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Maas Bros. Heiress With The Heart Of A Diva Dies

Tribune file photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

On aging, Emily Moody said, "Your nose grows, your ears get bigger, your eyes get smaller, your hair gets thin. I hate it. This is for the birds."

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Published: October 23, 2008

TAMPA - Emily Moody was a television host, reader to the blind and department store heiress.

The only granddaughter of Maas Bros. department store co-founder Abe Maas, she loved the theatrical but bristled at the heiress label. She worried that people would think she ought to take them to dinner.

She died Wednesday morning after a series of illnesses. Although her voter registration lists her as 91, she freely admitted to lying about her year of birth on official records.

When pressed, she paraphrased Oscar Wilde, saying a woman who told her real age would tell you anything. Not even her husband, Ashby, knew.

Moody was larger than life at times, with a low, smoky voice like Bea Arthur's and an arch, biting sense of humor, said Dudley Clendinen, who featured her in his latest book.

"She was a kind of Auntie Mame," he said.

Moody was born in Tampa; her mother was living in New York but took a train to Tampa for the birth because she didn't want a "Yankee baby," Clendinen said. Moody later moved here and met her future husband.

The two became active in Tampa Little Theatre, Ashby Moody said, and Emily hosted a show for WFLA television. She read to the blind through WUSF's Radio Reading Service.

She was a charter member of the Chiselers, a nonprofit group dedicated to restoring the Tampa Bay Hotel.

Clendinen quoted her about the passage of time in his book: "Your nose grows, your ears get bigger, your eyes get smaller, your hair gets thin. I hate it. This is for the birds."

A service will take place at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Blount & Curry Funeral Home, 605 S. MacDill Ave., Tampa. Contributions may be made to the Chiselers or The Children's Home.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503.

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