Ray Perrin
Ray Perrin, 81, of Lakeland, died of pulmonary fibrosis Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2004, at Florida Presbyterian Homes Nursing Home in Lakeland.
Born Aug. 16, 1923, in Ponchatoula, La., Mr. Perrin moved to Lakeland from Bartow four years ago.
He was a graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in chemistry, and was a chemist at Estech, Swift & Company for 50 years.
He was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lakeland, and was a founding parishioner of St. Thomas Catholic Church in Bartow. He also was a former member of the Bartow Public Library board.
Survivors include his wife, Sue Perrin; two sons, Gene Perrin and his wife, Cindy, of Bristol, Tenn., and John Perrin and his wife, Kristin, of Panama City; one daughter, Susanna Merritt and her husband, Joe, of Tampa; one sister, Edna Perrin of Ponchatoula, La.; one brother, Pat Perrin of Shreveport, La.; and five grandchildren.
Visitation: Friday, Dec. 3, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Whidden-McLean Funeral Home in Bartow.
The funeral: Saturday, Dec. 4, at 10 a.m., at St. Thomas Catholic Church, 2180 S. Kissingen Ave., with Fr. Robert Susanne officiating.
Interment: Wildwood Cemetery in Bartow.
Memorial contributions: Good Shepherd Hospice, P. O. Box 7129, Winter Haven, 33883-7129.
Jennifer Jill Strickland-Gans
Jennifer Jill Strickland-Gans, 25, of Mulberry, died Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004, in Lakeland.
Born Feb. 18, 1979, in La Crosse, Wis., Mrs. Gans moved to Polk County 11 years ago.
She was a waitress at Hops Restaurant.
Survivors include three daughters, Meikayla Gans, Jordyn Gans, and Bailee Gans, all of Lakeland; her father, Ross Strickland of Bradenton; her mother and step-father, Patricia Moshier and Fred J. Moshier of Lakeland; two brothers, Justin M. Strickland of Lakeland and Scott Mayer of Dothan, Ala.; her paternal grandmother, Pauline Strickland of Phoenix, Ariz.; her paternal grandparents, Clifford and Josephine Neumann of Appleton, Wis.; and one sister, Traci Crappf of Dothan, Ala.
Visitation: Monday, Nov. 29, from 5 to 8 p.m., at Whidden-McLean Funeral Home in Bartow.
The funeral: Tuesday, Nov. 30, at 10 a.m., at Oak Hill Burial Park in Lakeland.
Memorial contributions: Jennifer Gans Childrens Fund, c/o Mid-Florida Credit Union. Call 1-866-913-FREE for more information.
John C. Mooneyham
John C. Mooneyham, 78, of Bartow, died of heart failure Sunday, Nov. 28, 2004, at Highlands Lake Center in Lakeland.
Born May 23, 1926, in Barber County, Ala., Mr. Mooneyham moved to Bartow 56 years ago.
He was an Assemblies of God pastor, serving at several different churches in the southeast United States.
He played guitar and sang with the Palm Bluegrass and Gospel group. He performed at Allen's Cafe in Auburndale, Cypress Gardens, and at the Fort Meade Jamboree with the late Sherman Davis & the Volunteers, and he and his wife volunteered and performed at several local nursing homes.
He was a member of New Hope Baptist Church in Bartow.
Mr. Mooneyham was preceded in death by two sisters, Carolyn Walker and Evelyn Clayton, and two brothers, Paul and Jack Mooneyham.
Survivors include his wife, Lenore Mooneyham; four daughters, Sara Carmichael of Bartow, Shirley Maria Brickham of Millinocket, Me., Kaye Parkins of Bartow, and Faye Dorn of Tallahassee; one son, James Edward Mooneyham of Seale, Ala.; one brother, Albrey Mooneyham of Biloxi, Miss.; two sisters, Allene Strickland of Troy, Ala., and Lorene Holberg of Warner Robins, Ga.; two step-sons, Tim Smothers and Joseph Smothers, both of Bartow; one step-daughter, Sonya Garner of Fort Meade; 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Visitation: Thursday, Dec. 2, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Whidden-McLean Funeral Home in Bartow.
The funeral: Friday, Dec. 3, at 10 a.m., at the funeral home, with Rev. Donald R. Haygood and Rev. Aaron C. Moore officiating.
Interment: Wildwood Cemetery in Bartow.
Loyal Frisbie
Journalist Since Age 9, Dies at 89
Sayer Loyal Frisbie, III, whose newspaper career started at the age of 9 when he carefully typed each of the six copies of the Neighborhood News in his family's home in Tampa, died on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 5, 2004, at the age of 89.
Death came in the intensive care unit of Bartow Memorial Hospital, where he had been a patient for more than a week, from pneumonia.
He was a retired newspaper editor and publisher and retired president of Frisbie Publishing Co., Inc., owner of The Polk County Democrat, The Fort Meade Leader, The Lake Wales News, and Polk County Times, and of the company's three web sites, PolkCountyDemocrat.com, FortMeadeLeader.com, and LakeWalesNews.com.
He was the third of four generations of his family to head the publishing company founded by his father, S. Lloyd Frisbie, and his grandfather, Sayer Loyal Frisbie.
He was married for more than 50 years to his college sweetheart, Louise Kelley, who died on July 23, 1989.
Together, they traveled in 47 of the 50 states of the United States and in scores of foreign countries on six of the seven continents. After his wife's death, he visited the other three states and the seventh continent, Antarctica.
Born in Biloxi, Miss., on March 6, 1915, he also lived briefly in Clarksdale, Miss., then Beaumont, Texas. He moved to Tampa at the age of three when his father landed a job as an advertising salesman for The Tampa Morning Tribune.
He moved to Bartow in 1930, at the age of 15, and went to work at Bartow Printing Co., which had been purchased by his grandfather. He poured molten lead into cast iron "pigs," swept out the shop, and occasionally set type on a Linotype machine for The Citrus Industry magazine. A year later, when The Democrat was founded on Aug. 28, 1931, he continued to work as an unpaid "printer's devil," and wrote a stamp collecting column, sometimes including excerpts from correspondence with his pen pals in several foreign countries.
He received no salary.
Home-schooled by his mother, who had little faith in public schools, his first formal education began with his acceptance as a freshman at Florida Southern College in 1933. He graduated four years later as the college's Honor Walk student with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Florida Southern did not offer enough classes in journalism for a major.
He was editor of the college newspaper, The Southern, for more than two years, for which he was given enough academic credit to qualify for a minor in journalism.
His $500 annual tuition, room and board was traded out with Bartow Printing Co., which did all the college's printing for four years in return for his education.
Several decades later, he taught journalism part-time at Florida Southern, and in 1985 was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by his alma mater.
After graduating from college, he married Louise Kelley and became managing editor of The Democrat, then a once-a-week paper, for a salary of $25 a week plus a $5 credit at Bartow Steam Laundry, which paid for its advertising in that fashion.
He was a combat veteran of World War II, serving as a combat infantryman with the 75th Infantry Division in Belgium, and after the Armistice, with the Army of Occupation in Germany. He was discharged in 1946. For his service in World War II, he received the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Purple Heart (his feet were frozen during the Battle of the Bulge), the Good Conduct Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and, many years later, the Bronze Star Medal.
He was a member of the 75th Infantry Division Veterans Assn.
After two years in the service, he returned to The Democrat as managing editor, later to become editor, then publisher, and president of the publishing company. He retired on Aug. 28, 1981, the newspaper's 50th anniversary, but retirement didn't take. He returned to work two half-days a week.
After his wife's death, he returned to work "on a half-time schedule," which for him was about 35 hours a week. He continued to write his award-winning column, Off My Chest, until several mini-strokes in 2001 took their toll on his writing ability.
At that time, The Democrat began republishing his World War II columns, a move that met with widespread approval by his readers. The war-time columns gave a soldier's eye view of military service and the war from the perspective of a private and later a private first class.
He continued to come to work five days a week to edit copy and read proofs until a few months before his death.
He was one of the first group of 10 Florida journalists - one of only two from weekly newspapers - to be inducted into the Florida Press Assn.'s Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame when it was founded in 1989.
He was named the Bartow Lions Club Citizen of the Year in 1954, and was awarded, jointly with his wife, the Bartow Rotary Club's Medal of Merit in 1987 for service within their vocation. The Rotary Club honored him for his service to the club by making him a Paul Harris Fellow, and later a Rotary Benefactor.
He was active in community theater organizations from his college years until he could no longer drive safely at night to attend rehearsals, and was in demand as a speaker and master of ceremonies. For many years, he was MC at Bartow's annual New Year's Eve Christmas tree burning.
He was chairman of a county-wide "welcome home" celebration for General James A. Van Fleet, commander of Allied forces in the Korean War, and of Bartow's celebration of America's Bicentennial in 1976.
He won numerous awards for editorials, columns, news stories, and journalistic excellence in the Florida Press Assn.'s annual Better Weekly Newspapers Contest.
He served as president of the Florida Press Assn., the Bartow Rotary Club, the Florida West Coast Chapter of Sigma Delta Chi (now the Society of Professional Journalists), and other organizations, and as lay leader and Sunday School teacher at First United Methodist Church.
Survivors include his son and daughter-in-law, S. L. Frisbie, IV and Mary G. Frisbie of Bartow; three grandchildren, Peggy Frisbie of Bartow, Carolyn Frisbie Holton and her husband, James V. Holton of Lakeland, and Loyal Frisbie, V, and his wife, Julie Knudsen, of Gainesville; one great-grandson, William Loyal (Liam) Holton of Lakeland; and his brother, Richard R. Frisbie, of Bartow.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Loyal and Louise Frisbie Community Journalism Scholarship at Florida Southern College, 111 Lake Hollingsworth Drive, Lakeland, Fla. 33801-5698; or to a charity of the donor's choice.
Visitation: Tuesday, Dec. 7, 5 to 7 p.m., at Whidden-McLean Funeral Home.
Funeral: Wednesday, Dec. 8, 3 p.m., at First United Methodist Church. His remains will be cremated.
