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Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

Elisabeth Parker is a community news reporter for the Times, based in Tampa. A graduate of the University of South Florida, she joined the Times in 2002.

She's always looking for story ideas.

Phone: (813) 226-3431

Email: eparker@tampabay.com

  1. Sulphur Springs Community Garden gives community roots

    05/16/13 Human Interest By Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    SULPHUR SPRINGS — Today a row of tomato plants stretches toward the sun in the center of a raised bed banked by corn stalks, tenderly planted by small hands last weekend.

    Children planted beans and herbs and placed worms in the earth and climbed two large oak trees that partially shade a formerly vacant lot.

    Tampa's newest community garden is growing inside a square mile better known in recent years for crime, drugs and more than its share of impoverished children....

    Residents of Sulphur Springs work on the community garden last week. “We plan to grow more than vegetables,” says Mike McCollum, the executive director for the YMCA’s programs in the area. “We’re growing a sense of community.”

  2. Daughter shines in her mother's twilight years

    05/11/13 Human Interest By Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    TEMPLE TERRACE

    Two years ago, Judy Dennis packed up her dining room and put it in storage.

    Her mother had suffered a stroke.

    Every day since then, three times a day, pureed potatoes and eggs and yogurt and fruits are spooned to Annie Lee Enfinger, who sits propped in the bed where the table had been.

    Life unfolds around her. Meals are eaten in sight. News and cooking shows play on the living room television....

    Judy Dennis helps her mother drink water after lunch last week in Temple Terrace. After a stroke, Dennis began taking care of Annie Enfinger, who is also under hospice care.

  3. Hindu temple in Town 'n Country: Persecution is making us move

    05/09/13 Human Interest By Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    TOWN 'N COUNTRY

    A spiritual alliance could be assumed when an organic farm and a Hindu temple share a boundary.

    And it was so for the first three years, says Chris Chooyick, priest at Shree Mariamman Kali Temple, which sits just north of Hillsborough Avenue next to Sweetwater Organic Community Farm.

    The curious on either side ventured across the property line. They welcomed each other and shared food....

    Sanjay Somwaru, 16, participates in the Karagam Puja festival Saturday at the Shree Mariamman Kali Temple. A forced closure looms after code violations.

  4. Woman gets 20-year prison sentence for hit-and-run deaths

    05/02/13CriminalBy Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — It was the first time Susanne Meyers spoke to the families of two people she left to die in a ditch on a dark Ruskin road on July 1, 2011.

    Reading from notes, Meyers, 53, said on Thursday that she was a retired nurse who would never knowingly leave someone injured.

    "I wish there was something I could have done to help them," Meyers said before a judge handed down her sentence. "It all happened so quickly that I think I was stunned."...

    Sunnie Hartless addresses Susanne Meyers in court Thursday. Meyers got 20 years in prison for hitting two motorcyclists, including Hartless’ brother, Steve Colson, and fleenig.

  5. Is HART a good choice to get you to the airport?

    04/27/13NewsBy Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    The route:

    Palma Ceia to Tampa International Airport

    HART's route: Depending on when you leave, there are two routes, both with a transfer. One is direct but requires a walk to a second bus; the other goes to a downtown station.

    Miles, estimated travel time: I took the direct route, which took an hour and five minutes for the 8.3-mile trip.

    Cost: $4 each way...

  6. Wild Cherry's Rob Parissi evolves from 'funky music' to smooth jazz

    04/27/13 Human Interest By Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    Rob Parissi was 25 and playing guitar with his rock 'n' roll band Wild Cherry when he jotted some lyrics on a server's drink order pad. The words would make him a star. It was 1976 when Play That Funky Music topped the charts and later stuck at number 73 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All Time. Parissi, 62, spins smooth jazz in New Tampa and has a new song that's on the charts. Over a martini at Cassis American Brasserie in St. Petersburg, he and his fiance, Ilona Bellamy, told Times reporter Elisabeth Parker how the song came to be and how he ended up in Tampa....

    Wild Cherry, from left, Marc Avsec, Robert Parissi, Cooke Michalchick, Donnie Iris, Ron Beitle made its mark in the 1970s.

  7. Tampa Venezuelans protest Chávez successor vote

    04/25/13PoliticsBy Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA

    The cousins held up pinkies stained purple with ink, marked reminders of their votes in Venezuela this month for the successor to deceased president Hugo Chávez.

    Antonio Daher, 21, had traveled more than 1,300 miles, taking four planes to get to his home in Valencia, Venezuela.

    It was his first time voting, said Daher, an economics major at the University of Tampa, who with a friend organized a rally last week on the grounds of UT....

    About 50 protesters gathered April 18 at the University of Tampa to demand an audit of the presidential election held in Venezuela the month.

  8. Chamberlain's Terrell Johnson plans for college, despite disease

    04/25/13 Human Interest By Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA PALMS — Good news for a Chamberlain High School senior came last week as a three-pack combo.

    Terrell Jefferson, 19, couldn't stop smiling.

    He got a letter of acceptance to Florida A&M University.

    He won scholarships that will fully pay for his costs.

    And he learned he has no tumors.

    Jefferson was featured in the Tampa Bay Times Holiday Hopes series six months ago. He wanted help to pay for a test to determine if he had inherited a rare disease called Von Hippel-Lindau, which eight months earlier had killed his father....

    Terrell Jefferson, 19, diagnosed with Von Hippel-Lindau disease, was accepted by Florida A&M University.

  9. Town 'N Country woman has special affinity for one Muscovy duck

    04/18/13 Human Interest By Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    TOWN N' COUNTRY

    There's a smudge of cherries jubilee on the beak of Lacey the duck.

    The red lipstick came from Sandra Griffin as she comforted the 3-year-old Muscovy.

    "You have to be good for mommy because mommy loves you," she had whispered in Lacey's ear.

    Griffin, 70, knows what some say about the Muscovy duck.

    They're nasty. Vicious. Aggressive. They splatter sidewalks with poop, spreading disease....

    Sandra Griffin, 70, walks Lacey on a leash at Church Park in Tampa. The duck came to Griffin’s home three years ago as an orphan. Soon after she got Lacey, she headed to the Internet to learn about the much-maligned Muscovy.

  10. What you need to know to sell your gold

    04/14/13 Personal Finance By Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    The woman behind a counter at Gold Pros in Westfield Countryside mall found "14K" stamped on a clasp of a chain my sister gave me when I graduated from high school. She poured acid on a few links and polished a spot until it turned brown — proving it was real gold. She weighed it and made me an offer: $80.

    Not bad, I thought. I had been prepared for less. But aloud, I demurred. "Hmmm. I was just curious." ...

    Cash offers from several gold buyers for this gold chain ranged from $20 to $125.

  11. Former Hillsborough judge Donald Castor dies at 81

    04/09/13ObituariesBy Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — Donald F. Castor, a former Hillsborough County judge and father of U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, died Tuesday at age 81.

    JudgeCastor was hospitalized in early March with pneumonia and was moved Monday to LifePath Hospice Melech House in Temple Terrace.

    An avid basketball fan, he watched the NCAA men's championship game Monday night with his wife, Mickey. They were up past midnight, said his daughter, who cut short a visit to Cuba to be with her father. ...

    Donald Castor spent his last night tuned into the NCAA title game.

  12. Cuba returns Hakkens to U.S.

    04/09/13CrimeBy Jessica Vander Velde and Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writers

    TAMPA — The dramatic odyssey of a Tampa dad sailing to Cuba with his wife and kidnapped sons culminated in undramatic fashion Tuesday when the communist nation readily turned the family over to the U.S. government.

    A U.S. plane carrying the Hakkens — and a family rat terrier named Natti — returned from Havana to Tampa this morning. The boys were medically checked out during the flight....

    Robert and Pat Hauser, the grandparents of Chase and Cole Hakken, talk to the media during a news conference at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office shortly after midnight today.

  13. Cruise parking on Harbour Island will cease

    03/21/13 Local Government By Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — Stroll into the lobby of the Plaza Harbour Island and ask to use the restroom.

    Chances are the doorman will apologize. Residents at the luxury condominium tower say they've had more than their share of sharing.

    Several times a week for more than a year, visitors trekked from a dirt lot across the street where they left their cars while they went on cruises from Tampa's port. A website directed them to the exact address of the Plaza and touted: "Why pay $15 at the port when you can pay $7.99 with Capital Parking?"...

  14. Few in Seminole Heights recoil at idea of Walmart Supercenter

    03/16/13RetailBy Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    SEMINOLE HEIGHTS — Tina Rodriguez walks her pit bull past piles of trash and old furniture at a dead end on Mohawk Avenue.

    The road parallels Hillsborough Avenue and could soon be a back entrance to a Walmart Supercenter.

    Although the retail giant regularly meets resistance as it saturates the country, Rodriguez and many of her neighbors say they will welcome the store at 1720 E Hillsborough Ave., once home to a Chevrolet dealer....

  15. Tournament gives kids with disabilities a chance to play team sport

    03/14/13 Human Interest By Elisabeth Parker, Times Staff Writer

    “Everybody's got their spot," said 15-year-old Michael Royal, describing how he and his teammates at Dorothy Thomas Exceptional Center became a powerhouse. Michael found his on the left side of the basketball court near the net. He can shoot baskets from there best because he's left-handed, he guesses. Michael scored 10 baskets last week at the 20th annual Leonard Shearer March Madness Basketball Tournament. His team won both games they played, taking home two trophies. ...

    Michael Royal, an eighth-grader at Dorothy Thomas Exceptional Center, takes control of the ball during the second half of the championship game at the Leonard Shearer March Madness Basketball Tournament last week. The action took place in the University of Tampa’s Bob Martinez Sports Center.