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South Tampa's Liggett Remembered For Strong Will, Optimism

Liggett Family Christmas Card

Jane Liggett is seen here surrounded by family.

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2008

Updated: 09/05/2008 12:14 am

TAMPA - When homemaker Jane Liggett wanted to buy a house to restore in 1976, she drove through Hyde Park with a banker who couldn't believe she wanted to invest in such a blighted area.

"There are other banks," Liggett told him.

He agreed to give Liggett the loan, then asked when her husband would be coming down to sign the papers.

"No, no," she told him, this was her deal.

Liggett eventually would own and manage more than 30 rental properties in South Tampa and beyond, and be credited with helping spur revitalization of Hyde Park and the area south of Howard Avenue known as "SoHo."

"She saw potential in this area," eldest son Alex said, "just like she saw in people. She was very much an optimist."

So much so, the 67-year-old grandmother refused to let a weak heart prevent her from visiting her beloved Ireland last month. Less than a week after she arrived in County Cork, Liggett collapsed and later died from a massive coronary attack on Aug. 25.

Her death stunned family and friends, who recall a vivacious, determined woman devoted to the people she loved.

"She never hesitated to take a stand on whatever she felt was important ... at a time when many women wouldn't," said longtime friend and former Hillsborough County Commissioner Jan Platt. "A powerful voice has been silenced."

Liggett was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and grew up in Connecticut, where she met Alexander Liggett, a banker whose family had ties in Tampa and to First National Bank.

As a child, she contracted polio and was one of the first to receive the vaccine invented by Jonas Salk, whom she admired and knew, her family said. Liggett attended The Chapin School in New York and Wheelock College in Boston.

She became Mrs. Alexander Liggett in 1963 but never lost track of Jane. The couple had their first son in Washington, D.C., then moved to Davis Islands in 1965. Their second son, Ambler, was born at Tampa General Hospital.

Early in her marriage, when money was tight, Liggett decided she wanted to get a job. Her husband said no, but Liggett secretly signed on to deliver The Tampa Tribune.

"She figured it was early in the morning, before any of us got up," Alex said, but his dad found out. She kept delivering the paper.

"She was very strong-willed," Ambler said. "She spoke her mind."

She tried to instill those traits in her children. Once they were old enough, if they wanted to eat, Liggett would say, "There's the kitchen." Clean clothes? She would point to the laundry room.

"We had housekeepers," Alex said, but his mother wanted her sons to know how to care for themselves.

Liggett's husband died in 1984. She continued to forge new friendships and travel. Those closest to her knew her as loyal and generous, an animal lover who liked to dress up her brindle Chihuahua named Napoleon in beads and bandannas.

"She was the Auntie Mame of South Tampa," said another longtime friend, Sally Olsson. "She was beautiful; a remarkable, sparkly person."

Liggett gravitated toward social causes, serving on committees and boards at agencies such as The Centre for Women, Meals on Wheels, The Spring of Tampa Bay, Lowry Park Zoo, the Chiselers and the International Dyslexia Association.

Her own dyslexia inspired her to help found the now-defunct Cambridge School in South Tampa, which offered a program for bright dyslexic students.

"Even though learning to read was very difficult and tedious for her," said friend Helen Baines, "she became a voracious reader."

Books line shelves throughout her Bayshore Boulevard condo. Political biographies, current events, poetry, children's stories.

Couches and corners are filled with stuffed animals Liggett would give away to friends and family.

She surrounded herself with photographs, from the black-and-white Town & Country cover shot of herself as a teen sporting a mink stole to family portraits that include her grandson, Win. Pictures even grace kitchen countertops, leaving her little room to indulge another of her passions: cooking.

"She was an amazing cook," said daughter-in-law, Kim.

In 1992, Liggett made her first trek to Ireland to stay with an old family friend. Six years later, she bought property in the village of Sneem and built two rental houses.

"I fell in love with the people, the towns and villages, the air, the rain, the mountains and rivers - actually, the whole country and everything about it," she wrote on her Web site, www.heavenly ireland.com.

Liggett often offered up stays at the houses as prizes to raise money for different nonprofit groups or she would invite friends to experience the magic she felt each time she visited the area.

Maureen Connelly, Liggett's close friend and longtime bookkeeper, jumped at an offer. Eventually, she and her husband made their own home nearby. They also had their 22-year-old son, Sean, buried there.

On the day Liggett died, she was visiting Sean's grave for the first time, Connelly said. "It was like God was saying, 'Sean, take her hand and show her the way.'"

Researcher Melanie Coon contributed to this report. Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

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