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Yorkunas Left Sharp Impression

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By KURT LOFT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

TAMPA - She was a teacher-turned-businesswoman whose goals were direct: inspire and educate.

Mary Ann Yorkunas did both in an elegant career spanning Tampa history on both sides of the Second World War. Yorkunas died Saturday at age 90.

"She was from the real old school: proper behavior, always trying to do the right thing and not offend anyone," said her son, Peter. "She was very generous and made millions of friends."

Born in 1917, Yorkunas was a lifelong Tampa resident who enrolled at the University of Tampa on a full scholarship. She graduated with a degree in education in 1939, and landed teaching jobs at Lake Magdalene Elementary and Plant High schools. Numbers were her specialty.

"She taught mathematics, and she was really sharp, amazingly good," her son said. "Thanks to Mom, I've got that skill because she really forced math into me."

Her skills also left a mark on Tampa historian Leland Hawes: "She was my geometry teacher at Plant High School, in 1945 or '46. I was a terrible math student but she managed to get through to me very well, so I enjoyed her classes and thought the world of her."

She married artist Alvin Peter Yorkunas, who left Tampa to fight in the war. When he returned, the two opened an advertising agency, but four years later the Air Force needed him in Korea. She ran the business on her own until his return.

"She did all the accounting and taxes," said Peter, who lives in California. "Dad got clients and did the art work, back when you would pretty much draw an ad for the paper."

A collection of Alvin Yorkunas' letters to his wife, written and illustrated during the war, are now part of the special collections at the University of South Florida.

The Yorkunas Advertising Agency was a staple of downtown Tampa - located above a coffee shop called Tibbett's Corner, at Franklin Street and Kennedy Boulevard. Through the years, the couple became socialites who rubbed elbows with the city's movers and shakers.

Active members of Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church and Palma Ceia Country Club, they also made a charming mismatch, Peter said.

"Dad was the football star at the University of Tampa and he was 6 feet, 5 inches tall," he said. "Mom was this tiny, beautiful, smart girl. They were like the king and queen of the ball."

When her husband died in 1994, Yorkunas closed the business and retired, living quietly in South Tampa.

MARY ANN YORKUNAS

BORN: Nov. 14, 1917, in Tampa

DIED: Jan. 19, 2008, in Tampa

SURVIVORS: Son, Pete Yorkunas, and his wife, Suzanne, of Clayton, Calif., and two grandchildren, Casey and Katarina

SERVICES: There will be no service.

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.

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