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Times Homes and Garden editor Judy Stark says goodbye

By Judy Stark and Times Homes, Garden Editor
In print: Saturday, September 6, 2008

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This is the last Saturday morning I will be sharing the breakfast table with you, my readers. After 22 years at the St. Petersburg Times, 17 of them as home and garden editor, I am taking early retirement.

The company offered an enriched pension to employees ages 50 and over in an effort to reduce staff costs. As the clipping on my bulletin board at home says: "How loud does opportunity have to knock?"

So I'm stepping through the door to see what's on the other side, while I still have the good health and energy to explore and enjoy it.

I'd like to thank the builders, remodeling contractors, real estate agents, developers, designers, architects and others who have been good teachers over the years. Their patience enabled me to write better stories to educate and inform readers.

I thank you for your calls and notes and story ideas. Many of you have told me that it wouldn't be Saturday morning without toast and coffee and the Homes and Garden section. Now I invite you to welcome your new editor, Charlotte Sutton, a longtime staffer at the Times. Charlotte is an enthusiastic gardener; her husband is a teacher and freelance writer; and for the past year or so they have been serial house sitters. I'm looking forward to a story Charlotte promises to write soon about what it's like to live in other people's homes. (You can reach Charlotte at sutton@sptimes.com; (727) 893-8425.)

I won't disappear entirely. I may write an occasional freelance story for this section or other sections of the newspaper. I look forward to having more time to do one of my favorite things: visit model centers and look at new homes.

I realized recently that I have been looking out the same windows for the past 17 years. The view has been great, but it's time to see the world from a different place. I am sure I have an encore career out there, and I look forward to discovering it.