‘Skipper’ Dedicated 76 Years To Girl Scouting
By Jim Tunstall, Tampa Tribune, Fla.
Jan. 18–TAMPA — Clifford Richardson had a unique claim to fame:
She was thought to be the longest-serving Girl Scout in the Bay area, if not the state.
Nicknamed “Skipper,” she raised a family, held down jobs and still devoted 76 years to the Scouts.
Richardson died Sunday, six weeks short of her 90th birthday.
“We don’t have an official way of knowing, but we feel confident she was the longest-serving Girl Scout in Tampa Bay and maybe Florida,” Kelly Lynn, communications manager of the Girl Scouts of Suncoast Council, said Wednesday.
In 2005, “she got her 75-year pin, and that’s the only request for one ever made” within the council, which includes Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Hernando counties.
“She was an incredible lady,” Lynn said. “She was still going to leaders meetings and sharing stories with the girls.”
Richardson joined Hyde Park’s Magnolia Troop in 1927, 14 years after it became the second Girl Scout troop in the nation, Lynn said.
When she graduated from the troop in 1939, she became leader of the first one founded in Temple Terrace.
Ten years ago, she told a Tribune reporter she was happiest when she went camping.
Seven years earlier, she declared, “Girl Scouting is my life.”
“She still taught tying knots and worked with the disabled,” her niece, Bonnie Corral, said. “She was extremely active. She still lived without assisted living. She was an inspiration.”
Granddaughter Shannon Alfonso said Richardson was old school. “She believed you picked yourself up by the bootstraps and kept going,” Alfonso said. “She always took care of family and friends.
“When she asked how you were, it wasn’t a greeting. She sat down and listened to what you had to say. I honestly don’t know how she took care of so many people.”
UNA CLIFFORD “SKIPPER” RICHARDSON
BORN: Feb. 26, 1917, in Glenville, Ga.
DIED: Jan. 14, 2007, in Tampa
SURVIVORS: Two granddaughters, two great-grandchildren and a niece.
SERVICES: 2 p.m. Saturday at Temple Terrace Community Church, 210 Inverness Ave..
MEMORIAL GIFTS: To Sunburst Neighborhood Girl Scouts, P.O. Box 290666, Temple Terrace FL 33687, or to Temple Terrace Community Church, 210 Inverness Ave., Temple Terrace FL 33617
Reporter Michelle Bearden and researcher Diane Grey contributed to this report. Reporter Jim Tunstall can be reached at (352) 628-5558.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Tampa Tribune, Fla.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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