In a happy tone of voice, an old friend in Broward, who’s well into his 80s, left me a voicemail on Christmas Eve. “It’s great to be alive,” he said.
That sums it up nicely.
Many were not quite so fortunate in 2025. Some who led especially interesting lives, locally and beyond, are worth recalling one more time.
The voice of Connie Francis became eternally synonymous with Fort Lauderdale with “Where the Boys Are” in 1960, the title song of the definitive spring break movie. The song never reached No. 1, but it was so popular that Concetta Franconero recorded it in seven languages (yes, including Italian). A longtime resident of Parkland and one of the all-time top-selling female vocalists, Francis died in July at age 87.
Speaking of music, John Day’s tuneful voice was synonymous with Fort Lauderdale for years, strumming his guitar and singing songs like “Time in a Bottle” on lazy Sunday afternoons. He also was many other things: sailor, pilot, restaurateur, philanthropist. Remember Mangos, a Las Olas Boulevard fixture? He co-owned it, and many others. Day, 81, died in the mountain town of Banner Elk, N.C., in July.
To Geraldine Thompson’s many admirers, it hardly seemed coincidental that she died during Black History Month in February, at 76. A soft-spoken leader with a fiercely determined spirit, she represented Orlando in the Legislature for nearly two decades, and fervently advocated for Black history like the dedicated teacher that she was.
Many who make their mark in life decide to settle quietly in Florida. Such was the case with Carolyn McCarthy, who turned a family tragedy into a crusade for better gun laws. Her husband was shot to death, and her son gravely wounded, by a gunman on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993, and that spurred her to action. McCarthy, 81, served nine terms in Congress, fighting the NRA every step of the way. She lived the last decade of her life in Fort Myers.
Life’s twists and turns took Jay North to Lake Butler, Fla. near Gainesville, where for years he did what so many people do there: He worked for the Florida Department of Corrections. You know him as the towheaded little boy who became a pop culture icon by the age of 8 as Dennis the Menace on TV from 1959 to 1963, where he endlessly tornented his next-door neighbor, Mr. Wilson. North died in April at age 73.
In the turbulent world of Broward politics, the county gets a new superintendent of schools every few years. After Frank Till was fired in 2006, his chief of staff, Jim Notter, got the job in a period of immense turmoil (one board member went to prison for corruption, another was suspended for misconduct, and budget problems required mass teacher layoffs). He stayed until 2011 and retired to spend time with his grandchildren. He died in May at 78.
Others who departed this year included Roy Black, 80, of Coral Gables, one of the nation’s leading criminal defense lawyers; Scott Cowan, 79, for nearly two decades an influential Broward County commissioner; Jack Penrod, 85, a beach-area businessman who also helped to put Fort Lauderdale on the map; Art Seitz, 82, whose ever-present camera documented the sport of tennis from every possibly angle for a half-century; Nancy Stewart-Franczak, 67, a “foodie” of the first order, who organized successful food festivals, including Delray Beach’s improbably successful Garlic Fest; and Lou Toman, 90, who seemingly was everywhere as he chronicled life in South Florida as a “photog” for the Sun Sentinel (and its forerunner, the Fort Lauderdale News) for 53 years.
Every community needs a Frances Bourque. A committed preservationist, she fought to save three historic Delray Beach school buildings from the wrecking ball, and they became Old School Square. Bourque was 84 when died in July. A scholarship fund lives on in her name.
Talk about history. R. Emmett McTigue grew up in Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, when his father, real estate investor M.R. McTigue, bought up vacant lots that today are worth millions. Like his father, Emmett McTigue oversaw Las Olas Boulevard for decades; he died in June at 92. (He didn’t want an obituary, but he deserved one, and this column gave him one.)
Forty years ago, McTigue advocated reducing Las Olas from four travel lanes to two to encourage foot traffic. It didn’t happen as he wanted, but on-street parking was approved later, and as we now await 2026, the debate still rages over how the signature street should look.
Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor for the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240.
