By Ron Hayes

SOUTH PALM BEACH — When Ernest Muro moved to South Palm Beach in 1990, he was a retired schoolteacher and media specialist from Baldwin, N.Y.
But he never retired from community service.
In 1991, Mr. Muro was elected president of his condo board at Palm Beach Harbour Club.
Later, he chaired the South Palm Beach Community Affairs Advisory Board, helping to organize its popular music and lecture series, and was a member of the town’s budget and finance committee.
In 1994, he was elected to the first of three terms on the Town Commission, where he served as both treasurer and vice mayor.
And when the town held its annual amateur show, the South Palm Beach Follies, he was on stage, belting out Makin’ Whoopee.
“His big act was Eddie Cantor,” remembers acting Mayor Don Clayman, a close friend and neighbor of many years. “He looked just like Eddie Cantor.”
Mr. Muro died Nov. 29 and was buried at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y., beside Margaret McGavigan Muro, his wife of 44 years. He was 89.
“He was easy going, very intelligent, very involved, and one of those people you could talk to,” Clayman explained. “He was a good listener, which most people are not. He was a good man who gave his all to the town, to his family and to his friends.”
Mr. Muro was born on May 29, 1921, in Rockville Centre, N.Y.
After service in New Guinea with the U.S. Army’s 38th Infantry Division during World War II, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hofstra University and a master of library science degree from Queens College.
He taught elementary school for 33 years before his retirement.
“He was very friendly man,” said his daughter, Heather Maguire, “a very warm, kind, gentle man.”
In addition to his daughter, of Avon, Conn., Mr. Muro is survived by his son-in-law, Jeffrey Maguire, and three grandchildren, Magi, Sean and Matthew Maguire; and a brother, Joseph Muro, of Freeport, N.Y.
In lieu of flowers, his daughter has urged all who knew him to “extend a smile to everyone, hug your loved ones, have lunch with friends and offer kindness to a stranger in his memory.”

By Emily J. Minor

GULF STREAM — Frank Anthony Bianchini, who moved to Florida in 1970 with his wife, Rita, to escape the cold and start another chapter in the family business, died at his home Dec. 17 surrounded by his family. He was 88.
    Born in Philadelphia on May 29, 1922, Mr. Bianchini — whom everyone called “Beke” — was one of 12 children in a hardscrabble, working class family that relied on each other to build a successful business enterprise.
“The saying on the job went, ‘You get your breaks on Broadway, not here,’ ” said his son, Mike. “And that’s the way his life was.”
A World War II veteran who fought in the Pacific with the 544th Engineers Boat and Shore Regimen, Mr. Bianchini met his wife at the Bang Bang dance on the Wildwood, N.J., boardwalk. The couple were married Sept. 21, 1946.
When he died, Mr. Bianchini had one photo in his wallet — that of his wife on their wedding day.
Family was an integral part of Mr. Bianchini’s entire professional and  personal life, and after the war he worked with his six brothers in their father’s business, S. Bianchini and Sons.  The company was expert at re-setting the original stones in older buildings and over the years they were hired for projects at important places like the The Betsy Ross House and the Military Academy at West Point. Mr. Bianchini became the family’s go-to guy at the beginning of the job, when setting up the scaffolding and other crucial equipment could be a bit of a logistical puzzle.
“He always knew exactly how to do it,” said Mike Bianchini. “My dad had a head for that.”
Mr. Bianchini and his wife moved to Broward County 40 years ago, where he donned another hat — that of developer and builder, transforming empty land into equestrian estates.
In 1987, Mr. and Mrs. Bianchini moved to Gulf Stream, where they spent many years enjoying their so-called golden years and entertaining their two sons and their growing families.
“My dad was quite a character,” said Mike Bianchini.
In addition to his love for family and hard work, Mr. Bianchini had one other well-known passion: the racetrack.
“I never saw anybody love anything so much,” said Mike Bianchini. “He wasn’t so happy on his way home, but he was always happy on his way to the racetrack.”
Mr. Bianchini also had a boat and occasionally owned race horses, his son said.
“He enjoyed life,” he said. “He and my mother had a ball.”
Several years ago, Mr. Bianchini was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which eventually unraveled his health. In recent weeks, the family had called in Hospice so that Mr. Bianchini could die at home, said his son.
In addition to his wife, Rita, and son Mike, survivors include another son, Frank; five grandchildren and four great-granddaughters. Mr. Bianchini was buried Dec. 22 at Queen of Peace Catholic Cemetery in Royal Palm Beach.

By Ron Hayes

BOYNTON BEACH — When a wonderful storyteller dies, the family and friends who loved him tell wonderful stories.
When that storyteller was Harvey E. Oyer Jr., the stories they tell about the man must also be stories about the city he lived in, loved and served for 84 years.
Where did Boynton Beach end and Harvey Oyer Jr. begin? Where does the ocean end and the sky begin?
By the time he was born, on March 31, 1926, the town and his family were already history.
His great-grandfather, Hannibal Dillingham Pierce, came to Fort Pierce in 1871. His grandmother, Lillie Pierce, was the first white child born between Jupiter and Miami. His grandfather, Capt. Voss, brought Major Nathan Boynton here in the mid-1890s. His father owned the building on Ocean Avenue where Oyer would open a real estate and insurance agency in 1953, and run it for nearly 60 years.
The original phone number still lives in faded paint on the side of that building — 9305.
On the wall in a back office is the sign that adorned the town’s first railroad depot, salvaged by Mr. Oyer when the depot was demolished.
“We all can love a place,” said his son, Harvey E. Oyer III, “but my father loved Boynton Beach like no one else. He saw no reason to leave Boynton Beach. He didn’t want to live anywhere else. He only wanted to patronize businesses in Boynton Beach.”
But Mr. Oyer was not someone who loves what he knows because he knows little else. After graduating as valedictorian in his high school class of 1944, he earned a degree with honors from the University of Florida. During World War II, he served in the South Pacific. He was stationed in Germany during the Korean conflict, and traveled extensively throughout Europe. Harvey Oyer Jr. had visited China and Australia, Taiwan and the Philippines, too; but Boynton Beach and its stories were his heart and home.
In 1957 he was elected to the City Council. In 1960, he became mayor. He helped found the Jaycees, joined the Kiwanis, directed the local Red Cross and, of course, the Boynton Beach Historical Society. But what made him special were the stories.
“If you were going to sit next to him, you’d better not have to get up any time soon,” recalled his friend, Kim Kelly, with a laugh. “Because he would tell you a story, and he had plenty of them.”
In 1996, Kelly approached Mr. Oyer to inquire about opening a restaurant in his building. She wanted a restaurant and full-service bar. Oyer didn’t drink. They settled on beer and wine.
“There were times I fell back and cried and couldn’t pay the rent,” Kelly said. “If I only had a hundred dollars in my pocket, Harvey would say, ‘That’s good.’”
She told him he could eat there anytime for $4. Fifteen years later, Hurricane Alley has expanded twice.
“But he always called it the counter,” she said, “never the bar.”
That’s the kind of story people told after his death.
His son recalled a time in the early 1970s when a black man named Sam Wright approached his father for advice. Wright wanted to run for office. Mr. Oyer publicly endorsed him, and Wright became the first African-American on the City Commission.
Joyce Bartel worked as his housekeeper off and on for 20 years.
“He took me in,” she said. “He could be stern and strict, but he was always generous. He believed in a hand up, not a handout.”
When Ali Hoek arrived for her first day of work as his receptionist four months ago, Mr. Oyer cornered her.
“Tell me about your background,” he said.
“You mean my nationality or work?” she asked.
“Well,” he said, “both.”
Mr. Oyer loved stories like he loved the roast beef sandwich he ate almost every day, for $4, or the coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts.
Even Mr. Oyer’s death was a story.
On Monday, Dec. 13, he had breakfast at the Boynton Diner, as always, then drove to his office and suffered a heart attack in the building his father had built the year he was born.
“When the emergency team arrived, the paramedic who worked on my father had known him since her birth,” Harvey Oyer III recalled. “One of the police officers who arrived and escorted us to the hospital had been a friend since he was in high school. The nurse in the emergency room also knew and admired our father.”
The cooks at Hurricane Alley and the Boynton Diner brought food to his hospital room and held it beneath his nose. Another friend sang Christmas carols.
Mr. Oyer lingered in a coma for six days and died at 11:09 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 18. The hospice nurse who pronounced him dead had known him, too.
His memorial service on Dec. 22 was in the First United Methodist Church on Seacrest Boulevard, a church his father helped build.
At his burial in Boynton Beach Memorial Park, color guards from the U.S. Army, V.F.W. and Boynton Beach Police and Fire departments stood at attention.

Shortly before 1 p.m., a crowd began to gather at Hurricane Alley, where the staff from Boynton Diner had joined to celebrate his life by feasting on the foods he had loved to eat, the foods he loved but couldn’t eat, and the foods he ate anyway.
On tables along the sidewalk were Triscuits and peanut butter, his favorite bedtime snack; doughnut holes, which he ate despite his doctor’s advice; and glazed cherries —“the only food Harvey didn’t like.”
Collard greens and chili dogs, pasta salad and pulled pork barbecue, mashed potatoes and beef stew.
For three hours, the people ate, and laughed, and remembered Harvey E. Oyer Jr.
The man who cherished the past had passed, but he had left his city a bigger and kinder place, and he had left stories.
In addition to his son, Mr. Oyer is survived by his daughters, Susan Oyer and Christian Macoviak of Boynton Beach; his grandsons, Joseph and William Macoviak; his sisters, Lois Dooley and Charlotte Oyer of Tucson, Ariz., his nephew, Patrick Dooley of Tucson; and his dear companion, Dr. Voncile Smith.

By Thom Smith

Mario Batali had logged a busy day, giving a cooking demonstration for Publix Apron’s Cooking School at The Morikami. The Food Network favorite was hungry, and he wanted someone else to do the cooking. He also wanted a place where he could relax with an old school friend who now lives in Boca.
So they motored into Delray to 32 East, where another old — and much honored — friend runs the kitchen. Only one problem: Nick Morfogen was away visiting his kids.
“We still had a good time,” 32 East owner Butch Johnson said of the Dec. 13 encounter. “Mario got there late and we had closed down, but he ate and we did the bulk of our partying with no one around. He stayed late; we enjoyed some grappa and told some stories.

“He’s fun to be around, just like you see on TV. He’s not full of himself.”
After partying into the wee hours, Batali hightailed back to New York for a late-night appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s show. Sadly for Johnson, he didn’t mention Delray.
The Apron’s Cooking School continues Jan. 10 with the Food Network’s newest Iron Chef, Jose Garces, followed on Feb. 5 by actress and The Crabby Cook author Jessica Harper, and Feb. 20 by chef, author and Tuscan travel expert Gina Stipo. (www.publix.com/aprons).

***

Atlantic Avenue may be one of the hottest streets on the planet, but life isn’t all peaches and crème fraiche.  Location does not guarantee success nor does celebrity.
Within a year, two founders of “Floribbean” cuisine have now come and gone. Mark Militello’s engagement at The Office began in late ’09 and ended barely three months later when owner David Manero pink slipped him via text message.
The Office remains busy, with new menu items, new Monday-Friday happy hour, cigar menu and, for the first time, reservations.
Barely a block north in Pineapple Grove, however, Taste Gastropub is history… at least in its original form. Its lure was to be Allen Susser, another South Florida hero, but various sources claim portions were disproportionate to the prices, the menu was too “South Beachy” and/or Susser’s reputation hadn’t preceded him. Rumors have owner Robert Workens reopening with a different concept.
Other Floribbean fanciers have come and gone, but Robbin Haas, who was at Bek’s in Boca late in the last century, will join Militello, Susser, Doug Rodriguez of D. Rodriguez Cuba in Miami Beach, Oliver Saucy of Café Maxx in Pompano and Cindy Hutson of Ortanique on the Mile in Coral Gables at Boca Bacchanal in March.

                       ***

Worth Avenue looked busy…
Ferragamo was packed with a special party aimed at shoe-buyers.

Another private party filled Tiffany.

Graf Jewelers, too!
Valets in black caps and red jackets steered the invited social elite from their luxvees — including a very un-Ferrari-like silver and blue Ferrari — into Cartier, which for the umpteenth year teamed with a local charity for a Christmas party. This season’s beneficiary: Caron Renaissance Treatment Center: a Delray Beach-based substance-abuse treatment center whose clientele includes many who reside in 33480.
Waiters circulated with champagne, caviar crisps and stone crab salad on silver spoons. Cartier Director Clemens Ritter von Wagner and Caron’s 2011 Renaissance Gala Chairman Petra Levin made sure that everyone felt comfortable, since for five days, 10 percent of Cartier’s sales went to Caron.
But even in Palm Beach, life is not what it seems. The economic Grinch may not have stolen Christmas, but he’d furloughed some long-timers.
“Where’s Santa?” asked Arlette Gordon, a Cartier party regular, lamenting the absence for the first time in many years of “Santa to the Stars” Brady White. “It’s just not the same without him.”
Still, a good time was had by all, as a photographer caught the women trying on Cartier’s newest designs … easy hints for husbands and boyfriends.
Across the street, Ta-boo was busy, for which owner Franklyn DeMarco was grateful.    
“Everyone’s in town now,” he said. “But what about after the holidays. … And in the summer. The days of being open just in the season are long gone. We need people year round. The street (Worth Avenue) is beautiful now. But I hope the $16 million (refurbishment) does some long-term good.”

***

                     The Breakers was lit up a few days earlier for Hospice of Palm Beach County’s annual golf weekend: cocktail party, raffle and auction on Friday night, golf on Saturday. The event has been hosted since 1998 by NBC Today’s Matt Lauer who hasn’t forgotten its great work when his father needed hospice care.
Lauer brought some heavyweights to the cocktail party, including former Miami Dolphins running back Keith Byars, who, swears Breakers VP Dave Burke, has the world’s largest forearms. Also in the crowd, ex-pro QB Steve Walsh, hoops legend John Havlicek and Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Paul Szep.
Turns out Byars’ forearms swing a golf club well. His fivesome won Saturday’s golf event.

***

                      Farther south, the shops along Ocean Avenue in Lantana have been given a reprieve of sorts.
Replacement of the bridge over the Intracoastal was supposed to begin in early summer, now the word is maybe early fall.
“We hear maybe 10 months,” said Dak Kerprich, owner of Pizzeria Oceana. “When it happens, it happens.”
Meanwhile, he’s been dealing with the cold weather as most of his seating is on an outdoor deck. Since the inside bar accommodates only half a dozen customers, “We had a wait,” Kerprich said with a smile as he prepped another pie. “No problem. We put a couple of tables back here in the kitchen. Of course, they had to help clean up.”

***

                      Could be cool  … The Seventh Annual Delray Beach Poetry Festival will feature eight of America’s top poets, including Robert Pinsky, the nation’s poet laureate from 1997 to 2000. On Jan. 19, Pinsky will read his poems accompanied by local jazz musicians.
The eight writing workshops and 13 public events at Old School Square will feature national slam poetry champs D. Blair and Taylor Mali, plus Stuart Dischell, Jane Hirshfield, Thomas Lux, Heather McHugh, Vijay Seshadri, Alan Shapiro, Ellen Bryant Voigt and C.D. Wright.
The festival won a $50,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Art Challenge. The five-year, $40 million program is designed to bring South Florida together through the arts. The poetry festival is the only Palm Beach County event to receive a Knight grant in 2010. (www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org.)

***

                      I can smell it now! The Delray Garlic Festival is just around the corner.
Everything garlic that you can imagine, including a chefs competition, 180 vendors and, yes, music, topped on Saturday night, Feb. 12, with a knock-’em dead show by Buddy Guy.
Other acts over the three days include the Dark Star Orchestra and the Fabulous Fleetwoods on Friday and regional acts Amber Leigh, Andy Childs and Outside the Box, plus Zeppelin tribute band, Led-Hed on Sunday. All for just $10 a day.

Thom Smith is a freelance writer. He can be reached at thomsmith@ymail.com

Construction continues on the site now, with attention paid to preserving any other remains. Photo by Jerry Lower

By Angie Francalancia

Human remains were discovered during the demolition of a house in the 900 block of South Ocean Boulevard last month, so the Delray Beach Police Department was called in to investigate.
When it was discovered that the bones were old, the medical examiner was called. When his office discovered just how old those bones might be, they called in archeologists.
It’s just the most recent evidence that Henry Flagler didn’t get here first.
The bones are likely the remains of ancestors from either the Seminole or Miccosukee Indian tribes, the experts determined.
For a short while, Delray Beach police treated the site where excavators were tearing down a house as a crime scene, stringing it with yellow tape; but within hours, they determined that even if the person had been killed, it wasn’t an investigation they’d be undertaking.
“We’re not investigating it as a homicide,” said Officer Jeff Messer, the department’s spokesman. “I’ve heard all kinds of stories about how old the bones could be. If that holds true, that would be an amazing history lesson for us.”
When the medical examiner took a look, the investigator had a hunch the remains were older than the 75 years that mark his jurisdiction, so a professor of anthropology from FAU was called in. He said they likely predated not only Flagler but also the Seminole Indian Wars and perhaps even modern history.
“He was able to determine that they were prehistoric,” said Harold Ruslander, spokesman for the medical examiner’s office. According to the police report, a skull and femur bone were the first bones uncovered by the construction crew 4-5 feet below the surface. According to a police department spokesperson, a pelvis and several other bones were also uncovered.
While it might be unusual to find a human body buried on your property, finding prehistoric human remains along Florida’s coastal ridge isn’t all that uncommon, said state archaeologist Ryan Wheeler of the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research.
“People have lived in Florida for something like 12,000 years, and they’re all pretty much still here in one form or another,” he said. “I’m not quite sure how many reports (of human remains) we’ve had this year, but lately, the average has been about 20 reports per year.”
At the height of the construction boom a few years ago, the department was averaging one call per week, Wheeler said.
“American Indians lived in Florida for a very long time, certainly in Boca, Highland Beach and Delray areas,” he said. “It’s hard to say what time period they’re from. People lived in that part of the state at least 5,000 or 6,000 years ago, but there are sites in Miami that are probably 10,000 years old.”
Florida has a state statute to guide what happens when ancient human remains are discovered, he said. The statute requires that any skeletal remains be treated with respect. “Our role is to kind of assist the owner to make sure they comply with the statute,” Wheeler said. “Our preference is that the remains stay where they’re found.”
As the statute requires, representatives from both the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes that inhabited this part of Florida have been notified.
That doesn’t mean the owners can’t build a new house there, he said. After all, there was a house on the property prior to the demolition, “so people were living with these remains for many years. The intent isn’t to stop people from building their projects but to help people to do it in a way that allows the remains to be protected.”            

By Margie Plunkett

Gary Eliopoulos won’t run for re-election next term, deciding it’s time to turn attention to family and business, he told his fellow commissioners at an early December Commission meeting.
 Eliopoulos spoke about commitment and sacrifice before his announcement, saying, “It’s definitely a sacrifice. You should be willing to do that — should be bringing in energy, creativity, passion and at least 100 percent commitment. That to me makes a good commissioner.”
“I think it’s important for this commission to have individuals up here who can commit to it. Tonight it’s my 13-year-old daughter’s birthday. You make those sacrifices because it’s so important,” he said.
 In addition, Eliopoulos later expressed frustration from instances of casting an ineffectual vote against the succeeding majority. And part of the importance of being a commissioner  is being effective and making a difference, he said.
As the economic downturn drags on, people don’t always see that, he said. “They’re expecting miracles. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen right now.”
Eliopoulos, who said he had been in the position for four years, stated it was time to turn his attention elsewhere. “Next year, I need to gear toward my business.”
An architect by profession, Eliopoulos has been in Florida since 1985 and has his own firm, Eliopoulos Architecture Inc. in Delray Beach.
While Eliopoulos said he won’t run, he added that he wasn’t leaving — it was just for a period of time and he planned to stay involved.
The next election will be held March 8.

By Tim O’Meilia

Hoping to put their best foot forward, South Palm Beach council members promoted retired podiatrist Don Clayman to mayor, replacing Martin Millar, who resigned abruptly Dec. 9.

And, in a surprising twist of events, the council filled Clayman’s council seat with chiropractor and former Councilman Joseph Flagello, giving the panel a strong dose of medical experience.

“I am honored to be in this seat,” Clayman said after he was sworn in during the Dec. 15 Town Council meeting. “I will try to live up to the type of people who have become mayors of this town.”
Both Clayman and Flagello will serve the final three months of the terms of their predecessors, whose terms expire in March.
The town charter requires that the council fill the empty slots if less than six months remain before the next scheduled election.
Clayman and Flagello both were approved unanimously by the four remaining council members.
The council immediately promoted Flagello to vice mayor by a 4-1 vote. Councilman Brian Merbler dissented.
“He served an entire full term,” said Councilwoman Stella Jordan, who nominated Flagello for vice mayor. “He had the experience to step in to fill that position even though there are other people who were qualified.”
No other council member has served a full two-year term although Clayman and Merbler are three months away.
Flagello was a councilman from 2008 to 2010, but decided not to seek re-election, citing personal and financial issues.
He said several people asked him to consider filling in. He said he is “kicking around” whether to run in March. He said he was surprised to be named vice mayor.
Millar, who attended the meeting, admitted in November that he violated state ethics laws and agreed to pay a $3,000 civil fine for his behavior during an August 2009 visit to a West Palm Beach strip club and steakhouse.
He announced he would not run again in March but resigned suddenly a day after Town Attorney Brad Biggs told him the town charter required his removal for violating the ethics code.
The charter says, “A council member shall forfeit office if he or she … (B) violates any standard of conduct or code of ethics established by law for public officials, such violation to be determined by the Florida Commission on Ethics.”
Millar disputed that he was forced to resign. “It doesn’t say ‘must,’ ” Millar said after the December meeting, insisting that it was his decision to leave. “I felt it was better to leave now.”
“This is the best decision I ever made in my life,” he said of his resignation.“It’s brought me a good night’s sleep. I feel healthier and less stressed. It was the best thing for my wife, my family and my life.”
The ethics commission found that Millar tried to use his influence as mayor to try to avoid being ejected from the club, arrested by police and to obtain a ride home from South Palm Beach police.
“I made a mistake and I will pay for my mistake. I will pay the fine,” he said. “I felt it was better to go on with my life.”
Millar said he had no regrets for his nearly six years in office, adding that he helped lower taxes and represented the town in the League of Cities.
Millar also paid two fines totaling $450 in 2009 for circulating campaign material without the proper paid political advertisement disclaimer.
Councilwoman Stella Jordan was fined $200 last month by state elections officials for using the name of a defunct political action committee in a disclaimer when she was running a petition drive in late 2009 and early 2010 to amend the town charter.
Both Millar’s and Jordan’s violations were labeled “minor” by elections officials.
Five ethics complaints against town officials — including Jordan, Councilwoman Susan Lillybeck and three Planning Board members — were filed by Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn owner Pjeter Paloka
and remain unresolved. 

Meg Mallon (left) and Beth Daniel will host this year’s Bethesda Pro-Am Golf Tournament. Photo by Jerry Lower

Daniel and Mallon hosting Bethesda benefit  

By Craig Dolch
   
It has been six months since Meg Mallon retired as a professional golfer, but the reality is about to set in when the 2011 LPGA Tour’s schedule soon begins and her calendar isn’t filling up with tournament dates and travel information.
“That’s when it’s really going to hit me,” Mallon said. “I’m not preparing to play tournament golf like I usually am. But I know I made the right decision. That’s the good news.”
At 47, Mallon knew it was time to step away from the game when she was no longer getting mad about poor shots. Her decision came on the eve of last year’s U.S. Women’s Open, a championship she had won twice among her standout, 18-victory, four-major LPGA career.
But it’s not like she’s been hanging out in a rocking chair at her Ocean Ridge home, going through old photos. She thinks she’s actually traveling as much now as she was during her 23-year career.
Mallon has been busy buying a home to renovate in her native Michigan; she has played in a couple of Legends events; she assists the LPGA Tour in various capacities — she will be the captain of the U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team; and she hopes to someday start an American junior golf academy.
Moreover, on Jan. 17, she and LPGA Hall of Famer Beth Daniel host the Bethesda Pro-Am Golf Tournament at The Falls Country Club in Lake Worth. Starting last year, Mallon and Daniel took over a tournament that was run by Bob Murphy and Laurie Hammer for four decades at Delray Dunes Country Club.
“Bob was ready to move on, and for Beth and myself, this is a great opportunity to give back because for both of us, Bethesda is our community hospital,” Mallon said. “This is the first time we’re going to hold the tournament on Martin Luther King Day, and we hope to make that our permanent date.”
Mallon has plenty of personal reasons to give back to the medical community, because her family has endured several tragedies in the last decade. Her father died of a heart attack in late 2005, four years after her mother suffered a disabling brain hemorrhage (her mother was recently placed in hospice for the second time). If that weren’t enough, Mallon’s older sister, Tricia, lost a long battle with a rare form of abdominal cancer in 2009.
“Big family, big love, big problems,” said Mallon, who put her career on hold several times to assist with her family.
That devotion likely cost Mallon a chance to earn Hall of Fame honors (she is five points short of the automatic number of 27). Mallon, whose last win came in 2004, could also get in the Hall of Fame through a vote from the veteran’s committee.
“I would think she would have a chance to eventually get in the Hall of Fame,” said former LPGA President Judy Dickinson, who chaired the committee that drew up the Hall of Fame criteria.
“There are a number of players who had great careers that were cut short either by injuries or things in their family. The thing about Meg is she was a heckuva player. You don’t win four majors unless you are a very good player.”
As accomplished a player as Mallon was, her peers always say she was an even better person.
“She was one of the most well-liked players on tour,” Dickinson said. “She was extremely fan friendly and terrific with the sponsors. She gave all the ways you can give.”
Former LPGA pro Dottie Pepper also praised Mallon’s tenacity and personality.
“I suppose her biggest impact was her ability to always grind out a round or a tournament when her game wasn’t firing on every cylinder,” Pepper said. “She always had a ‘glass half-full’ attitude and I loved the fact success did not change her one bit.”
Mallon moved to Ocean Ridge in 1999 — not far from where she won her first LPGA title in 1991, the Oldsmobile LPGA Classic in Lake Worth. The shift proved to be beneficial for her career, as she won half of her 18 titles in the next six years.
“I went on to have the best years of my career after I moved here,” she says. “I don’t think that was a coincidence.”
In addition to the two U.S. Women’s Opens, Mallon’s other major titles were the 1991 Mazda LPGA Championship and the 2000 du Maurier Classic. She also played on eight Solheim Cup teams.
Mallon was recently elected into the Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame; it will mark the fourth time she has been inducted into a hall of fame (she’s also in the Ohio State University Hall of Fame, the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame).
She’s not ready to ruminate yet, however.
Mallon said her biggest priority is to work with the LPGA to start the American junior golf academies. Having been with the LPGA during its heyday of the 1990s and early-2000s, Mallon knows the tour needs assistance by finding younger stars.
“We have great programs in place such as the First Tee and the American Junior Golf Association, but there are gaps where we lose the kids,” Mallon said. “They find reasons not to continue in the game. We’re trying to fill those gaps, and that’s something I have a lot of passion for doing.”
                1/17 - 2nd Annual Bethesda Pro-Am Golf Tournament is held at The Falls Country Club, 6455 Jog Road, Lake Worth. Play begins at 12:30 pm with a shotgun start. Admission is free for spectators. 737-7733, Ext. 5600.                     

Meg Mallon still busy in retirement

By Craig Dolch

Beth Daniel always made a quick impact in golf.
  She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur the first time she entered the event, in 1975, and she was named the LPGA Tour’s Rolex Rookie of the Year in 1979. Those moments served as a springboard to a Hall of Fame career in which the Delray Beach resident won 33 LPGA titles — including a major —three Rolex Player of the Year awards and the Vare Trophy three times for low scoring average.
Now Daniel is hoping to make a swift impact in something just as meaningful — the charity golf tournament she and former LPGA pro Meg Mallon have taken over hosting for the Bethesda Hospital Foundation.
 “I have said that when I stopped playing on tour that it would make sense to get involved in the community I live in.” Daniel said.
Daniel grew up in Charleston, S.C., making such an impact in the junior golf there that the top junior golfer receives the Beth Daniel Award.
As a pro, she was named Female Athlete of the Year by United Press International, after seven wins, including the 1990 Mazda LPGA Championship. In 2003, she became the oldest winner (46 years, 9 months) to win an LPGA event when she captured the BMO Financial Group Women’s Canadian Open, breaking a record JoAnne Carner had held for 18 years.
Daniel retired in 2007, but in 2009 she led the U.S. team to a victory in the Solheim Cup and continues to remain in golf as a commentator on the Golf Channel.
The Second Annual Bethesda Hospital Foundation Pro-Am Golf Tournament will be held Jan. 17 at The Falls Country Club in Lake Worth.
In the 41 years the predecessor event was held, it raised more than $3 million, helping to build a new heart Institute at Bethesda Hospital that opened in 2009.
Among the players scheduled to play are three World Golf Hall of Famers — Daniel, Karrie Webb of Boynton Beach and Nancy Lopez — plus Mallon, Murphy, Webb, Jay Sigel, Michelle McGann, Kelly Robbins, Angela Stanford, Beth Bader, Meaghan Francella, Nicole Hage, Stacy Lewis, Leta Lindley and Karen Stupples.
Pending availability, amateur foursomes are $6,000 to play.
Spectator parking is available for $5 at the Pinewood Square on the southeast corner of Lantana and Jog roads, starting at 11 a.m. A trolley will transport spectators to and from The Falls. The last trolley leaves from the golf course
at 5:30 p.m.

By Steve Plunkett
   
Mail carriers here will be extra-busy this month delivering straw ballots on burying Gulf Stream’s power lines, first-class notices on possibly annexing part of the county pocket and fliers from the Civic Association on both issues.
The straw ballots are due back at Town Hall by 2 p.m.
Feb. 7. The annexation referendum will be March 8 if the proposal survives two public hearings.
Residents will have to decide the issues on their own.
“Keep in mind, the council, the town is not saying we’re for it or against it,’’ Mayor William Koch Jr. said during a December discussion of annexation, echoing comments he made earlier on the underground project. “That’s why we want the referendum, for the people of the town to make the decision. “
Both proposals would make big changes in town. Overhead lines for electricity, telephones and cable TV would vanish below ground if a simple majority of property owners agree to pay their share of the $5 million project. If the county pocket is annexed, town limits would shift north to St. Andrew’s Club on both sides of State Road A1A, Gulf Stream’s population would swell by more than 33 percent, from just over 700 to roughly 960, and its tax base would grow by $93 million.
Annexation “has been something that’s been talked about for many years, the pros and cons of it,’’ Koch said. “And that’s why we’re bringing it to this vote, to once and for all either settle taking it in or not taking it in.’’
Consultants on that issue and the underground proposal updated town commissioners at their December meeting.
Marty Minor of Urban Design Kilday Studios said the county pocket has 12 properties with approximately 100 dwelling units and 93 registered Florida voters. If it is annexed, police and fire-rescue services would shift from the county to the town’s police and Delray Beach fire-rescue, which contracts with the town.
Timing is critical, Minor said. To get the referendum on the ballot, the town must hold two public hearings, with the second at least 30 days before the March 8 vote. That meant commissioners had to change their Feb. 11 meeting to Feb. 4.
Commissioner Muriel Anderson opposed rescheduling the meeting and possibly having some residents unaware of the change, but Commissioner Chris Wheeler objected to having two meetings on consecutive Fridays.
“How often are we going to annex something? I mean, come on,’’ he said.
The annexation possibility has already affected the underground project’s timetable. Consulting engineer Danny Brannon said if the project is approved, work would begin on the south end of town first and last six to eight months before the north segment starts.
“At that point in time we would have clarity on the annexation issue,’’ Brannon said.
The town manager, town clerk and representatives of the town’s auditor and the Civic Association will tally the underground ballots after the straw poll ends Feb. 7. Commissioners were concerned that a proposed ballot did not have enough room for two signatures for cases of jointly held property.
Susan Schoettle-Gumm of consultant Wildan Financial Services said ballots could not go to all owners because they might be returned with opposite, canceling votes, but said she would alter the design to provide space for multiple owners.
Accompanying the straw ballots will be site-specific estimates, from $880 to $1,265 per parcel depending mostly on whether the property already has underground lines.
Bob Ganger, president of the Civic Association, reminded commissioners that similar straw polls won a 90 percent approval in Jupiter Island and 75 percent in Jupiter Inlet Colony.    

What’s Next:
Jan. 4: Notices of proposed annexation sent by first-class mail.
Jan. 10: Underground information packet/straw ballot delivered to each property owner in project area.
Jan. 12: Civic Association community meeting on undergrounding, 5:30 p.m. at Gulf Stream School Chapel, 3600 Gulf Stream Road.
Jan. 14: Town Commission has first reading of annexation ordinance,      9 a.m.
Feb. 3: Civic Association community meeting on undergrounding, 5:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
Feb. 4: Commission has final reading of annexation ordinance,
9 a.m.
Feb. 7: Underground straw ballots must be turned in at Town Hall by 2 p.m.
March 8: Registered voters in Gulf Stream and county pocket cast ballots in annexation referendum.

Mike Nevard, chairman of the South Palm Beach Planning and Zoning Board, and frequent bookmobile patron checks out the Bookmobile’s offerings. Photos by Jerry Lower

By Ron Hayes

The Palm Beach County Library System boasts 17 branches, from Boca Raton to Tequesta, West Palm Beach to Pahokee.
And one with no permanent address.
The library’s roving Bookmobile stops at 43 sites throughout the county, but South Palm Beach is its biggest and busiest fan.
“Most of our stops are bi-weekly,” says Wayne Reimsnyder, who supervises the Bookmobile operation. “But South Palm Beach is weekly. It’s our busiest stop during the season, and though circulation dwindles off-season, we still go every week.”
Forty feet bumper to bumper, the school bus-style Bookmobile rumbles down South Ocean Boulevard every Friday morning and backs into the Town Hall parking lot promptly at 10 o’clock for a two-hour visit.
Waiting inside are 2,500 items — new books in large print, regular print and audio — as well as music CDs. No DVDs on board, but tell them what you want and they’ll bring it next week.
Because space is limited, the Bookmobile tends to stock only newer books, and because Michael Bartow, the regular driver, knows many of the users by name, he offers customized service.
“Michael knows I love the Jan Karon series,” says Town Clerk Janet Whipple, “so when her newest book came out, he put in a reservation and saved it for me.”
Those audio books are especially appreciated by Whipple, who commutes from Pahokee every weekday.
“The Art of Racing in the Rain was absolutely phenomenal,” she says. “Oh, that was great. Michael just works with everybody when he gets a gist of what they like.”
On a recent Friday morning, Bartow was absent on an annual leave day, so assistant John Campbell was in charge, assisted by library associate Karen Marks.
“I’d estimate we check out between 70 and a hundred items every week,” Campbell said, “and we see about 50 visitors.”
The Bookmobile was always busy, but never crowded. Borrowers came and went, stopped to chat with friends, ask about books, recommend books.
“The Bookmobile is the best invention in the whole world,” gushed Sandy Seidman, “and these are the greatest people. They get every book you want. All my friends know I make no appointments for Friday mornings because I have to come here first.”
Anyone with a county library card is welcome to use the Bookmobile. You don’t have to live in South Palm Beach to borrow materials. But because the town of Palm Beach is outside the library’s taxing district, residents pay $15 for a six-month privilege, or $30 a year.
Phyllis Kuby has been paying the fee for five years.
“This is the best thing in the neighborhood,” she said while waiting to check out a book. “It’s so convenient and the people are the nicest, most considerate people you’d ever want to meet.”
While Kuby waited, Mayor Don Clayman picked up John Grisham’s latest, The Confession, for his wife.
“I’m reading American Assassin by Vince Flynn,” he said. “I love a good spy book.”
And so they come and go, emptying their book bags and filling them again, at the busiest Bookmobile stop in Palm Beach County.
“Off-season, it’s not that many,” says Whipple. “But in-season, it’s like a blue-light special in there.”   

Mrs. Claus, aka Bev Williams, spreads holiday cheer throughout Briny Breezes. Photo by Jerry Lower

By Tim Norris

At Briny Breezes, Santa takes a back seat. This is Mrs. Claus, red dress, white bonnet, lacey apron and all, and she is coming to hug the calories out of everyone she meets.
The cookies she’s handing out should put the calories right back on again.
Even on this chilly December afternoon, palm tops flailing in a brisk wind, anyone seeing (or hearing) her seasonal cheer would even say she glows. And no need to dream of a white Christmas; the permanent mobile homes of Briny Breezes shine white in the sunlight.
Mrs. Claus, otherwise known as Bev Williams, carries joy in her voice.  With her rounded figure and her robust laugh, she seems born to Claus. “I don’t even think about getting cold!” she says.
Up Cordova, down Juniper, up Hibiscus, down Ruthmary, Mrs. Claus and her entourage meet and greet. “We wanna be loud!” she says. “We’re spreading the cheer!”
They won’t come across Dasher or Dancer, but they might find a masher and a flasher: the romancer they call “Don Juan” and the good gentleman who, at home, prefers the natural look. “Sometimes he wears a shirt,” Karen Wiggins says.
What they expect to find are neighbors, some recovering from illness, some lonely, most ready for holiday spirit, free of buy-and-sell.
On the lead vehicle, a mechanical sleigh looking curiously like a golf cart, the helper elf, Joanne Doyle, bounces on the back seat, cradling a tray stacked in cookies, 10 to a foil-wrapped plate, with more beside her, 127  dozen in all.  Wiggins, as the Grinch, is driving.
“I am the Grinch,” she says, but nobody is buying it. She can scowl all she wants, but even a stranger can see the reaction to familiar faces, when Grinch turns to grin.
Mrs. Claus seems permanently grinny. Her spouse, Lew, in his red Ohio State cap, is driving the support vehicle, a second golf cart with more trays of cookies shifting on the seat next to him.
One of the first trailers of call might be Mrs. Claus’s favorite. She announces, “YOOO-hooo! Marguerite! Merry Christmas! How are ya, darlin’?”
Marguerite Sanford, Lew says, is 100 years old. Maybe 101. Trading hugs, taking the cookies, she shows the glow of someone far younger finding a present under a tree. “Hi, how are you?” Marguerite says, beaming. “You didn’t have those glasses on last time.”
“I get so excited, they slide down my nose!” Bev says. “Are you feeling good?”
“Pretty good. Don’t walk too well, but otherwise....” She looks great, everyone says. “Thank you, thank you,” Marguerite says. “And thanks for coming by!”
While his wife was baking, Lew Williams was making a list, built from the Briny Breezes  directory, and now Wiggins is checking it twice. At each scheduled door, a holiday happens.    
“Hiiii, Jim, ha-HA-haha!  Merry Christmas! Yoo-hoo, Rosie! Merry Christmas to you, honey!
Alone, in couples, stepping away from a book or TV set or dinner on the stove, shooing a cat back into the house, neighbors push out into the chill wind, break into wide smiles, answer with “Thank you!” or “I just want to look at you!”or ”I think it’s a really cool, wonderful thing you guys are doing,” adding a chorus of laughs to Bev’s infectious solo.
Then, here we go, the moocher-and-smoocher. Name Don, nickname Don Juan. “Last year, he gave me a Christmas goose,” Bev says, and glances at her backside.
“Hey, little girl,” Don calls, “I’ve got candy inside!”  Bye, Don.
Trying to play Grinch, Wiggins cannot keep the good woman down. “Don’t be walking up and down the stairs; you’re gonna get too tired!” she calls. Too late. Again, Bev is up the steps, calling, handing, hugging. Again. Again. Again.
“Doing this just feels so good,” Bev says. This is their third day of giveaway (another elf, Kay Hall, also sat where Joanne sits now), covering nearly 100 stops among the households of Briny Breezes.
This is their third year. “I started for the ones who are sick, the ones who had lost their spouses, and the ones who are real, real lonely,” Bev Williams says. “But the first year, when we were going down the street, people would come out of their mobile and stand around looking. Oh, cookies! I knew we better share. Each year it gets bigger and bigger.”
Bev Williams has to contend with a heart condition and she admits that she’s been told to slow down. “I won’t do it,” she says. “If I die, I’ll die happy.” 
Mrs. Claus and her mister will return to the North Pole (they call it Maryland) and then come back, as they have for 10 years, and join their neighbors. The cookies might be gone, but she’ll always bake more and, as Lew Williams knows, his
wife never runs out of hugs.