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Starr's Art Graced Tribune

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By ELLEN GEDALIUS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 28, 2007

Updated: 12/27/2007 11:46 pm

TAMPA - Ted Starr, a Tampa Tribune artist for more than three decades, died Dec. 21. He was 74.

Starr was born in Ohio and moved to the Tampa area in 1939. Raised in West Tampa, he moved to a farm in Brandon in the 1960s.

He had five children through two marriages, and the blended families got along well, said his daughter, Linda.

As a teen, Ted Starr enjoyed drawing. He turned that hobby into a profession by joining the Tribune's art department, where he worked for 33 years. He retired in the early 1990s.

Pat Mitchell, a Tribune senior editor who supervised Starr, praised the artist for his ability to learn how to transfer his skills from paper and pencil to the computer age.

"His era was definitely old school, and he transformed into the modern era well," Mitchell said. "Everybody liked Ted. He was the crotchety guy in the newsroom who everybody liked, the tough teddy bear."

Even when he wasn't working, he practiced his craft. He drew a Nativity scene for the critical-care unit at St. Joseph's Hospital and chalk drawings of horses. He drew for the Elks Lodge.

He never signed his work.

Starr's daughter described her father as devoted to his large family -- and to football.

"You would find him watching football or outside on the farm working the land," she said. "He was a die-hard Bucs fan and FSU fan."

He suffered a stroke several years ago, and it affected the left side of his body. The artist was a lefty.

Near Thanksgiving, he got sick again and was hospitalized.

Memorial services are scheduled for noon Sunday at the Brandon Elks Lodge.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at (813) 259-7679 or egedalius@tampatrib.com.

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