New College oral history project to debut latest works

Public invited to viewing and reception on January 31st. This is a free event.

Join us for the 2013 Oral History Project, presented by Sarasota County and New College of Florida. Enjoy stunning photographs and wonderful stories from the people who lived through the good and sometimes not so good times on the Gulf Coast.

These oral histories were created for publication on the Sarasota Water Atlas website by New College of Florida students as an independent study with Dr. Erin Dean of New College and as Sarasota county interns.

Refreshments will be provided. Meet and mingle with the interview subjects, and your fellow water heritage fans.

Bringing Sarasota’s Past to the Present!
Sarasota’s Oral History Project Reception and Viewing
— Date: Thursday January 31, 2013.
— Time: 6:30 p.m.
— Location: New College of Florida, College Hall, 351 College Drive, Sarasota, Florida.
For more information call:Amanda Dominguez (941-650-1089), John Ryan (941-650-2159) or Lorrie Muldowney (941-861-6883)

INTERVIEWEES

Jerome Dupree:
Reverend Jerome Dupree was born in 1931 and came to Sarasota when he was 8 years old. He has been heavily involved in the church throughout his life and has been a pastor for thirty years. Jerome has dedicated much of his life to improving the city and county of Sarasota. He has worked as a school teacher and principal of Booker T. Washington High school, has been on the boards and committees of countless organizations such as Sarasota United for Responsibility and Equity, Coastal Recovery, Second Chance Last Opportunity, and Sarasota United Need, and has served as county commissioner, vice-mayor, and mayor of Sarasota.

Jane Burgess
Jane Burgess is a lifelong Sarasotan whose large family has deep roots in Sarasota and in Myakka State Park. An alum of Sarasota High School, the wife of a milkman, and mother to children of all ages, Jane is a story teller and observer of the world around her. She nurtures gardens of people and of plants, and has created an exquisite painted stencil garden inside her house and a wildflower garden on the outside.

Debbie Stults-Harvey
Debbie Stults-Harvey was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1928. When she was a teenager during World War Two, her parents bought the island of Cabbage Key and started a studio and inn there. During these first years, she lived with other families in Sarasota and spent summers living and helping out on Cabbage Key. For much of her adult life her husband was a naval officer, so she lived and traveled around the world for many years. During that time she still visited Cabbage Key often, which her family owned until 1969. She currently resides in Siesta Key.

John "Pete" Burgess
John "Pete" Burgess is a long time Florida resident. Though born in Macon, Georgia, he moved to Sarasota when he was 11, and graduated from Sarasota High School in the late 1940s. Fresh out of high school, Pete was Sarasota’s milk man, delivering to the residents of Siesta and Longboat Key, a job that he looks back on fondly. He later moved into management, and eventually into a position with Tropicana, where he stayed until his retirement. His time in Sarasota was filled with scallops and mullet (fishing), pig and duck (hunting), chocolate milk and eggnog (special milk route items on commission)…what was full was his belly. Pete’s commitment to his family, work and personal projects have kept him smiling wide to this day. Mt. Rainier, the Smoky Mountains, Myakka River State Park, a tent and a camper catalyzed a lasting Burgess bond, and Pete enjoys nothing more than monthly family gatherings at his and his wife’s home (that he helped build) in Bradenton. Pete moved to Bradenton in the 1970s, and has since been enjoying his time there.

Alice Faye Jones
Mrs. Alice Faye Jones was born and raised in Sarasota, Florida. Her mother was a maid in Longboat Key, and she worked tirelessly throughout Mrs. Jones’s childhood. While Mrs. Jones spent significant time at Lido Beach as a child, she currently runs a free tutoring program called Brothers and Sisters Doing The Right Thing at the Robert Taylor Community Center in North Sarasota.

Rodney Potter
Rodney Potter was born in 1936 in Bradenton, Florida. He has lived in Manatee County all his life. As a kid in the 1940s and 1950s, he did a lot of hunting and fishing and even gathered scallops before they disappeared from the area. He has worked on the same lumber mill, though it's changed owners several times over the years, since he graduated from high school. In 2010 he was named Manatee County’s Distinguished Citizen of the Year.