A free spirit, this mom made her own rules

By ANDREW MEACHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published October 9, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Jennifer Pinney died Tuesday, the result of cirrhosis of the liver and a fall, her son said.

"If you could be anything in the world, what would you be?" her high school yearbook asked.

"A giant," answered Jennifer Karr, who stood 5 feet tall and weighed 90 pounds.

The daughter of a prominent Michigan lawyer, Jennifer attended private schools and the Sorbonne in Paris. Family friends thought she would take after her two brothers, a physician and a lawyer.

But Jennifer Pinney would not be held down, as three husbands, including John Pinney, found out.

"A lot of the men probably fell in love with her and her free-spiritedness," said her son, Josh Pinney, 43, a Tampa police officer. "But I think after a while it wears on you, because you're not going to tame her."

Liquor and good times flowed freely through Ms. Pinney's life and may have shortened it.

She died Tuesday, the result of cirrhosis of the liver and a fall, her son said.

Only one man lasted for 40-plus years, but he was a free spirit, too, and they never married.

Ms. Pinney met Barney Ales, a protege of Berry Gordy and vice president of Motown Records, while working at a Detroit record store owned by her father.

But years after the husbands had come and gone, she continued a friendship with Ales, who is Josh Pinney's father.

Ms. Pinney moved to Tampa in 1969. She lived with two children and maintained the lifestyle of single mother.

She waited tables at Tampa Jai Alai, then the airport Marriott, and cut hair from her home.

If she was working, children Josh and Johanna would find a note with instructions about how to prepare dinner, or at least some money for fast food.

Stray animals found a home with Ms. Pinney, as did rabbits, guinea pigs and pheasants.

If she hit if off with customers at the CK's, the Marriott bar, she'd invite a bunch of them home for an after-hours cocktail party.

She filled other hours with taped episodes of All My Children and mystery novels checked out from the library.

She offered opinions freely and recently refused to attend an in-law's funeral because guests were asked to wear pink.

She often concluded arguments by declaring, "Well, that's the way I am!"

At age 6, she disappeared from a picnic in a park, recalled her brother, Michigan physician Paul Karr.

Her father found her making a bouquet next to a sign that warned, "Fine for picking flowers."

"Dad said, 'What are you doing? The sign says you can't pick flowers.'

"'No,' she said. 'The sign says it's fine for picking flowers.'"

"That's an indication," Karr said, "of the way she did things."

Jennifer Pinney

Born: Aug. 15, 1940.

Died: Oct. 2, 2007.

Survivors:son, Josh Pinney; daughter, Johanna Douglas (James); brothers Dr. Paul Karr (Joey) and J. David Karr (Barbara); and numerous grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Services: The family is receiving friends from 6 to 7 p.m. today at JGR Funeral Home, 6718 N Armenia Ave., Tampa, followed by a memorial mass.

[Last modified October 8, 2007, 23:00:15]