TAMPA - Rosa Rio, the beloved Tampa Theatre organist whose professional career spanned more than 90 years, died Thursday at age 107.

"She went peacefully and I miss her already," said Bill Yeoman, her husband and manager.

"She had been fighting intestinal flu and it just wore her out. She told me, 'Daddy, I want to go. Don't stop me.'

"But she was a trooper and she loved show business."

"She will be missed. It's like I lost my best friend," says Tara Schroeder, Tampa Theatre's director of programming and a close friend of Rio.

The theater is planning a memorial celebration of her life, possibly on June 2, which is Rio's birthday.

A child prodigy, Rio began playing music for silent films for a movie theater in her hometown of New Orleans when she was 10.

She played piano and organ for most of her life in a career that took her to Manhattan in the 1930s and '40s, when she became "Queen of the Soaps."

She played organ accompaniment for dozens of soap operas and radio dramas, including "The Shadow" with Orson Welles and "The Bob and Ray Show," "Cavalcade of America," "My True Story" and "The Goldbergs."

Rio had played Tampa Theatre's 1,400-pipe Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Organ since 1996, shortly after she and Yeoman moved to Tampa to escape the cold winters of Connecticut.

She once said she was fortunate to have been able to bounce back from the end of the silent film era, the end of radio dramas and end of the big band era.

"I love to work, I love to play the organ and I had to eat," she joked in a 1998 Tampa Tribune article.

She was known for her charm, her energy and her sense of humor.

She would meticulously prepare for each performance by watching the silent film several
times and planning for sound effects and the right mood music for each scene.

She once said she memorized the main themes and would improvise as the movie played. Sometimes she injected snippets of modern pop music such as slipping The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" during a "The Phantom of the Opera" scene in which the phantom is hiding under the water.

She studied music at Oberlin College and silent film accompaniment at The Eastman School of Music. Rio accompanied silent films in movie palaces in New York and New Orleans.

During the 1930s, she was hired by NBC to play in the all-male studio orchestra. She was supposed to be a temporary replacement while they searched for a man.

She stayed for 22 years and even had her own radio show, "Rosa Rio Rhythms," which was broadcast coast to coast and to troops overseas during World War II.

According to the Tampa Theatre website, since 1996, Rosa has performed for more than 30 silent film presentations for full houses. Her last performance was in August 2009.

Phyllis Hodges Boyce, born on July 24, 1936, one of the last surviving
cast members of Gone with the Wind, passed away on May 12, 2010. She
was born in Hollywood, Calif. to Ridgeway Callow, a Manxman of England
and graduate of Cambridge who served in the RAF. He was hired by
Howard Hughes as an accountant in New York and with his wife, Margaret
Watts a Ziegfeld girl and socialite. They moved to Hollywood and
worked in the motion picture industry as an award winning second unit
director. Phyllis was the baby, Bonnie Blue Butler in Gone with the
Wind as a two year old on the horse with Clark Gable. Phyllis grew up
in Malibu and West Los Angeles, Calif. She was an actress and played
many roles in movies and television, notably Star Trek and Batman.
Phyllis later became a Real Estate Broker, for 33 years, in Grass
Valley, Calif. and the Palm Springs area for the past 20 years.
Phyllis is survived by her husband, Robert B. Boyce; son, John Ryan
Boyce; daughters, Nancy Lee Douglas of Castaic, Calif. and Sharon
Leeds; and granddaughter, Samantha Leeds of Eugene, Ore. Phyllis was
so loved by friends and family, and considered our lifestyle at
Outdoor Resort Palm Springs, a Recreational Vehicle Country Club the
best place on earth. Phyllis and Bob had what she considered the best
fourth quarter of life together, what a gift we have and what a gift
to friends. As Phyllis says "I am going to see Jesus." Phyllis will be
placed at the Forest Lawn Mausoleum in Cathedral City, Calif. A small
family service will be held at the Mausoleum site. Forest Lawn
Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries Published in The Desert Sun from May 14 to
May 19, 2010.

Author David Everitt, one of the early pioneering editors of FANGORIA magazine, died last Friday, May 7 at age 57. Everitt, who worked on classic Fango issues #16 to #50 (1981-1985), had been suffering from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a.k.a. ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

As a freelance writer, Everitt contributed to several magazines and newspapers during his life (STARLOG, COMICS SCENE, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, etc.) and wrote a number of books (many with cousin Harold Schecter), including FILM TRICKS, THE MANLY HANDBOOK, A SHADOW OF RED: COMMUNISM AND THE BLACKLIST IN RADIO AND TELEVISION, LEGENDS: THE STORY OF WYATT EARP, HUMAN MONSTERS: AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE WORLD’S MOST VICIOUS MURDERERS and many others. His interests encompassed film, history and baseball.

As a co-editor of FANGORIA, Everitt brought a biting sense of humor to the magazine. He enjoyed covering the independent scene (he was the first to laud RE-ANIMATOR) and the horror and sci-fi films he grew up with on Long Island. Everitt’s many contributions to Fango included interviews with the likes of makeup legend Dick Smith (his first Fango article), director Joe Dante, FIEND WITHOUT A FACE producer Richard Gordon, EATING RAOUL helmer Paul Bartel, PSYCHO star Anthony Perkins and, of course, B-movie actor Dick Miller (BUCKET OF BLOOD, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, GREMLINS, etc.), whom Everitt championed in the magazine as a sort of unofficial mascot. His pseudonymous reviews as Dr. Cyclops, witty captions and editorials gave ’80s Fango a cutting edge. Back in Fango #18, then-editor Bob Martin joked that anything in the mag deemed “rude, off-color, or offensive” came from Everitt’s “insidious influence.” Everitt and Martin began serving as co-editors with issue #19; when Martin jumped ship as of Fango #48, Everitt took over as sole editor for just two issues, #49-50. Subsequent editor Anthony Timpone (Fango #63-292) coaxed Everitt back into the Fango fold for a few freelance pieces circa 1990.

“Along with Forry Ackerman and STARLOG/Fango editor David McDonnell, Dave Everitt was one of my key mentors,” says Timpone, who trained under Everitt in summer 1985. “He had a profound impact on my career and life in the short time we worked together. He trusted me, encouraged me and promoted me, back when I was green and fresh out of school. What I liked best about Dave was his sense of humor; he always found something funny to chuckle about and comment on. Plus, he instilled in me that there were other things in life besides horror and monsters that deserved one’s attention. He will be sorely missed.”

During his Fango tenure, Everitt enlisted many of the magazine’s best writers, including retrospective specialist Tom Weaver and initial British correspondent Philip Nutman. “David Everitt was my first managing editor at Fango,” Nutman says. “He was the one who hired me to write and launched my professional writing career. He bought my first main feature [Milton Subotsky of Amicus Productions]. He took me to breakfast the second day I arrived, a 20-year-old kid from England, when I was in NYC for the first time. I’ll always remember his pleated, neatly pressed, sharp-as-knives pants, buttoned-down collar shirt and immaculate tie. He really taught me how to be a good journalist.”

“As someone who grew up reading and collecting Fango, I am heartsick to learn of the passing of David Everitt,” says current Fango editor Chris Alexander. “Dave was an essential piece of the Fango puzzle, and though we had never actually had the pleasure of shaking hands, his presence will always be a part of both the magazine…and my childhood. My sincere condolences to his friends, family and fellow readers of his wonderful words.”

Everitt leaves behind a wife, Laurie, and sons Anthony and Gregory, as well as legions of Fangorians and close friends.