BocaBeacon.comThe Boca Beacon is Boca Grande's weekly community newspaper.

Subscribe via email

Grab our RSS Feed

Obituary: Lamar Sparkman

Edward Lamar Sparkman, 88, passed away on Wednesday, Jan. 6 due to complications of pneumonia.  Mr. Sparkman, a Tampa native, graduated from H.B. Plant High School and attended the University of Florida, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

During World War II, he served with the Army Air Corps in Italy.

For many years he was the sports cartoonist for the “Tampa Tribune” and the “Tampa Times,” putting a personal face on local, state, national and international sports figures. His Ladies Day Tarpon Tournament and World’s Richest Tarpon Tournament cartoons were a regular feature in the Boca Beacon. Lamar maintained a home on the island, and considered Boca Grande to be his second home. In tribute to his body of work, he was selected as a member of the National Cartoonist Society.

In 1975 he created the original NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers logo.

He was a member of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, Tampa Touchdown Club, Exchange Club, Merrymakers Club, Tampa Yacht and Country Club, Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club and the Gasparilla Inn and Club.

Mr. Sparkman was married to Gloria Johnston Sparkman for 62 years until her death in 2005.

He was the son of the late Stephen M. and Katherine S. Sparkman, the brother of the late Jean Sparkman Huddleston and the half-brother of the late Stephen M. Sparkman Jr. He is survived by daughters, Rosemary Sparkman McAteer and Lamar Sparkman Toole and sons-in-law, Derrill Selwyn McAteer and John Harper Toole; granddaughter Lucy Bland Toole, grandsons Derrill Lee McAteer, married to Megan Flynn McAteer, and John Carter Toole, married to Barbara Melton Toole; great-granddaughters, Clara Parrish McAteer, Kathryn Flynn McAteer, Catherine Harper Toole and Caroline Lee Toole; niece Kay Huddleston McNab; nephew Prentiss Sparkman Huddleston; many great-nieces, great-nephews and cousins.

They are grateful for having known him and experienced his warm and loving heart.

The family would like to thank the wonderful administrators and staff at the Canterbury Tower Health Center for their loving care and support, as well as special caregivers Toni Agbakwu, Elisha Peterson and Krystal Sullivan. A memorial service in celebration of his life will be held on Saturday, Jan. 9, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Tampa at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions in his memory be made to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 501 N. Marion St., Tampa FL 33602 or the Friends of the Boca Grande Community Center, PO Box 429, Boca Grande FL. 33921.

Please sign the online guestbook at http://www.BlountCurryMacDill.com.

- 30 -