Golf carts in downtown Ocala
VOLUME 4 ISSUE 34
Pg A3
$2
AUGUST 25 - AUGUST 31, 2023
15 candles
Marion County ranked among the least healthy counties in Florida
Ocala Symphony Orchestra Maestro Matthew Wardell in 2023. [Brittney Bishop] Left: Wardell offers one of his amusing asides at a recent pops concert. [MAVEN photo + film]
OSO’s 2023-24 season marks Maestro Matt Wardell’s 15th anniversary in Ocala. “It’s exciting to be here for 15 years; it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but we’ve got a great season planned, and season ticket sales are really good. Attendance has been the highest it’s been in the last 15 years.” Matthew Wardell
By Julie Garisto julie@magnoliamediaco.com
W
hen Conductor Matthew Wardell led his first Christmas concert with the Ocala Symphony Orchestra in 2009, he substituted a baton for a sock puppet. The bit was an homage to Shari Lewis, the mid-20thcentury TV puppeteer known for her jolly handmade friends Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse. “She was actually a pretty accomplished guest conductor,” Wardell said of Lewis, explaining that the chirpy TV star also gained recognition in the classical music world for her rendition of the Ukrainian holiday favorite “Carol of the
Bells,” the piece that inspired Wardell’s impromptu puppetry. “I conducted that way for that entire piece,” Wardell recalled with a laugh. “I thought, ‘I’m probably going to get fired for this.’” Of course, he wasn’t. The offbeat moment was one of many unconventional, comedic and teachable moments furnished by OSO’s maestro over the past 15 years, the type of joke or anecdote that shows his knack for grabbing audiences’ attention and showing them how exciting, amusing and provocative classical music can be. As OSO’s director/ conductor over the past decade and a half, Wardell has brought music lovers of all
ages to the Reilly Arts Center, the shining art-nouveau performance venue he helped birth from the hollow remains of an old community center. “It’s exciting to be here for 15 years; it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but we’ve got a great season planned, and season ticket sales are really good,” Wardell said. “Attendance has been the highest in the last 15 years.” Indeed, OSO attendance has been the highest since he signed on. In 2023, the Reilly hosted 139 events and 51,230 guests. During the previous season, affected somewhat by COVID-19, the venue held 68 events and 26,000 guests. Still, a performing arts venue nearly doubling its
attendance in one season is nothing to sneeze at. Wardell and his cohorts shepherded the community arts mecca into existence in 2015. The fundraising didn’t stop there. The Reilly underwent a major renovation with the addition of the NOMA Black Box Theatre in 2022. An annual event at the park that draws thousands, Symphony Under the Lights, spearheaded by former Ocala Mayor Gerald Ergle, has endured as a holiday tradition under Wardell’s leadership and will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Dec. 1. The Ocala Symphony and members of the Ocala Youth Symphony put on the annual free concert to the community under the illuminated mossy oak canopy of Tuscawilla Park. At the holiday event and throughout any given season, Wardell bridges instrumental and pop music favorites. Take, for instance, “Bowie and Glass: A Symphonic Tribute,” when Wardell and Adam Volpe See Wardell’s, page A5
Courtesy of County Health Rankings and Roadmaps
By Caroline Brauchler caroline@ocalagazette.com
T
he 2023 annual county health rankings survey ranked Marion County one of the least healthy counties in Florida, in the lowest 25%. The County Health Rankings National Findings Report, created by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, ranked Marion County 53rd out of 67 counties in the state for overall length and quality of life. Out of all of the data collected, the county ranks significantly higher than the rest of the state and the country for the rate of premature deaths. Premature death is measured for years of potential life lost before the age of 75 for every 100,000 people in the population. “In Marion County, Florida, 11,300 years of life were lost to deaths of people under age 75, per 100,000 people,” according to the report. In the state of Florida, 7,500 years of life were lost to premature death and in the United States, 7,300 years were lost per 100,000 people. The Marion County Department of Health was not able to offer comment or insight into the data at the time of publication. See Marion, page A2
Remembering a civil rights martyr National monument for Emmett Till rekindles memories for his Ocala cousin. By Andy Fillmore andy@ocalagazette.com
T
he White House recently announced plans to create the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, with three locations in Illinois and Mississippi dedicated to their memory. The monument sites will pay homage to Emmett, who died at age 14 in a racially motivated murder in Money,
Mississippi, in August 1955, and his mother, who bravely insisted on an open coffin viewing service for her son who had been beaten and horribly disfigured. The passing of 68 years hasn’t dulled Ocala resident Thelma Edwards’ memory of the tragedy and the death of her second cousin, Emmett Till, who she affectionately called “Bobo,” which has been called an important catalyst for the Civil Rights movement.
A July 25 White House press release stated the monuments will be placed at Graball Landing in Mississippi, the Tallahatchie River site where Emmett’s body was found; the Tallahatchie County courthouse; and Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago; all areas significant in the story of the murdered teen’s death. Also, on March 28, 2022, H.R. 55, known as the “Emmett Till Antilynching
Act,” was signed into law making lynching a federal hate crime, according to a White House press release. Edwards, 92, spoke to the “Gazette” recently following a service at Draw All Men Ministries Church. She was welcomed by Elder Quentin Samuel and his wife, minister Sharon Samuel, and her friend Brenda Vereen’s grandson, Amir Vereen Belle, 7, and was embraced by the entire congregation. Edwards See Remembering, page A4
Thelma Edwards, second cousin of Emmett Till, who died as the result of a racially motivated murder in Mississippi in 1955, is seen following a church service recently at Draw All Men Ministries Church in Ocala. [Andy Fillmore]
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Veterans.......................................... A7 Death Penalty................................ A9 SE Livestock Pavilion.................. B3 Puzzles............................................. B4 Calendar......................................... B5
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