It came from The Tampa Daily Times in 1941 and told of my first foray in journalism; I produced a weekly mimeographed newspaper called The Flint Lake Diver in Thonotosassa.

Today's column is a farewell, for this is my last regularly scheduled article on the History & Heritage page in The Tampa Tribune. After 54 years as a professional newspaperman - 52 at The Tampa Tribune - it's time to retire.

I hope to continue writing occasional historical articles on a non-deadline basis. But Project No.1 will be selecting a few of the 1,000 or so History & Heritage columns from the past 22 years for a book.

It's a pleasure to report that Professor Gary Mormino of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg will take over. It's fitting that he should, since he and then- USF Special Collections librarian Jay Dobkin introduced me to historical research back in 1982.

As co-author of ``Tampa the Treasure City'' and author of a new book on Florida coming out in 2005, he's eminently qualified.

I'd like to mention a few other people who have been especially helpful through my years of writing history, and recall a few subjects that were particularly memorable to me.

It was providential that I met Canter Brown Jr. at a meeting of the Florida Historical Society in 1989. Just starting his doctoral studies in history then, he already had the completed manuscript for ``Florida's Peace River Frontier,'' which has become a standard resource for 19th century Central Florida history.

His research enabled me to focus on a number of neglected figures in Tampa and Florida black history. One was Christina Meacham, whose former students provided wonderful background on the pioneer principal at Harlem School.

Another who provided fodder for columns was James M. ``Mike'' Denham of Florida Southern College, who studies the state's Cracker culture.

The inimitable Tony Pizzo was a magnificent resource and good friend whose knowledge of Ybor City history provided the basis for numerous columns. In 1987, he was the first tipster on the identity of the Green Hornet, an anonymous scandal sheet publisher in 1950s Ybor City. Recently, Albert Knapp's daughter and son-in-law, Sylvia and Jack Fernandez, filled in more details about the Hornet: mail carrier Abispo Verde.

Armando Mendez and Arsenio Sanchez similarly were helpful in recalling little- known aspects of West Tampa history.

Judge E.J. Salcines did his share, as well, particularly with his careful inquiry into the Tampa visits of Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti.

Rodney Kite-Powell, curator at the Tampa Bay History Center, and Patrick Grace, photo archivist for the Burgert Bros. collection at the John F. Germany Public Library, have provided invaluable assistance in recent years.

The list could go on. I'm indebted to dozens of readers who contributed background on elements of Tampa and area history that would have been lost otherwise. Here are some examples.

With The Help Of Readers

Retired mail carrier David A. Bohannon wrote to me in 2001 to say he had found a packet of letters on a Hyde Park bus-stop bench. They were love letters from the 1930s, but the identities of the male writer and female recipient were a mystery.

Through a combination of inquiries and coincidences, I was able to determine that the recipient was Mary Wallace Lambright, a classmate of my mother's at Hillsborough High School. Her daughter, Rebecca Smith, was astonished to read the letters, saying they gave her new insight into her late mother's past, and that of her mother's second husband.

* School Board member Doris Ross Reddick introduced me to Hilda Theodosia Turner, who put her job on the line in the early 1940s to participate in a federal lawsuit. It resulted in helping to equalize the salaries of black teachers, who were grossly underpaid.

* Gil Whitehurst told me of three ancestors, boys in the Civil War era, whose father was killed by locals resentful of his Unionist sympathies. The youngsters, ages 6, 12 and 15, joined the U.S. Navy as cabin boys and were shown in a memorable picture taken in Key West. (The youngest was eventually sent home because of his age.)

* George Lopez insisted that I write about a once-thriving section of Tampa wiped out by urban renewal and construction of Interstate 275 in the 1960s. Great stories emerged from one-time residents of Roberts City, named for an area cigar factory. It also turned out to be one of Tampa's first integrated communities.

* Herbert McKay suggested I look into the career of D. Collins Gillett, a developer and mayor of Temple Terrace. He became one of the most flamboyant kings of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla.

* Charles Mullen Jr. lent some photo albums with striking poses of an attractive young woman in the late 1920s. Burgert Bros. photographer Al Severson had used his future wife, Vivian Spring, as a model. Although both were deceased, their romance was revived on the History & Heritage page in 2000.

Thanks to all of you for informing and entertaining one another - and preserving our heritage along the way - with your memories and photographs.

Folks, it has been fun!<