Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is coming… to the stage at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center! The New Tampa Players, New Tampa’s community theater troupe, is preparing to open its summer production of “The Music Man.”
This classic musical features toe-tapping tunes, colorful costumes and a cast filled with neighbors, teachers and students. “The Music Man” is bringing people together both onstage and off.
“The New Tampa Players (NTP) chose ‘Music Man’ for this summer because it is just fun that will have our audiences humming the tunes for days! It has big dance numbers, silly comedy and characters that make you smile!,” says NTP producing artistic director Nora Paine.
The cast of 40 includes a wide range of community members — from first-time performers to stage veterans. David Groomes and Becky Groomes, veterans of the Tampa stage, join NTP’s cast as the con man Harold Hill and the River City mayor’s wife Eulalie Shinn. Melanie Marie Bierwieler, who earned raves as Lina in last summer’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” plays the female lead, Marian Paroo, River City’s prim and skeptical librarian.
Set in 1912, “The Music Man,” which won five Tony Awards in 1958, including Best Musical, was written by Meredith Wilson. It tells the story of Harold Hill (originally played by Tony winner Robert Preston and by Hugh Jackman in the 2022 Broadway revival), a charming con man who poses as a traveling bandleader. He arrives in River City, Iowa, planning to sell instruments and uniforms to the townspeople, and then skip town without teaching the children how to play.
However, Harold’s plan starts to unravel when he falls for Marian (originally played by Tony winner Barbara Cook on Broadway), the town’s librarian and piano teacher. As he grows genuinely fond of Marian and the community, Harold inadvertently brings the town together — creating a boys’ band and actually lifting local spirits.
In the end, despite being exposed as a fraud, Harold is forgiven by the townspeople, thanks in large part to Marian’s support and the unexpected positive impact he ends up having on the town. The show celebrates themes of transformation, redemption and community.
Whether you know every lyric to “Seventy-Six Trombones” or are new to River City, “The Music Man” promises an unforgettable night of music, heart and good old-fashioned fun.
Performances will run Fridays-Sundays, July 25-27 and August 1-3 at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center, with both evening and matinee options. Tickets can be purchased at NewTampaPlayers.thundertix.com. For more info, visit NewTampaPlayers.org or see the ad below. — Special to the Neighborhood News, including the photos on this page.
The memory board of Dave displayed during the celebration of Life
Join Us When The Former Proprietor Also Will Be Celebrated At Stonewood Grill On Monday, July 28, 1 P.M.-???
Even though I had met David (“Dave”) Rathbun when he managed the Carrabba’s Italian Grill on N. 56th St. in Temple Terrace, I didn’t really get to know him until 2002, when he opened the first Stonewood Grill & Tavern in the Tampa Bay area.
There weren’t a lot of great restaurants in our area at that time — heck, there weren’t a lot of restaurants, period — but Stonewood became New Tampa’s favorite restaurant pretty much from the day it opened and there’s no doubt that Dave had as much to do with it as the restaurant’s steaks and seafood.
The way Dave seemed to remember everyone’s name after one or, at the most, two times meeting them, the way he made sure his instant slew of regulars always got their favorite table or seat at the bar — literally everything about the guy was warm, funny and genuine. He was the very definition of the word “hospitable” in the hospitality industry.
(L.-r.) Emily Barreira, Gina & Dave Rathbun (Photo provided by Emily Barreira)
I didn’t know that Dave’s wife Gina was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, better known to many as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”) for the first several years she was stricken with it, and it wasn’t because Dave didn’t talk about Gina. It was because he constantly talked about how wonderful she was, what a great mom she was to her daughter (and Dave’s beloved stepdaughter) Emily and what a talented artist Gina was. The first time I found out Gina was ill was when Dave asked if I could publish an article about her in the paper to show some of her art, which I did and I wish I could’ve found the issue with that story before I went to press with this issue.
Now, mind you, Dave Rathbun never asked me to write anything about Stonewood. He literally had never asked me for anything until that day. And, for the first time ever, I saw pain behind his ever-present, infectious smile.
When Dave left Stonewood, a lot of people were heartbroken. There were some who told me that they couldn’t keep going to their favorite place if Dave wasn’t there anymore.
The next time I heard from Dave was in 2023, when he had accepted a position as a manager at Bella Brava New World Trattoria in The Hub at Bexley (off S.R. 54 in Lutz) , which opened a few months later. He introduced me to general manager Tina Stormer and made sure the Neighborhood News was on-hand for Bella Brava’s “Friends & Family” pre-opening and introduced us to co-owner Thomas Sanborn, who was the original chef at Stonewood when Dave opened it.
Dave seemed to thrive in his new position at Bella Brava, but in April, he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that affects the kidneys. Suddenly, after years as Gina’s primary caregiver, Dave was receiving dialysis treatments three days a week for several weeks.
In June, Dave decided to work a full shift at Bella Brava, even though Emily — who is a nurse with two degrees — was concerned that her stepdad wasn’t fully recovered from his weeks of dialysis treatment. He just loved the work.
But, when Dave got home, he told the caregiver that he wasn’t feeling well. He went to sleep…and never woke up.
At only age 69, the man who loved his wife for 28 years and had taken care of her for the last 17 years as she struggled with ALS, was gone.
Tiny quickly organized a Celebration of Life in Dave’s honor and memory on July 14 and an estimated crowd of 300-400 people showed up to hear his family and closest friends talk about what a wonderful husband, father, brother, friend and manager of people he was. Here are a few excerpts from the speeches given about Dave that day:
Dave’s stepdaughter Emily Barreira & her mom & Dave’s wife Gina Rathbun (Photos by Charmaine George)
Gina (Emily read a letter from her Mom to her husband Dave): “From the moment David came into our lives, he became a second father figure to Emily, loving her as if she were his own. He was endlessly dedicated and loyal not just to me, but to our whole family. He showed his love through his strength and unwavering support by always putting us first. David, you carried your confidence and kindness with you. Wherever you went, your compassion touched countless lives, and your love will always remain alive in the hearts of everyone who had the privilege to know you. But, you left me so fast and unexpectedly. I love you more than you will ever know, and I will miss your radiant smile everyday. Your love is the lasting legacy you left with me and your family. Your kindness was a true gift to everyone who had the chance to know you.”
Emily: “David always had a favorite story that he love to share. When I was four years old, I was sitting out in the living room with him watching TV. My mom came over and reminded me that it was time to go to bed. I looked up at her and said, ‘No, mommy, I can’t go to bed. I’m watching baseball with my ‘little stepdaddy.’ From that day on, that’s what he was to me… my little step daddy. He instantly became my bonus dad at a very young age and supported me throughout the rest of my life.”
Dave’s brother Paul Rathbun
Paul (Dave’s brother): “When I was 16 years old, and we lived in Boston. David, John myself and Dave’s friend Tim took us to see the Trammps, a disco band in the seventies, and they were pretty hot at the time. There were a lot of problems with that evening, not the least of which was that four of us were under age. The five of us were invited on stage to sing the finale, “Disco Inferno” with the group. It was amazing. Okay, it was the seventies. Dave loved his family, He loved the restaurant. He loved the people he worked with. He loved his customers. He just loved people.
“Dave loved reading his devotionals. A recent one he shared was, ‘He’s Preparing a Place for You.’ Jesus promised that he’s preparing a place for us, a place where we will be with him forever. It’s not the size of the room or how fancy it is. It’s about being in his presence, where there’s joy, peace and love that never ends. Dave, you have fought the good fight. You finished the race. You have kept the faith. Well done, my brother.”
Dave’s brother John Rathbun
John (Dave’s brother): “He and I talked about the power of positive thinking — in the things you do, the things you say, the things you think — it all determines your destiny and the energy you give off to people. Dave greatly valued his family, connecting with his creator, and mentoring his coworkers. He loved his customers and obviously, his friends, and many of his customers became his friends.
“The French have a phrase “‘Joie de vivre,’ which means “the joy of life.” I think Dave possessed that. He put a lot of effort into his relationships with his coworkers and his customers. and he brought a lot of joy to you guys and, to be honest, you brought a lot of joy to him, too.”
Dave’s close family friend Tim
Tim (Dave’s long-time friend): “Dave had gone to school for physical education but when he moved here, he was going to nursing school and he was working in an Italian restaurant (Lorenzo’s). And I would come down from Tennessee to visit and you could just tell that he loved it. I soon realized that he all the things that he could do as a P.E. teacher, he could do in the restaurant business.
“He mentored so many people and was a great coach. He was so inspirational to so many people. I’ll never forget that we were working on a paint crew here in Florida. I was going to school, and I’m borrowing money to go to school and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I was really beating myself up and I had one conversation with Dave and he said to me, ‘Timmy, don’t worry about it. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. You’re smart, you’re a hard worker and people like you. Just focus on doing the best that you can every day and treat people around you the way you want to be treated, and you’ll be successful.”
Dave’s friend Kelly Barnett
Kelly (another long-time friend): “I worked at the Olive Garden in New Tampa, right across the parking lot from Stonewood. Dave and I had worked together like 30 years before that, and we end up working right next to each other. So, one day I was eating there and I’m just watching him.
“I knew what he was like, but I never got old to watch him work a dining room. He knows everybody by name. And he knows something about each of them. It’s not like he’s just out there saying, ‘Hey, how’s your dinner?’ And the person I was with was also in the restaurant business. And they said, ‘Oh my God, he’s like the Mayor of Stonewood!”
Bella Brava Bexley GM Tina Stormer (with Emily & her husband Ryan Barreira)
Tina (Bella Brava GM): We closed the restaurant today so all of our employees could be here to celebrate Dave. He was the definition of hospitality at its best. They called him ‘Diamond Dave’ for a reason. If he didn’t know who you were when you walked in, he would definitely know you by the time you left.”
Please join us for a second Celebration of ‘Dimond Dave’ Rathbun’s life on Monday, July 28, 1 p.m., at Stonewood Grill & Tavern.
(l-r) Dave’s brother Mark Rathbun, his sister Martha Peddle (with Paul) & his sister Mary DeSantis
Grand Hampton residents Diane Royer and her father and former WWII Buffalo Soldier Roy Caldwood
Editor’s note — One week after I interviewed Cory Lake Isles resident and retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Remo Butler — the first-ever Black General of the U.S. Special Forces — on the same day Gen. Butler attended the celebration of the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army in downtown Tampa on June 14 , I interviewed former U.S. Army vet, “Buffalo Soldier” and Grand Hampton resident Roy Caldwood, who took a very different path to becoming the true American hero he is today.
Gen. Butler and Army PFC (private first class) Roy Caldwood were both honored during that June 14 celebration and the two have become friends over the past couple of years, thanks in no small part to an introduction of the two by District 7 Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera.
Although I was hoping to tell Roy’s story in the same edition as Gen. Butler’s, I wasn’t able to schedule both interviews before I had to go to press with that June 24 issue, so the first half of Roy’s own amazing story appears in this issue instead. — GN
The first time I met World War II veteran and Grand Hampton resident Roy Caldwood, his 101st birthday was being celebrated at Grace Episcopal Church in Tampa Palms (the church Roy and his daughter Diane Royer attend) in Aug. 2023.
After that encounter, I told Roy I was excited to buy his book entitled Making The Right Moves: Rikers Island & NYC Corrections; Being Calm in the Storm about his harrowing experience as an assistant deputy warden who was held hostage during a riot at the notorious Rikers Island prison in his native New York City in 1972 (more than two decades after he completed his military service).
I also said that the next time I interviewed Roy, I wanted to talk about not only the two Rikers Island riots he survived but also his experiences as a “Buffalo Soldier” during WWII. In fact, today Roy may be the last surviving member of that 92nd Infantry Division, which was the only Black regiment that saw combat during the war.
I say “may be” because, according to the AI response I received during a Google search, the last surviving Buffalo Soldier was a man named Robert Dixon, who passed away in Nov. 2024 at the age of 103 — the same age Roy Caldwood is today. (So, for those of you who believe everything AI tells you, try doing some research on your own sometimes.)
But, Roy is not only still very much alive, he is a vibrant man who can still do “probably 40” pushups (although he says 20-30 is his usual limit) and who loves recounting his stories of the Second World War and his century-plus-long lifetime of amazing stories. If you ever get the chance to meet him, ask him to tell you one story and you will end up being regaled by many tales of bravery, heroism and true evidence of why the members of the American military who fought in — and ultimately won —WWII have been dubbed “The Greatest Generation.”
From Humble Beginnings
Roy J. Caldwood was born in New York City on July 10, 1922. Although his parents never divorced, he says they were separated because his mother, a devout Christian, could not deal with his father’s gambling.
“My father didn’t live very far from us,” Roy says. “He worked as an elevator operator and when I became a teenager and wanted to take a young lady on a date, I would visit my father at work and he’d give me a dollar. But I was raised without a father and the discipline that many of my buddies had growing up.”
In fact, Roy says, when he was picked on by bullies at school — which happened a lot because he was small and slight — he had to run home to get his “sister” (actually a cousin that Roy’s mother raised) to help him fight his battles. “If I went home and got my sister,” he laughs, “those boys would be scared.”
Eventually, a much larger classmate at the Parochial school he attended, “even though we weren’t Catholic,” took pity on him, “and taught me how to box. After a couple of lessons, I didn’t need my sister to fight my battles for me anymore.”
He admits that the nuns at the Catholic school were the only ones who ever really disciplined him. “If our teacher left the room and came back, she’d ask, ‘Who was talking while I was out?’ and some of the kids would rat on each other,” which could cause them to get whacked on the knuckles by a ruler. “That was enough to keep me from getting out of line too often.”
He also recalls an incident where, “I guess I did something bad. I don’t remember exactly what I did, but one thing I’ll never forget was that the nuns called for a bigger guy, an older student, and he picked me up and stuffed me in the dumbwaiter. I’ll never forget that. But, it was actually good for me. I learned how to control myself.”
On To The Army
After high school, Roy says he went to his draft board and mentioned that he was interested in medicine. “They put me in the Army, with 16 other Black guys, and said they were going to put us in a medical outpost or something, but they sent us to Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia and we formed a basketball team. And we were good. But then, I heard about this guy they called ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton, and I said, ‘We gotta this guy,’ so we drafted him and we played against colleges in the south…and beat the hell out of them.” (Note-Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton went on to become one of the first Black players in the then-fledgling NBA after serving in WWII from 1942-45.)
When they weren’t shooting hoops, Roy says that all he and his basketball buddies did at Patrick Henry was kill mosquitoes, “and we all hated it. But then, I read an article in Stars & Stripes magazine that the 92nd Infantry Division was badly in need of more help, so I got two of my buddies to go with me and we were sent off to Fort Huachuca in (southeast) Arizona,” which was the base of operations for the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Regiment from 1913-33 and was home to 25,000 soldiers during WWII.
“So, they put me and my two buddies in the medical unit and we had to pass a test to become Army medical/surgical technicians, and we all passed, no problem.”
But then, Roy says he got diarrhea and ended up in the hospital. He says the Army was “breaking down Black combat outfits and making them into labor battalions. They had already done that with the only Black division that they had before — the 93rd — and they sent them to the Pacific. They were going to do the same thing with the 92nd, but the Black leaders fought them. So, they came to a compromise. They said, ‘We’ll allow one infantry unit to go to Italy and go into combat and see how they do. In the meantime, I’m in the hospital trying to get out, and they wouldn’t let me out, so I just left.”
Roy says he went to the Day Room and spoke to the clerk there, who said, “Well, you have to pass the ‘Fit to Fight’ test, so you can qualify if the 92nd Infantry Division does go overseas.”
But, even though he had just left the hospital, “I’m dragging, you know, but I still passed. The only problem was that they made my two buddies corporals, but not me. They made me a private.”
Off To War
So the 370 Regiment (which participated in the Allied assault on the Gothic Line, including the capture of Lucca, Italy, as part of the 92nd Infantry Division) did just fine in battle.
“But, you read nothing about us in the American papers, while the European papers were full of news about the ‘Buffalos.’ But they said, ‘O.K., the rest of the 92nd division can go over.”
In 1944, as the European campaign was winding down (Note – In Sept. 1943, Italy was no longer allied with Germany, after fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was ousted), Roy says he and the rest of the 92nd went in zigzag on a boat, “because the Germans were right there and, as we were approaching Italy, the boat tried to stop at one island, but they asked , ‘Do you have Blacks on board?’ They said, ‘Yes,’ so they said, ‘Well, then you can’t stop here.’”
But then, the boat pulled up into Naples, where there were a lot of black longshoremen, “and oh, were they happy to see us,” Roy says. “They said, we are having a horrible time here because of the ‘Ugly Americans.’ The Italian longshoremen called White Americans ‘Ugly” because they looked down their noses at every other country. So, they were happy as hell to see us and they said, ‘We’ve been following you guys, so you won’t be having any problems anymore.’”
After spending that one night in Naples, the 92nd proceeded on to Viareggio.
“I think it was maybe the first morning, and I hear us firing our mortars,” Roy says. “I go outside and I see the lieutenant and the squad, and they’re practicing their mortars. They say, ‘If the Germans come, they can come two ways — over the mountain, and we have a platoon up there, and we’re protecting down below.’”
Roy says he said to himself, “They should be warning the people where these mortars are falling. And then, I hear the sergeant say, ‘I think we hit one of their mules.’ I wanted to do something to warn the people in the village, but I can’t tell the lieutenant what to do. I’m just a medic. But, I can go warn these people myself. So, I said to the sergeant, ‘I am going over there to tell the people that we’re practicing our mortars and it’s a dangerous area, so they should take precautions — go in their houses and safeguard their animals.’
“The sergeant said to me, ‘You can go over there, but I am not going to stop firing the mortars.’ So, I said to him. ‘I’m going over there. You can keep on firing those mortars over there. But, if you don’t kill me, do not be here when I come back.’”
He adds, “Then, the lieutenant says to me, ‘You don’t talk to my sergeant like that.’ I said, ‘OK, fine.’ But, I still went over there to warn them and came back and nobody said anything.”
But then, over the next couple of days, one of the soldiers came to Roy and said he had a rash on his back. “I looked at it and said, “I’m sending you back to the rear. You need treatment. I can’t help you here [on the front lines].
“But, the lieutenant said, ‘Private, I don’t have enough soldiers up here now. You can’t send anybody back to the rear.’
“But, I didn’t pay him any attention,” Roy says. “I sent [the soldier] back to the rear anyway. I knew when he was supposed to be going out on patrol. And, when that day came, I picked up a rifle and took off my gear and I took his place. The lieutenant was surprised.
“But, that started it. From then on, any suggestion I made to the lieutenant, he’d say, ‘O.K.’ And yes, I made all kinds of suggestions.”
For example, Roy got the lieutenant to agree to allow the soldiers to have a dance — “Even the lieutenant danced the night away — because I said I thought it would be a good idea for morale, and it was. That was the first of many ‘O.K.s’ I got from him.”
The ‘Purple Heart Stretch’
As the American troops were moving through Viareggio, they were notified about a dangerous stretch of road known as the “Purple Heart Stretch.”
“When we got into this village,” Roy says, “the lieutenant called for a meeting of the townspeople and told them, ‘You will not be allowed to leave this village for any reason whatsoever. Nobody leaves this village.’ And this guy, he’s like the mayor of the village, or whatever, says to the lieutenant, ‘We have not been able to buy food. I don’t know why. And we are all really getting hungry. We need food very badly.’
“But then, the lieutenant says, ‘I told you, nobody leaves!’ But, I’m always trying to solve problems and I’m thinking, ‘I gotta help these people,’ but what can I say? The captain already gave the lieutenant his orders — ‘Nobody leaves the village.’ So, what can I say?”
So, Roy says to the lieutenant,“What if I escorted them myself, since I speak Italiano. And again, the lieutenant says, ‘O.K.’ So now, he’s defying his captain’s orders, and he’s gonna listen to a private — me — instead!
“I said, ‘O.K., but I’ll have to take two volunteers with me. And right away, guys are saying, ‘I’ll go.’ I say ‘We leave in the morning.’ But, next morning. No stores. I know, great. That takes care of that. But, I hear a lot of noise — we were upstairs and there’s a lot of noise downstairs. And I say, ‘The women are there. My guys are there. I gotta be there. I cut downstairs and I said, let’s go. We’ll let the women lead the way. I didn’t want it to look like I’m walking behind these women’s skirts, so I let them walk way ahead. We weren’t walking very long when I looked where we were and I damn near fainted. I said, ‘We’re on the Purple Heart Stretch!’
“The Germans can look down from the mountain and see us. They can kill us right now. I gotta make a decision what the hell to do. I’m not gonna try to run out of there. I have to convince the Germans that we’re humanitarians — that we’re trying to help people who are starving. I gotta convince them. That’s my only hope. I’m gonna walk with my head straight up, like I don’t give a damn. Like I don’t care if I die. I said, ‘Let’s go’ to my two guys. It’s a good little walk but we get to the store. The women went in. And, when I went in, I saw the store was in complete blackness. I can’t see anything. I said, ‘There’s no getting any food in here. There’s nothing.’ So now, I walked the Purple Heart Stretch for no food, nothing.”
He adds, “Now we gotta go back. So we started off. We got maybe a little more than halfway there and a mortar drops. Boom! So now, I’m lying in the mud there ‘cause they had rain. And I said, ‘It looks like I made a big mistake, but I’m not gonna be able to apologize to these people because I’m gonna be dead.’”
But, Roy says he realized, “Germans don’t generally miss with their mortars — they’re very accurate. So, I’m lying there, waiting for the next one to finish me off, but nothing. So I raise my head up, I look around and I see a partial stone or cement wall and I said to my guys, ‘We’re gonna get behind that cement wall’ and I hollered to the group of women up ahead, ‘To the wall! To the wall!’ And they all get up and they start running and my guys are running. So then, I get up and I run. And, when I get behind the wall, the women had their prayer books and their Rosary beads out and they’re all just crying.
“Just as I made it to the wall, the Germans increased the mortars. They must’ve thrown 30 or 40 of them, and they’re going ‘Boom, Boom, Boom!’ It looked like the more the women prayed, the worse it got. I said to myself, ‘Maybe I should tell them that it isn’t helping. Stop praying.’ But of course, I said nothing to them.
“So then, I’m lying on the ground there, and the mortars are still dropping. And I said to myself, ‘Wait a minute. These mortars are not even falling close enough to kill us. They’re not trying to kill us. They’re talking to us! They’re telling me something.’
“So, I start trying to interpret the mortars. I figured out that the Germans are telling me that they figured out that I’m a humanitarian. I’m actually deciphering what this all means. It’s like they said, ‘We had decided earlier that we will fight to the death.’ But then they said, “Now, we’re not going to kill you.’ So, I said to everyone there, ‘They’re not gonna kill us. I am going to move outside very quickly. If I got it right, I’m alive. If I got it wrong, I’m dead.’
“So I moved outside, and I stood there. And suddenly, no mortars. That’s the God’s honest truth. So I said, ‘Let’s go back.’ And my guys and the women came out, and we all headed back.”
Then, when Roy and his group went back, he says, “The lieutenant was standing outside up there waiting for me. When I met him, he told me, ‘The Germans sent a detachment to the village. They wanted to find out what the hell you were doing there — and our outpost saw them.’
“The men called the lieutenant and told him, ‘We see Germans coming into the village.’ The lieutenant called his captain who told him, ‘I want you to establish new quarters in the town.’ And, the lieutenant, said, ‘I can’t leave now because the doctor’s not here yet.’ So, the captain said to the lieutenant, ‘Don’t bother those Germans. Leave them completely alone.’ ‘Cause he knew if they did, me and my group were dead. The captain says, ‘When he gets back, then you reestablish.’
“So now, I’m back with the lieutenant and we’re hurrying to get to the new quarters down below. So, we get down below and we moved right in because we believed that the Germans were coming to peacefully surrender to us. So, we had to hurry.”
The Surrender Of The Germans
“So now, were back in the house, and we walk in the front room and one of our soldiers yells out to us, ‘The Germans are peacefully surrendering to us!’ So, he and I are running now to help with whatever. I see the lieutenant and the German soldiers lined up in twos, with no Americans standing guard over them. We don’t even have enough guys. They’re busy upstairs processing the other guys…the other Germans… that are still coming. It’s just one big, long line. And I can see what the Germans are saying.
“They said, ‘We have to thank that man for what he is doing. He’s a humanitarian. He has saved our lives. We were going to fight to the death. But now, we are not fighting to the death anymore. We owe our lives to that man now, because we are going home and we are going to do humanitarian work, just like he’s doing.’
“It was like 40 or 50 German soldiers and we only had twelve. All we had was just one platoon. There may have been others behind us, but we didn’t know for sure. And, I don’t really know how many guys the Germans had, but they believed they were gonna die. They said, ‘We have him to thank. He has saved our lives.’
“So now, they’re all lined up and what I want to see now is the guy in charge who didn’t kill me. The one responsible for me still being alive. I just wanna see him. And, as I walk down the line looking, I hear some talking and I’m listening and there are two guys speaking English. And, you know what they’re saying? ‘There he is!’ A couple of times. I could look at them, I could even go over and shake hands with them. But, I said to everybody, ‘Right now, things are going a hundred percent. The Germans are cooperating. There’s nothing I could do now to make this situation any better. I could mess it up by saying or doing something wrong, but I’m not gonna do it.’ We didn’t even have enough guys to stand there and watch them. The lieutenant is saying, ‘I don’t have enough men,’ which was true. The captain knew he didn’t have enough men. So, the lieutenant called for an Italian civilian, a guy who helped us with our supply mules. ‘We need Joe,’ the lieutenant said. ‘I want Joe to escort these prisoners.’
“The Germans had plenty of men and ammunition. More American and allied forces for sure would have died if the Germans had decided to fight to the death. But, one or two days after that, the Army issued an announcement saying that, ‘The Italian campaign is over.’
On Celebrating The Army’s 250th
U.S. Army Brigadier Gen. (ret.) Remo Butler (left) & Roy Caldwood at the U.S. Army 250th Birthday Celebration Ball. (Photo: PamElla Lee Photography)
On June 15, Roy posted on his Facebook page, “So grateful for being honored and invited to the 250th Army Anniversary Ball by Gen. Butler. An awesome evening of giving a toast, cutting the official Army cake and sitting in the Army war jeep behind the steering wheel.”
He adds, “I had no idea how I would be received and my friend, General Butler, also said he had no idea. He said, ‘Roy, you’ve got so many people here!’
“It was great — Generals, their wives…All sitting at the same table! General Butler’s wife was sitting next to me.”
Roy says if he never moved to Florida, he probably would never have met Gen. Butler.
Diane agrees, although she also credits Viera with making the introduction.
“Councilman Viera is who really made the connection. It was at least a year or two in the making. Luis kept saying, ‘Oh, Roy — I’ve got to connect you with the General. And it’s been a fantastic bond and relationship and like a love without them ever knowing each other before.”
As to why the native New Yorker made the move to the Sunshine State, Roy says, “I ended up moving to Florida because my wife, Muriel, was very sick, and we moved in with my daughter, Diane. It was the best move I ever made.”
Diane adds, “They were being considerate of my husband (Donald) and myself, because we moved to Tampa in 2001 and we were having to travel back to New York every time to check on them, even though they were very independent. And then came the pandemic. They decided to move here at the end of 2020 for our sake.”
In our Aug. 19 New Tampa issue, I’ll tell you about Roy’s 21-year career in corrections, including his book about being held hostage on Rikers Island. Thank you, Roy & Diane!
Editor’s note – Unfortunately, due to the timing of our issues, we were not able to get this recap of the extended Florida Legislative Session that finally ended on June 16 into the June 24 New Tampa issue, but I did sit down for a chat with District 67 State Representative and Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (photo) a little more than a week after that lengthy session ended to get her impressions of the hits, misses and what the people of her District, which includes all of New Tampa, can expect between now and the start of the 2026 Legislative Session next January. — GN
NN: First, give me your general impressions of this year’s session.
FD: To me, this felt like a session of missed opportunities, because the Speaker set a tone at the beginning of the session, that it was going to be a member-driven process and that we were going to focus on affordability issues, and basically there would be opportunities to collaborate on such issues. But in the end, this session was marked by, in-fighting amongst Republican leadership. The Speaker of the House, the Senate President and the Governor just could not seem to get on the same page, so what was supposed to be a 60-day session wound up being over a hundred days. And unfortunately, the budget was the biggest bargaining chip and the budget process was held up and it wasn’t as transparent as it typically is, meaning that there wasn’t really the opportunity for the public, I don’t think, to advocate, as much as they specifically would have for their budget appropriations. It was really tough — for the public and for lawmakers — because we also were kind of pretty much in the dark. It just seemed like they couldn’t even agree on even whether or not they were fighting, much less what they were fighting about. In spite of everything, though, I think, in the end, it was an O.K. budget. Definitely not an A+ budget, but it was an O.K. budget.
NN: What’s missing from the budget?
FD: What I would like to have seen that was missing were more funds for housing affordability. By my estimation, we actually reduced funds for affordable housing and this is not a time to do that. Especially here, when we know the Tampa Bay area is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, and it’s becoming too expensive for locals to live here.
You’ll also notice that the Governor vetoed a number of water projects, just like he did last year. The problem with that, as we continue to endure stronger storms and flooding events, is that we need to have the right infrastructure to try to protect human life and property.
NN: What do you see as your caucus’ victories, despite the Republicans’ super-majority?
FD: In the end, they actually kept the funding for Advanced Placement courses and International Baccalaureate programs and certain certifications for students. And I think that was the right thing to do. And I give full credit, both to the Democratic caucus and to the public for really springing into action and embracing a lot of noise about that, so that they had to reverse course. I am really proud of our advocacy for students and families on the AP classes. We really hammered them on that, which was good.
NN: What about your own successes?
FD: I was really proud to secure some significant appropriations. For example, in a prior session, I helped sponsor legislation to establish what we believe are the first Sickle Cell Disease Centers of Excellence in the country.
So this year, we were able to secure $3.75 million for sickle cell disease projects — $1.25 million to establish a “cause of death initiative” aimed at addressing a long-standing gap in knowledge surrounding sickle cell disease mortality. There hasn’t been enough study and focus to understand the exact causes of death for many in the sickle cell population. We’re trying to understand more about what happens to sickle cell patients and try to strengthen advocacy efforts.
Then, there’s another $2.5 million that is going to help that population with non-emergency transportation access because what we found is that transportation is a huge obstacle to that patient population from getting consistent preventive care. They miss a lot of appointments. When that happens, you know, things that were preventable become real complications, and they have worse outcomes.
This is going to allow for two transportation vans at each of the 15 sickle cell centers, including the one in my District on E. Fletcher Ave.
The other thing that we did get was a $350,000 appropriation for the Hillel Jewish Student Center of Tampa on the USF Tampa campus. We’ve heard stories of students feeling threatened on campus. Probably like a month or two ago, there was a gentleman found with weapons on campus, who was not a student, and he had a copy of I believe it was Mein Kampf.
There’s been an uptick of anti-Semitism, so we’re very proud to help our students feel safe. The appropriation is for school “hardening” and some technology, plus educational and cultural programming to try to counter disinformation and anti-Semitic rhetoric. The daughter of one of my colleagues in the legislature is half-Jewish, half-Black, and she used to wear a Star of David at school. But, there were some things happening at school and now, she doesn’t even feel safe to wear to wear her star anymore. And, she’s only in middle school.
There also was some drama this year where the Senate’s Democratic leader — Jason Pizzo — resigned his leadership position part-way through session and announced that he’s becoming an NPA. It was very dramatic. I’ve been in this position now for about three years, and I’ll tell you that leadership is hard. There’s no glory in it. It sounds like a very nice title, but it’s tough. And, for whatever reason, he’d had enough. So then, the Senate elected Lori Berman unanimously as its new leader and I will tell you that Sen. Berman and I work together really well. And, from that point on, I’ve found that we’ve been very coordinated. The Senate and House Democrats are already working on a joint platform for next Legislative session, because we recognize that we’re stronger together.
And, we did have some platform bills that we worked together on this year, particularly related to housing affordability, expanding Medicaid, safe gun storage and universal background checks. These are things that are not easy to pass, but I do think it’s important to raise them so that we are a part of the conversation, and so that we keep trying to keep the conversation centered on affordability, because that’s what our constituents want. The most calls that we get are people worried about housing affordability and dealing with property insurance. And, even though we’re the minority party, I think it’s important that we uplift the voices of our constituents and our neighbors.
NN: Which bills of yours didn’t pass?
FD: I had a bill that was seeking to give clarity and direction to doctors with respect to the six-week abortion ban because we continue to hear reports of doctors being unsure of what they can do with respect to miscarriage management because, technically, that could be considered an abortion procedure sometimes. So, in consultation with physicians who practice in this area, we worked on a bill that would just give them some guidelines. Unfortunately, it didn’t pass.
Recently in the news, there was a Republican Congresswoman here in Florida who suffered an ectopic pregnancy, and she was having difficulties getting health care because the doctors weren’t sure what they could do. So, this is something that really has a need. That’s a dangerous thing to have an ectopic pregnancy and to have a doctor not know if he or she can provide care for that. I may not be the one who carries it, but we’ll definitely bring it up again next Session.
There was also a bill that I carried on water quality improvements. It actually was a platform bill for our caucus. I read a report that Florida is one of the states with the highest amount of lead in our drinking water. So, I was pushing for a study, so that we could better understand the issue and start to remedy this. The bill also is basically asking for the state to implement the recommendations that were made by the Red Tide Task Force that looked at that issue. But, when something is a big hot topic in the moment, the legislature will take action, but then, maybe once the news coverage dies down, they just put things on the back burner. But, our beaches are critical to our economy, so maybe we should be more preventive with it. That was a real disappointment that we couldn’t get that to go anywhere because environmental issues have been fairly bipartisan in recent years.
NN: So, you have one more legislative session in your current role before you’re term-limited out. What’s your next political move?
(L.-r.) Paul, Jamie, Joel, Kathy & Jake Miller. (Photo courtesy of the Miller family)
Dear University Of South Florida:
I am not a USF graduate nor am I related to Joel Miller, the former USF football player your former coach Jim Leavitt assaulted in your locker room in front of 30 of your players who you paid $2.75 million to go away and never come back because he assaulted one of your players.
I am, however, a father to two young men who are now in their 30s with families of their own, one of whom was once a youth football rival of Joel’s who later became good friends with him — close enough friends that Joel’s mother Kathy says she thinks of my son as Joel’s brother.
Why him? (Photo: GoUSFBulls.com)
But, Joel never made it to his 30s. He never got to have a family or even live to see if he could make his dream of playing in the NFL one day come true. And why?
Because Jim Leavitt decided to make an example of Joel at halftime of a game that USF was winning, by the way, by holding him by the throat, slamming him against the wall and — according to the reenactment Joel did for me of the events of that day in November 2009 — striking him with a closed fist three times, all in front of those 30 players.
But, Joel took this felony assault like a man. He finished out the game and the season without any attempt on his part to seek publicity, press charges or get money out of his school or even out of Jim Leavitt. All Joel wanted to do was play football. And the only thing he ever wanted from Jim Leavitt was an apology that never came.
It was another player who witnessed Coach Leavitt’s assault on Joel who contacted the local sports radio station. Colby Erskin wasn’t even necessarily calling the station to talk about Joel. Colby was calling to say that Jim Leavitt had gotten an assistant coach to throw all of his gear out of his locker and into a driving rain. He just inadvertently mentioned that what Leavitt did to him wasn’t nearly as bad as what he did to Joel.
And that lit the fire that Joel’s mother Kathy, his father Paul and his sister Jamie know in their hearts ultimately led to the end of Joel’s too-short life. Their son and brother was ridiculed, cursed at, had beer thrown on him and a brick thrown at him that sliced open the back of his head. He was unable to escape (as I wrote in the February 28, 2015 edition of New Tampa Neighborhood News when I became the first member of the media Joel allowed to tell his story) being “that kid” — that whistle-blowing, attention-seeking kid who got Jim Leavitt fired.
But, whether you knew Joel and his family as well as I did or not, if you’ve ever had a son of your own and you saw their life spiral out of control because of the actions of one pompous megalomaniac who assaulted your child, how would you feel about that worthless piece of garbage being inducted into the Hall of Fame of the school that paid to get rid of him?
I went to Leavitt’s USF Hall of Fame bio on GoUSFBulls.com for his picture and I couldn’t help but notice that there was no mention of USF being sued by this “standup guy” or having to pay him out millions in order to send him on his way.
The Letter
Kathy told me that she found Joel’s hand-written letter to “Jim” less than two years after Joel passed away in 2017, at the age of 29. It’s a powerful two-page (below) appeal to Leavitt for nothing more than an apology — one Joel knew when he wrote it (8/12/2015) would never come. Pompous megalomaniacs don’t generally apologize for their actions, especially when they get away with them scot-free. “Jim” went on to coach in the NFL and at four other college programs.
But, eight years after losing him, Joel Miller’s family is still broken. Their son and brother? Gone forever. All they really want — and genuinely deserve — is for your school to reconsider its decision to bestow this honor on a guy who never took you to a major bowl game — and committed felony assault and lied about it. Otherwise, please re-name it the USF “Hall of Shame” — and take the late, great Lee Roy Selmon out of it.
