BEACH BEAT

from Anna Maria Island Sun June 15, 2022

REAL ESTATE

OBITUARIES

Benjamin Francis Cubler

Benjamin Francis Cubler, 87, of Cortez, Florida, passed away on June 6, 2022 at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. He passed peacefully with his wife, son and daughter by his side.

Ben enjoyed a successful career with ARCO Oil Company, starting as a draftsman and retiring from the executive suite. He then started a construction company, building custom homes on North Carolina's Outer Banks for another 20 years. He retired a second time, turning the business over to his son. He then discovered the world of RV-ing! Ben and Claire made several trips to Alaska and cross-country, exploring the country and journaling their travels. When driving the big rig became too strenuous, Ben and Claire settled at Holiday Cove in Cortez, Florida where they could enjoy the RV lifestyle and travel vicariously through their friends.

Ben wore many hats. He was a loving husband, dedicated father, loyal friend, engineer, builder, executive and servant of the Lord. He was proud to have provided a very good life for his family. He enjoyed gardening and puttering in the yard. He loved sharing stories and the best ones were usually self-deprecating. He swapped tales with his friends at the “table of wisdom and knowledge,” where the tales got taller as the night got longer. He ate bacon with a knife and fork and never could understand how he sired three children who eat fried chicken with their fingers.

Ben is survived by his wife, Claire; daughter, Karen Ish (Ed); son, Karl; six grandchildren and two great-granddaughters. His daughter, Barbara Barry, predeceased him.

Ben valued his friendships and enjoyed his time spent here on Earth. He loved life, his family and friends, and will be deeply missed.

Brown & Sons Funeral Homes & Crematory 43rd Street Chapel, 604 43rd St. W., Bradenton, Florida 34209 is in charge of the arrangements. Condolences may be made to www.brownandsonsfuneral.com.

Mary Fulford Green

Cortez native and community icon Dr. Mary Fulford Green, 96, reached her goal to reunite with family and friends in Heaven on Thursday, June 9, 2022.

Mary was predeceased by her parents; her husband of 52 years, Benjamin Clyde Green; brother, Ralph Fulford; and sister, Belinda Porterfield.

She is survived by daughters Cathy (Tom) Ryon, of Locust Grove, Virginia, and Carol Kio Green (Jim Kio), of Tallahassee, Florida; sons Ben Green, of Tallahassee, Florida, and Mark (Mary) Green, of Cordova, Tennessee; 13 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren; sisters Irene Taylor, of Cortez, and Ann Dean Riddick, of Searcy, Arkansas; brothers Wayne (Betty) Fulford, of Stanley, North Carolina and Gary Fulford, of Bradenton; and many nieces and nephews.

Services will be at Brown & Sons Funeral Home, 5624 26th St. W., Bradenton, Florida 34207. Visitation will be Friday, June 17, 2022 from 5-7 p.m. Funeral services will be Saturday, June 18, 2022 at 11 am. Burial will be at Palma Sola Cemetery in Bradenton.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to World Christian Broadcasting, 605 Bradley Court, Franklin, Tennessee 37067 or Cortez Village Historical Society, P.O. Box 663, Cortez, Florida 34215.

See accompanying story on page 1

BRADENTON BEACH

6/5, 12 p.m., drug possession, 2653 Gulf Drive S. Two officers on patrol saw a car parked at the Coquina boat ramp sticking out of a parking space with a female subject who appeared to be passed out in the passenger seat. When the officers approached the vehicle, they saw a crystal meth pipe on the floor near the female. After they put her in handcuffs and read her Miranda rights, the woman agreed to talk to police, telling them she had last smoked meth the previous day. A search of the vehicle turned up a small bag of white powder that later weighed in at 1.1 grams of crystal meth. The subject was transported to Manatee County Jail.

HOLMES BEACH

6/5, 4:13 p.m., trespass, 3902 Gulf Drive. The officer was dispatched to West Coast Surf Shop in reference to shoplifting. When the officer arrived, he spoke with the owner, who said she saw a juvenile put a bracelet into her shorts in an attempt to shoplift. The employee detained the girl until the officer arrived, at which time the officer issued the girl a trespass warning at the request of the store owner. No further action was taken.

GREEN: The villager who could, and did

FROM PAGE 1

The valedictorian of her Bradenton High School (later Manatee High School) Class of 1942, Green was selected as Manatee High School’s Outstanding Alumna in 2020.

She earned B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Florida State College for Women, now Florida State University, in Tallahassee in science, chemistry and education. She taught high school science classes, was a guidance counselor in Florida’s public schools and helped to create the career counseling program at State College of Florida in Bradenton.

The proud redhead raised two sons and two daughters with her husband, Ben Green, who retired from the U.S. Air Force.

She was a licensed mental health counselor and served as president of Manatee County’s Mental Health Association for seven years, volunteering with the Manatee County Drug Court and several Florida prisons to mentor those incarcerated.

Of her many accomplishments, perhaps most important to her was her personal Christian ministry, holding Bible studies at the Manatee County jail, her daughter Carol Kio-Green said, adding that she also formed a group called WINGS to help women leaving prison gain employment.

A champion of women, she was one of the founders of HOPE Family Services in 1979 to assist victims of domestic violence.

HISTORIAN PAR EXCELLENCE

All her life, Green vociferously expressed her love for and the importance of local history.

A natural step for a woman with an encyclopedic memory, she was instrumental in establishing the Cortez Village Historical Society in 1984.

“Mary’s life was Cortez, and she gave back over many years,” said Kaye Bell, of CVHS. “Mary fiercely defended this little village. She persevered against developers, big industry and anything that would change the footprint of the village and its way of making a living. She was also instrumental in obtaining nearly 100 acres of waterfront land to become a forever preserve for the public. We will miss her energy and are grateful for her many accomplishments.”

Green was one of the founding members of the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH), which, over more than three decades, has gradually purchased 95 acres on Sarasota Bay called the FISH Preserve to protect and enhance the habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife.

She led the charge to have the fishing village of Cortez listed as a federal historic district. Green wrote the application and lobbied successfully to have Cortez put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. For that, she was honored by the Manatee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 2020 with the DAR National Historic Preservation Recognition Award. Most of the 97 historic structures in the Cortez historic district were at one time homes of fishing families she grew up with. If not for Green’s efforts, many Cortez village buildings would likely have been lost.

“She was so proud to have gotten Cortez on the National and State Registry of Historic Places,” FISH board member Jane von Hahmann said. “She was such a wealth of knowledge. I don’t think there was anything about the village, the FISH Preserve or the families that settled here in the late 1800s that she didn’t know. If you had a question about the past, she was definitely the go-to person. But she worried about the future as well, as it was tied to the past. Our history was beyond important to her. The pride she exuded of being a native-born Cortezian was contagious! But she did worry about who was going to keep the story of this village alive as the older past generations left this earth.”

To that end, Green became a driving force behind the creation of the Florida Maritime Museum, formerly the Cortez Rural Graded

CINDY LANE | SUN Mary Fulford Green, dressed as her grandmother during a history talk she gave at the Cortez Cultural Center.

SEE GREEN, PAGE 31

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‘Coastal Impressions’ makes a splash at Island Gallery West

'Coastal Impres-

sions' at Island Gallery West in Holmes Beach features the best of June’s Featured Artist, Sharon Lennox Woelfling.

BY JASON SCHAFFER

SUN CORRESPONDENT | jschaffer@amisun.com

HOLMES BEACH - The front window at Island Gallery West is alive with color thanks to June’s Featured Artist, Sharon Lennox Woelfling, and her display titled “Coastal Impressions.”

Woelfling has been an artist for decades and has spent much of her time teaching art to children as well as adults.

“I’ve taken a lot of workshops, and I started out with watercolor, doing that for many years before I evolved to acrylics,” Woelfling said. “I’ve really fallen in love with acrylic painting because you can do a larger painting and it’s more forgiving. If you make a mistake in watercolor, you throw it away and start over.”

Woelfling points out that while only one out of 10 watercolor paintings come out the way she would have liked, an acrylic painting can be corrected. Her passion for this medium is apparent to anyone who views her work on display at the gallery. Works range from lifelike to abstract, with many landing somewhere in between as she paints in a style that takes something like a tropical flower or waterfall and pulls them to the verge of being abstract.

While Woelfling’s favorite color is blue, her works leap off the canvas with bright greens, reds and any other color required to bring each particular vision to life.

“This gallery is a great way to interact with other artists because when you paint, it’s very solitary, so you need that interaction with other artists,” said Woelfling, speaking about her relationship with Island Gallery West and her fellow member artists. “I love to see their work and be in the gallery the days I work, and just see what’s new in here.”

“Coastal Impressions” will be on display until June 30, and all works are available for purchase. Island Gallery West is located at 5368 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.