Amy Sparks

SPARKS, Amy Katherine James, was born in Pensacola, on January 23, 1926, and died on March 9, 2004, in Dade City. She received her B. A. and M. A, from the University of Alabama, and her PhD. in Spanish and English from Louisiana State University. She had a long career in college teaching of Spanish Literature and the Humanities, first at Louisiana State, Nachitoches, then Greensboro College, Greensboro, N.C., then at SUNY - New Paltz in N.Y>, and finally with nearly thirty years at the University of South Florida, Tampa, where she became chairperson of the Humanities and American Studies Department. Active in the community, she was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, and a contributor to the Heifer Project International, an organization providing work animals to the impoverished in underdeveloped countries. She also served on the Hillsborough County Democratic Party Executive Committee in the 1970's. She was a proficient and enthusiastic gard ener, and an ardent traveler, taking U. S. F. study groups to pre-Colombian and Spanish Colonial sites in Mexico, Peru, and throughout South America, including the Galapagos Islands. She also traveled to Tierra del Fuego in her retirement. She is survived by two beloved daughters, Amy Larsen Sparks of Lutz, and Junette Sparks Grossenbacher of Mount Dora; a son-in-law, Bill Grossenbacher; two nephews, Stephen Dracos of Houston, Texas, Walton James of Garland, Texas; and two nieces, Patricia Amy James Robinson of Marietta. Ga., and Angela Dracos MacDonald of Waterford, Conn. A son, Ronald Guy Sparks, resides in Cocoa Beach. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, March 23, 2004, at the University of South Florida Botanical Gardens. The family suggests donations to Hernando-Pasco Hospice and Heifer Project International in lieu of flowers. Oakley Funeral Home