city's leisure services director, also was a key laborer on the project, along with the late Paul Getting, then head of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce; George Firestone, then Florida secretary of state; and John Ware, then a state senator.

That June, the Morses announced that they had committed to move the collection here.

Gov. Charlie Crist was in town for the anniversary event, along with museum director Hank Hine, who presented birthday flowers to Mary James. Jamsheed Marker, Pakistan's ambassador at large, attended with his wife, Arnaz; the longtime public servant is diplomat in residence at Eckerd College. St. Petersburg's Mel and Betty Sembler were in the crowd; he is a former U.S. ambassador to Italy, Australia and Nauru.

Johnston and Karol K. Bullard were co-chairwomen for the gala.

03.10.07

A post-treatment cruise

To celebrate the completion of her chemotherapy treatment for brain cancer, St. Petersburg's Jan DeVega and her husband, Gerry, conducted a lunch cruise and silent auction aboard the Starlite Princess.

The three-hour event, for 140 friends and family members, raised $6,000 for research programs of the American Brain Tumor Association.

03.13.07

Simply beautiful work

He has created floral arrangements for U.S. presidents and British royalty and brides in the Tampa Bay area and beyond.

So it was a special treat to have internationally known floral designer Ian Prosser in town for La Dolce Vita, the 10th annual Art in Bloom luncheon presented by the Stuart Society to benefit the Museum of Fine Arts.

A Scotland native, he opened Botanica International Florist on Tampa's S MacDill Avenue in 1989.

Working on a platform in the ballroom of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, he made several opulent arrangements look simple as he discussed new trends, which include looser arrangements than the tight clusters of blossoms prevalent in recent years.

Several patrons' names were chosen to take home the huge bouquets.

Tina Douglass chaired the event.

Times researcher Mary Mellstrom contributed to this report.

[Last modified March 17, 2007, 20:21:34]