A flight Serving Highland Beach and Coastal Boca Raton
September 2013
back in time
Local pilot helps re-create women’s WWII air journey By Ron Hayes After the long flight across the Atlantic, the Boeing 767 taxies to the gate at Miami International Airport. The hatch opens, passengers scramble, the pilot stands in the cockpit doorway to thank them for choosing American. Florence Mascott flew And WASP missions. almost every Story, Page 21 time, one of those departing passengers says, “Oh, are you the pilot? Oh!” American Airlines has about
Pilot Elizabeth Ackerly joined Alan Anders, Jeff Geer and Mark Kandianis on a flight in a T-6 warplane from Bellingham, Wash., to Great Falls, Mont. (in background), then to Fairbanks, Alaska. Photo provided 10,000 pilots, of whom a mere 400 are women. Elizabeth Ackerly of Ocean Ridge is one of them. For the past 15 years, she’s flown those big 767s from Miami to Paris, Barcelona and Madrid. And then, for eight days in June,
she flew back to 1943, on a mission to honor the female pilots who helped make her career possible. “I’m always up for an adventure,” Ackerly explained recently, relaxing at home on a break between flights,
Volume 6 Issue 9
Highland Beach
Construction disturbs Indian burial ground — again By Cheryl Blackerby
In March 2003, workers were digging a trench for underground utility pipes at the Sea Frolic hotel in Highland Beach when they came across something unexpected and disturbing — human bones buried about three feet deep. A routine construction site suddenly turned into a crime scene. Highland Beach police and the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office were called, and the bones were taken to the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner. Police tape surrounded the area. The 22 bones turned out to be that of a woman about 30 years old and a child about 2. And there was a surprising twist in this case: The bones were about 1,000 or more years old. It was a lucky break for archaeologists who had a rare opportunity to examine Florida’s ancient history in an area covered with condominiums and parking lots. A stop-work order was issued, giving a team of Florida Atlantic University archaeologists 13 days to examine the ground. Ten years later, the Sea Frolic, at 4521 S. Ocean Blvd., has been torn down to make way for private residences, and archaeologists are fuming because they were not given the chance to look at what they think is an Indian burial mound. They believe it is part of a wellknown and well-documented ancient graveyard adjacent to the Sea Frolic, where more than 160 skeletons were found in the 1970s. That burial mound is under what is now the
See PILOTS on page 21
See INDIAN MOUND on page 12
Boca Raton
Wick’s theater and costume museum brings new life to former Caldwell
By Dale King When the former Caldwell Theatre closed last year, it left what Marilynn Wick called “a gaping hole in the South Florida theater scene.” Wick — owner of Costume
World, the Costume World Broadway Collection and creator of a major theater gear rental firm — and her daughters, Kim and Kelly, are using their performance and business savvy to revive the Boca Raton cultural arts center.
The former Caldwell — shuttered and silent since spring 2012 when a bankruptcy receiver evicted the company and closed the doors on the $10 million North Federal Highway building — will once again resound with songs and
dialogue. On Sept. 19, Marilynn and her daughters will reopen the venue as The Wick Theatre & Costume Museum with a production of The Sound of Music. Equity husband-andwife duo Krista Severeid and Tony Lawson head a cast of 28.
Inside Summer Arts
Artists hope to boost scene on Boynton’s Ocean Avenue. Page H10
Getting a ‘green’ go-ahead St. Patty’s Day parade will stay in Delray Beach, but the popular event will be alcohol-free. Page 11
Staging the Rodgers and Hammerstein gem is just the tip of the Wick-led reconstruction and revival effort that’s taken most of a year. The back end of the Caldwell See WICK on page 13
Around Town
Local ‘celebs’ strut their stuff — and raise a ton of money — during Boca’s Ballroom Battle. Page 7
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