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VOL 19 No. 32
May 22, 2019
Albert Few: Cortez WWII survivor BY TOM VAUGHT SUN STAFF WRITER | tvaught@amisun.com
Supreme sunset ANNA MARIE HAYDEN | SUBMITTED
Beachgoers enjoyed this colorful sunset at Bean Point last week.
Pine Avenue restaurant proposed
The fact that he’s the sole survivor of Cortez’s WWII veterans is a mystery to Albert Few. “I don’t know why that is,” he said. I take good care of myself, and the only things that are bad are my vision and my hearing.” Few is going to celebrate his 98th birthday soon. “The kids are going to come down from Jacksonville, so I expect they’ll plan something,” he said. Few signed up for the military the day after Japanese planes bombed the American fleet in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941. “I was leaving home to go back to college with my friend when my mother told us to come back because she heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio,” he said. “I told my friend, ‘Clem, let’s sign up for the Air Force.’ They called it the Army Air Corps back then.” Few said they took a year to train how to fly in combat. He ended up flying 83 missions in P-40s in North Africa and Sicily for about a year, and he came home after the next year, joined the reserve and flew jets after the war. From there, Few became an aerospace engineer and worked for NASA with rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun after the former Nazi surrendered to American soldiers and joined the Allied war effort. In his 30-year career with NASA, he also worked on the space shuttle program. As for a career as a commercial fisherman, “My dad was a fisherman, and I went out with him a couple of times, but I wasn’t interested," Few said. “If it didn’t have wings, I wasn’t interested in it.”
Ben Sato hopes to realize his dream of running a restaurant and living at 415 Pine Ave. BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@amisun.com
ANNA MARIA – On Thursday, May 23, city commissioners are scheduled to discuss the proposed construction of a 45-seat restaurant and residential structure at 415 Pine Avenue. Thursday’s meeting will begin at 6 p.m. and the public hearing will allow for public input. City commissioners will be asked to approve the site plan application that includes requests for two parking-related special exceptions pertaining to an off-site parking arrangement with the Roser Memorial Community Church. The site plan approval application was reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Board on May 14. The application lists Gohandesuyo LLC as the applicant and property owner. The LLC is registered to local Realtor
JOE HENDRICKS | SUN
Ben Sato and the Sato family hope to replace this existing residential structure with a ground-level restaurant that also features upper level living space. Barbara Sato and her Realtor son, Jason Sato. Urban Planner Monica Simpson is representing the Satos in this permitting matter. She said Barbara’s son, Ben Sato, hopes to operate the restaurant and occupy the residential unit above.
INSIDE
SWORDFISH
NEWS 4 CALENDAR 7 ENTERTAINMENT 31 OUTDOORS 32-33 RESTAURANTS 35 REAL ESTATE 36-41 COPS, OBITS 38 SPORTS 42
stars in Food and Wine. 34.
Anna Maria Island, Florida
SEE RESTAURANT, PAGE 43
SUBMITTED
Albert Few is flanked by Susan Murphy and Clara Few in this WWII-era photo.
HOLMES BEACH police officers honored. 3 CATCHING STRIPERS on the
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