STORY by STEVE TRAIMAN
When June Hurley-Young passed away February 2 at age 87 from complications due to pneumonia, the iconic St. Petersburg treasure had been a classroom teacher, a writer, a model, a children’s TV host and a preservationist — a true Renaissance Woman!
A standing-room-only crowd came on March 3 to the Rowe Pavilion at the Don Cesar Beach Resort and Spa in St. Pete Beach to celebrate her life.
It was a glorious Sunday afternoon and the beach and nearby pool deck were full of people enjoying a respite from a frigid winter with record snowfalls in many northern states. It has long been thus, thanks in large part to the woman whose life was being celebrated that day.
June’s passing is the end of a generation. Her late long-time brother-in-law Frank Hurley had earned the title as Pass-a-Grille historian, after writing two books about the island’s early days. As noted in the Tampa Bay Times Epilog, most knew her for just one of her pursuits — as “Miss June,” host of the Tampa Bay area’s version of the children’s weekday television show Romper Room from 1965-1980.
She was okay with that, daughter Kathleen Coker said, noting, “She wanted to be remembered for all the children whose lives she touched. She led such an exciting life but Romper Room stands out.” Through that show, she became known as “Miss June,” the area’s first television teacher. The set was a classroom and the in-studio audience was six children, typically 4 and 5, who along with viewers learned educational, moral and behavioral lessons. Regular characters included the happy “Do Bee” and angry “Don’t Be” hand puppets.
“They were used for examples of what to do and what not to do,” said Mike Clark, whose website www.big13.com chronicles the history of Tampa Bay area television during that era. And there was the “magical” glassless mirror that “Miss June” would peer through and into the television camera while wishing viewers happy birthday by name, as though she could see them at home. “I still have people who excitedly remember when my mom called their name,” Coker recalled with a laugh. “It was a big deal.”
In Coker’s opinion, her mom’s greatest skill was hiding the chaos in the studio. If a child in the audience had a bathroom accident or threw a temper tantrum, “my mom gracefully walked to the other side of the set to draw the cameras away from it” until the kid’s parent calmed the situation. “This was live television,” Coker recalled. “They couldn’t bleep or edit anything out.” Still, on some occasions, it was impossible to hide the bedlam, like when Busch Gardens brought a baby anteater into the studio and it “made a mess all over a table,” Coker said with a laugh. Another time, a child booked for the audience was late, so 3-year-old Coker filled the chair. When the kid arrived, he stormed onto the set and angrily pulled Coker’s hair. “ I started screaming, ‘Mommy, bad,’” Coker said. “My mom loved that story.”
Born in Cleveland, June was 14 when her family moved to St. Petersburg. She was later named editor of St. Pete High School’s newspaper and, as an 18-year-old became a “Webb’s City Girl.” Webb’s City was a unique, 10-block square department store that included 50¢ haircuts, dancing chickens and mechanical mermaids. June and other young women toured the country during the summer promoting St. Petersburg as a tourist destination.
June went on to graduate from Florida State University and taught in Pinellas County. Then, in 1954, she combined her experience as an entertainer and educator to star in the WSUN weekday television show Make Believe Toy Shop, teaching kids how to create playthings out of everyday objects, Coker recalled. Next was the WEDU weekday show Kindergarten Corner, where children learned basic educational lessons, and the same channel’s monthly program Let’s Look Around, with visits to kid-friendly sites throughout the area.
Romper Room, created in Baltimore in the early 1950s, was franchised to stations across the nation and each market used a local host. The show first ran in the Tampa Bay area from 1955-57 on WTVT, historian Clark said, and again in 1960 on WFLA, each time with different hosts. In 1965, Mrs. Young beat out 200 other candidates for the job on WLCY’s version. With “Miss June” as host, the local show finally enjoyed sustained success. June used her celebrity status to help the community. In the early 1970s, the legendary Pink Palace known as the Don Ce-Sar hotel — opened in 1928 on St. Pete Beach — was set to be demolished because it had fallen into disrepair.
But June published articles about its historic significance and led a citizens committee that successfully lobbied the city to hold off the wrecking ball until a developer was found to save the building. “Her relentless commitment and passion for maintaining the character and culture of our community was the true catalyst which allows the Pink Palace to shine bright after 91 years,” said Todd Gehrke, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing, in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. This is a key reason the hotel was more than pleased to host June’s Celebration of Life on March 3.
June’s persistence also gave Romper Room an added five years. “When WLCY cancelled the show in 1975, she persuaded WFLA to pick it up,” daughter Coker said. “Besides her family, Romper Room was her legacy.” The final broadcast on WFLA was March 30, 1980. Two weeks before that, in a column for the Tampa Tribune, June wrote about the show and the 4,000 live telecasts she counted.
“What a wonderful career — to have taught something to so many children,” she said. “It won’t really be ‘goodbye’ May 30. I’ll just be saying I’ll be seeing all you friends tomorrow.” After WFLA ended the program in 1980, June moved on. She returned to the classroom and focused on her writing, in articles about local history for newspapers and in five books, one on the Don Cesar. “That was her pink castle,” Coker said. “She was incredibly proud of how it has thrived.” June Hurley-Young lost two husbands, J. Kenneth (Ken) Hurley and Bob Young. She is survived by children Sean Hurley and Kathleen Hurley Coker; grandchildren Ryan, Collin and Brendan Hurley, and Morgan and Cole Coker; and great-grandchild, Lennox Hurley. Donations in her memory can be made to Suncoast Hospice. But in a true sense, she is also survived by the multitudes of lives she touched in the Tampa Bay area through her long career, capped by her Romper Room years.
Sean Hurley Memories
Her son, Sean Hurley, now head of Frank T Hurley Associates, long-time Pass-a-Grille realtor, has fond memories of being back stage as a child. “I got to run the cameras and work with the guys behind the scenes,” Hurley said. “It was a fabulous childhood growing up in this area and having a mother like her.”
He also recalls how Young led the charge to save the now-renamed Don Cesar Resort hotel, when it was slated to be torn down in the early 1970s. His sister Coker noted that their Mom had sworn to lock herself to the Don’s front door before letting it be demolished!
The once splendid hotel became an R&R hospital and in 1943 housed traumatized Air Force pilots. Once the war was over it became a VA headquarters, remaining so until the property was declared obsolete in 1969 and the government left it in disrepair with peeling paint and gutted rooms. In the wake of the “Save the Don” campaign’s success, in 1972, the government sold it to the city of St. Pete Beach, which, in turn, quickly sold it to William Bowman, a hotel entrepreneur, for $460,000. After spending $3.5 million over 18 months, Bowman and his partners reopened the big pink structure in November of 1973. In 1975, it was put on the National Historic Register, thereby becoming an official historic landmark.
“The iconic hotel will now serve as a reminder of all of Mom’s accomplishments,” Hurley said. “Those times when you have the opportunity to enjoy a sunset, enjoy the view coming over the Bayway Bridge and see the Don Cesar, those are the times it makes a big difference. It will be beautiful to think of.” PN