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Florida Stories
Some of the personal stories that participants of the StoryCorps project in Sarasota told.

About StoryCorps

Story Corps is a project of Sound Portraits Productions, the nationally acclaimed New York City non-profit. For more than a decade, Sound Portraits has celebrated the lives and struggles of unheralded Americans who have quietly and courageously overcame adversity through award-winning public radio documentaries (which have won every honor in broadcasting many times over, including four Peabody Awards), as well as through books, CDs, museum exhibitions, and Web sites. To hear Sound Portraits past radio programs, visit www.soundportraits.org.

• Clinton Kaminis and Alexandra 'Sandy' Frye - Reprise
  Clinton Kaminis grew up in Tarpon Springs and became a teenager in the shadow of the Great Depression. One of several children born to ship builder Arthur P. Kaminis, Clinton, his father and five others traveled north in the summer of 1933 for an adventure that would have a lasting impact on the then 16 year-old Clinton. He sat down with friend Sandy Frye to detail the trip and the reason for the family's unique mode of transportation. First broadcast October 17, 2008.
• Delia and Frank Sanchez - Reprise
  Delia Sanchez reveals to her son Frank how she overcame family and cultural traditions to improve her life through education, which eventually led her to help improve the lives of families in Hillsborough County. Delia Sanchez is the founder of Hillsborough County's Head Start program and is well-known in Florida, particularly in West Tampa for assuming leadership roles in education. Frank is a private consultant conducting business in Latin America and Europe and he also served as an adviser in the Clinton administration. First broadcast March 3, 2006.
• Daryn and Valerie Kinney
  Daryn and Valerie Kinney were married on March 20th, 1999. Shortly after returning home from a church-sponsored trip to Peru in August that year, Valerie quickly became sick. Not knowing the severity of the problem, Daryn rushed Valerie to the hospital where her condition continued to worsen. It was later found that the cause was a small tumor near Valerie's brain stem which led to a series of complications. Valerie recently sat down to talk with her husband about her medical condition at that time, the treatments performed and appreciation of their life together since then.
• William Scott Cobb and William J. Cobb - Reprise
  William J. Cobb recalls his earliest memories with grandson William Scott Cobb, including the disastrous economic circumstances that surrounded President Hoover and the Great Depression. The now elder Cobb tells of following so closely in his coalminer father's footsteps that the experience convinced him to never work in the mines. Cobb's ambitions carried him through service in World War II, where his unit helped liberate a concentration camp overseas, and back to the United States to pursue a career in commercial steel that led to a wonderful life crisscrossing the country while raising a family. First broadcast June 2, 2006.
• Lynford and Sydney Walters
  Lynford Walters recalls fond memories of family, his school years and his love of big band high school dances during a conversation with his wife Sydney in 2007.
• Bill Buerger - Reprise
  Bill Buerger who was born in 1939, recalls how World War II affected his family life, childhood and perspective on life. First broadcast May 25, 2007.
• Elsa and Jochen Wagner - Reprise
  Elsa Wagner talks to her husband Jochen about her father's work with resistance groups to aid people fleeing the Nazis in Europe. First broadcast November 9, 2007.
• Ed Brickman and Gloria Weissberg - Reprise
  A hairy encounter with some shady characters interested in a land deal highlights the story told by Ed Brickman of Long Boat Key to his friend Gloria Weissberg. Brickman, then of the Bronx, says he knew he'd been a successful businessman when the company recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. First broadcast October 13, 2006.
• Millie Finkel - Reprise
  Millie Finkel shares her memories of her battle with breast cancer and how her experience turned out to be a positive influence in her life. First broadcast December 22, 2006.
• Clinton Kaminis and Alexandra 'Sandy' Frye
  Clinton Kaminis grew up in Tarpon Springs and became a teenager in the shadow of the Great Depression. One of several children born to ship builder Arthur P. Kaminis, Clinton, his father and five others traveled north in the summer of 1933 for an adventure that would have a lasting impact on the then 16 year-old Clinton. He sat down with friend Sandy Frye to detail the trip and the reason for the family's unique mode of transportation.
• Florence Foster and Renda Gander-Agnew
  Florence Foster began her appointment as a Hillsborough circuit court judge in 1990. After more than a decade on the bench, Foster was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease that interferes with nerve pathways and causes muscle weakness and loss of coordination. After being forced to step down in 2003 due to her disease, Florence started a support group for women with MS where she met Renda Gander-Agnew. Both Renda and Florence discuss the difficulties of the disease and the stress that it places on their families. First aired on November 10, 2006.
• Bill and Martha Minahan
  Bill Minahan was born in 1930 in Johnstown, PA, one of seven children. At the start of World War II he followed his brother's lead and enlisted in the Marine Corps. When he came home Bill received a scholarship to play ball for the University of Tampa. This led to a successful series of high school coaching positions, taking him to Jesuit High School in Tampa. He talked with his wife Martha about the news he received regarding his health while in that position at Jesuit.
• Dr. Philip Adler and Jenny Carlstedt
  Philip Adler moved to Tampa in 1958 after finishing pediatric residences in Boston and Detroit. One day in 1965 while he was in private practice, Dr. Adler was presented with an infant and a challenging medical case that he immediately realized could be treated with what at the time was new medical technology. More than 40 years after the event, Dr. Adler shared his impressions of that day in one conversation, while Jenny Carlstedt, the infant from Dr. Adler's story and now an adult, related her perspective on the experience to her husband Jim.
• Tony Castellano and Rose Castellano Mattran - Reprise
  Italian immigrant Tony Castellano tells his daughter, Rose, about their family's military service in World War II. He and his four brothers were among thousands of young Americans who were sent around the world to fight the Germans and the Japanese during "the best years of my life.""I wish I was back there," he laments in looking at a photo of himself in 1945 at age 29. "We knew we had a job to do" and never complained about military duties, but couldn't have been happier when the war ended. First broadcast May 26, 2006.
• Olin and Doris Mott
  Olin Mott shares with his wife Doris how his life has evolved from a Depression-era childhood to becoming a post-World War II business success story.
• Eugene Hairston with Sandy Dupasquier
  Eugene Hairston tells Sandy Dupasquier about his experiences in overcoming challenges in his hometown of Portsmouth, Virginia as well as from his tour of duty in Vietnam during that country's war.
• Phyllis Lorelli and Tom Bryant - Reprise
  Phyllis Lorelli tells her friend Tom Bryant about how a series of unexpected circumstances reconnected her with a childhood friend from Pennsylvania. First broadcast June 22, 2007.
• Nancy Eckerd Hart with Tom Denham
  Nancy Eckerd Hart talks with Tom Denham about growing up in the Eckerd household and how she's working to keep the philanthropic vision of helping troubled youths through Eckerd Youth Alternatives alive.
• Albert and Rudy Fernandez - Reprise
  Brothers Albert and Rudy Fernandez of Tampa recall a year of adventures and misadventures as grade school students in Spain. The revelations include disclosure of their super hero identities. First broadcast July 21, 2006.
• Michael Radice, Sr. and Michael Radice, Jr.
  Michael Radice, Sr. speaks with his son Michael Radice, Jr. about pursuing teaching after he returned from the Korean War.
• Ruby Williams and Kathy Gibson - Reprise
  Ruby Williams is a Florida folk artist familiar to those who travel east of Brandon on S.R. 60, where