MORE STORIES

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  Miami Stories — The Grand Family

  His boyhood home was Prime 112 in Miami Beach

  My parents, Harry and Mildred Grand, met each other on South Beach in 1946.
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  Miami Stories

  Fondly remembering Homestead’s small-town ways

  In 1937, when I was 9 months old, my parents, Thomas J. Lee Smith and Lila Smith, moved from Tampa to Homestead, so my dad could pursue a sales position with Kilgore Seed Company.
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  Miami Stories

  Fighting crime in Miami’s golden age

  I was born in Miami in 1940 when Victoria Hospital still existed as a full-service hospital with a maternity ward and Miami was a sleepy Southern town.
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  Miami Stories

  From Cuba via Pan Am — a 50-year story of Miami

  It will be 50 years this November since we took the Pan American Airways flight that would separate us from the life of the privileged in Cuba to that of political refugees. They served us tiny ham-and-cheese sandwiches with the iconic blue Pan Am logo that tasted to us of the future – America.
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  Miami Stories

  Paschal home built on legacy of pride, foundation of love

  Journey along the streets in the Brownsville neighborhood and you’ll see solid homes and well-kept lawns, highlighting the pride of the people who live here — past and present.
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  Miami Stories

  Former school board member recounts his love of Miami High

  My story begins when my father decided to move with his six children to Miami from Key West in 1948. His father told him that his four boys and two girls would have more opportunities in the “big city” of Miami so my mother packed us up and we all moved from our birthplace to Miami. Our house was built in Allapattah from beautiful Dade County pine wood. Even after my mother passed away, my father continued to live in that same house until he retired from the Florida Department of Agriculture.
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  Miami Stories — Anthony Abraham

  Lebanese family finds success here

  My dad, Anthony Abraham, just turned 99 and lives in the same Coral Gables house he bought in 1952.
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  PHILIP MARRACCINI JR.

  Transplanted mulberry tree a metaphor for longtime Miami-area family

  After a bitter winter in 1949, my parents, Philip and Mary, and my sister Filippa and I headed south to visit my maternal grandparents, Elizabeth and Peter Sapundjieff, who had become Floridians in 1946.

• JUNE RAWLS

  Miami native has roots in education

  The year was 1942. My father, Don Terry, was in the Navy stationed at the Everglades Hotel in downtown Miami. During World War II, the hotel was used as a Navy barracks.
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  BARRY SUGERMAN

  How fruit man's son became architect

  My father was a fruit man. My sister Roberta and I were born in Brooklyn, like our mother and father. Dad's father immigrated from Russia; mom's from Austria.

• TAFFY GOULD

  In '40s, Miami Shores a child's delight

  Growing up in Miami Shores in the 1940s was an experience almost unimaginable today. Mothers were at home when we returned from school -- having volunteered in the earlier part of the day -- and fathers took their children to the Community House on weekends to shoot baskets or play tennis.
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  MARILYN BLATT

  Warm city lures family out of cold

  It was August 1957 and my mother and I had driven for three days in her 1956, blue-and-white Mercury. A drive that took us from the cold winters of the Catskills in New York to Miami in search of warm weather and a job prospect for my stepfather.
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  MARTHA KAPLAN BACKER

  They came from Chicago and stayed

  Howard and Iris Kaplan both had early ties to the Miami area, although they were both born and raised in Chicago. Howard's parents brought him to South Beach in his teen years during the winter. His sister couldn't take the cold weather; she had a heart condition, and in the 1930s, there was no surgery to help her. Iris had an aunt, Aunt Mona, who lived in Miami Beach.
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  KARL ERIK JOHANSSON

  Family moves to Miami, lives American Dream

  We were sponsored into the United States by a doctor in Detroit. My dad was from Sweden and didn't speak English very well. My mom was born in Trinidad to a Barbados family. I was born in Barbados.

• MADELYN WINER LORBER

  Miami's small-town feel recalled

  The list could go on forever: The Treniers, Pickin' Chicken, Sleepy Time Gal, Parhams, Club Calvert, Bible Joe, The Rockin' MB, Chary's, Silver Dollar Jake, Fun Fair, The Miami News, Embers, Riverside Military Academy, My Dad.

• EDUARDO J. PADRON

  Miami book fair had a humble birth in 1980s

  When Miami was known for drugs and violence, longtime residents envisioned a book fair uniting a disparate community.

• JOSEPHINE SMITH

  Pioneer's dad brought taste of Italy

  Josie Smith came to Miami in 1925 from New York City. Today, she enjoys her life as a South Miami resident.

• ANGELA H. SANTOS

  Educator recalls Miami arrival

  Angela Albaisa Santos came to the U.S. at 16 on a Pedro Pan flight. She's now a longtime South Florida resident.

• REGINA JOLLIVETTE FRAZIER

  Woman's love for Magic City runs deep

  My maternal grandfather, Henry E.S. Reeves, arrived in Miami in the spring of 1919 on his way to New York to purchase printing presses for a newspaper he intended to establish in theBahamas. While here, friends asked him to consider Miami as the site for his newspaper.

• GEMMA SANTOS

  Teacher has an appreciation for education and sacrifices of her parents

  Her family's journey from Cuba was a study in sacrifice but led to great opportunities for an educator.

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