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Tarpon Woman, 96, Honored By Care Center

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By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: November 15, 2008

At first, Athena Catterall wants to be left alone in her room at Peninsula Care & Rehabilitation Center in Tarpon Springs. She is tired, she tells a visitor.

Then the words come. Catterall's eyes light up, and life in old Tarpon Springs comes alive.

The rich life Catterall has lived for nearly 10 decades has led to her being chosen to be inducted into the Signature Healthcare Hall of Fame in December. The honor goes to seniors who have made a difference.

The 96-year-old Catterall was born in Tarpon Springs of Anna and Gabriel Peterson, Greek parents who came from Turkey. Gabriel was a sailor who when still in Europe, heard from a fellow seaman about a far-off "place where it never snows."

That was Tarpon Springs, and that was where the seafaring Gabriel finally settled in 1905. With a bow to the local culture, Gabriel Anglicized his last name. He returned to Turkey to marry Anna and brought her back to Tarpon Springs.

"Tarpon Springs," Catterall says. "What a place it must have been. Lots of bugs. Lots of animals."

Memories almost a century old begin to come back to Catterall. She remembers Chautauqua, popular traveling educational assemblies in the early 20th century that provided entertainment and culture to small towns. In Tarpon Springs, Chautauqua and other shows were presented on the site of what now is a municipal parking lot at the corner of Tarpon and Pinellas avenues.

Catterall loved all forms of entertainment and usually was among the first of audience members to arrive. "I remember as a little girl, I'd run out of school to get to the front seat," she said.

There were also water shows on one of the city's bayous. Even as a child, Catterall had a voice that would later make her a popular singer at Tarpon Springs events. She was often called upon to sing at the water shows, she says. She remembers singing and dancing with other children as they stood behind a screen so that only their heads and legs showed.

Her father worked as a sponge fisherman and evidently did well for himself. He had several boats. One was named Charm of Tampa.

He bought his family a house at 402 Hope St. According to "Historic Resources Element," prepared by the Tarpon Springs Planning and Zoning Department, the house was an 1880 Georgian Revival.

To Catterall's mother, it just looked big. "She said, 'Are you crazy, Gabriel? We only have two children, but the house has six bedrooms,'" Catterall recalled.

Her dad's response: "Don't argue. I'm the boss."

He was "very strict," Catterall recalls. But Gabriel wanted the best for Catterall and her older sister Theodosia, who recently passed away. Even in a male-dominated world, he sent Catterall to what at the time was the Florida State College for Women, in Tallahassee. At what has been known as Florida State University since 1947, she majored in voice but dropped out to marry before she got her degree.

Catterall gave up her dreams of being an opera singer to marry her first husband, Nick Marnemes, in 1933. Marnemes later bought the Royal Theater, a movie house in the downtown Meres Building. The theater had several hundred seats, Catterall says. A large bag of popcorn cost 15 cents.

Two days worth of movie tickets were 35 cents. Sometimes, there was a midnight show. Catterall was less than impressed with some of the midnight attendees. "You'd be surprised at the trashy people who attended," she notes.

Marnemes died in 1953 of a heart attack. Athena later married Frank Catterall, a textile engineer who was a partner in a small Tarpon Springs firm. The couple lived at 229 S. Spring Blvd., in what at the time was a new house.

Athena worked as secretary of the Tarpon Springs Chamber of Commerce. She sent out brochures about the city to both adults and children.

"It was a prestigious job," she recalls and then adds drily, she worked "not for cash, that's for sure."

She was active on the board of the Tarpon Springs Public Library and the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic order for women. "Oh, Lord, everyone knew me back then," she recalls.

Catterall has discovered a new talent these days. She paints. Two of her early works hang in her room at Peninsula Care.

She is pleased with the life she led, Catterall says. "My life was a happy life. I did the best I could."

Cheryl Bentley can be reached at 727-815-1069 or cbentley@suncoastnews.com.

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