Ear to Tampa Bay
Betsy Schweitzer held a Fourth of
July party at her home overlooking the
fireworks in St. Petersburg.....Pat Harney
and Lisa Mansell invited community
leaders, friends and their families to the
Church of Scientology’s annual Fourth
of July Celebration dinner with
entertainment in the Crystal Ballroom
and fireworks viewing from the
10th floor terrace of the historic Fort
Harrison in Clearwater.....Mary K and
John Wilson of St. Petersburg, who were
staying on Clearwater Beach while
rehearsing and singing along with her
voice student Caroline Simpson and
their son Paul Wilson, both of
St. Petersburg, for the annual Coachman
Park concert for the City of Clearwater,
hosted a dinner party at Bob Heilman’s
Beachcomber Restaurant the next day.....
Cookie and Charley Simmons of South
Tampa and Charlene and Mardy Gordon
of Crystal Beach hosted a formal dinner
party at their home, complete with
operatic entertainment, that they
purchased at the 2017 Opera Tampa Ball,
which was donated and prepared
by Dr. Barry Levine and his wife
Gina d’Angelo of Temple Terrace, the
chair of Opera Tampa’s board.....
Jim Myers of St. Pete Beach celebrated
his birthday with a dinner party at the
St. Petersburg Yacht Club.....Jenna
Bullard and her husband Paul, general
manager of Bascom’s Chop House in
Clearwater, took their children, Olivia
and Beau to Highlands, North Carolina,
where they visited Paul’s parents, Karol
and Fred Bullard of Clearwater to
celebrate Karol’s birthday…..Ruhi and
Fazal Fazlin, who were married in
Pakistan in December and reside in St.
Petersburg, attended the traditional
wedding of her son Ali Burhani in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, following her
The Ear is wearing one of a pair of net-style
drop earrings, featuring 15.46 carats of multicut
diamonds ranging in color from yellow to
brown and set in 18-karat yellow gold from
the Gold and Diamond Source in Clearwater.
trip to Turkey, then to the Netherlands
for her other son Hussain Burhani’s
wedding.....Sara and John Simmons of
Dunedin celebrated their anniversary
with a romantic “staycation” in
St. Petersburg.....Molly and Jeff Voth, of
Elegant Accents Landscape Lighting
Specialists, who live in Lutz, took their
four sons on a summer vacation in
the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia…..
Liz Smith and her husband, sculptor
J. Harrison “Jim” Smith, owner of
82 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
Gallery 1356 in Clearwater, attended
Broadway shows in New York City while
they were there for a National Society of
Sculptors event.....Karen Seel, a Pinellas
County commissioner, and her husband
Ron of Belleair, along with Jan and Tom
Tracy of Safety Harbor, visited Gail and
Chip Gamble of Dunedin at their
getaway in Chautauqua, New York.....
Nancy and David Ridenour of Dunedin
attended her family reunion in Quincy,
Illinois…..Steve Sika of Safety Harbor
attended his high school reunion in
Cleveland, Ohio.....Jim Carver of Tampa
spent time during wheat harvest season
at his more than 100-year-old family
farmstead in Kansas.....Barb Izzi of
Tampa and Jim Spencer of Belleair
visited Paula and James Paxton of
Belleair Beach at their summer home in
Edwards, Colorado, before they all
headed to the rodeo and bull riding
competition in Cheyenne, Wyoming…..
Dr. David Hemerick and Sally Guthrie
of Clearwater took their children and
families, Elizabeth and Tom Sudderth
of Tampa, Frederick and Bridget
Hemerick and Sarah Helen Guthrie
of Clearwater, and Dr. Chris and
Catherine Bailey of Stuart, Florida, to
Colorado.....Beverly and Carlos Yepes
of St. Petersburg, who are a part of Aston
Martin Racing, were in California to
participate as drivers.....Susan Ugan,
Nancy Sulte, Donna Dugan and Alex
Sulte, all of St. Petersburg, enjoyed
taking the Ruth Glacier flightseeing trip
and landing on a glacier when they were
in Denali, Alaska…..Dr. Dubravka
Jovanovic and her husband Courtney
Ross of Clearwater visited friends in
their cabin near Lake Superior in Ontario,
Canada.....Judy and Richard Herman,
Carol and Tom Patterson and Maria
and Lou Passannante, all of South
JULIA MAZZA
Things Heard by The Ear