Ida Ann Felicione Coe

Born in West Tampa to parents Francisco “Frank” Salvatore Felicione and Rose Clementi Felicione, Ida (named after her Aunt Ida) was raised in the tradition of the hard-working Italian-American families of the era- the Felicione Fish Company, where the Felicione brothers all worked. One of the fishing boats was even named after her- the ‘Ida Ann’. Born between the Great-Depression and World War, II-eras, theirs was a life of modest means, but with a loving and supportive family. Sharing a single bedroom with her siblings sisters Connie & Frances, and brother, Frank, Jr., in a small wooden house on Platt Street, Ida was very close with her siblings and remained that way throughout their lives. She considered her mother Rose, to be one of her very best friends and confidants throughout her life, as well. Creative and industrious, the girls used to make their shoes out of card-board and designed and sewed their own dresses from whole-cloth. Sewing remained one of Ida’s life-long passions, along with playing tennis, bridge, dominoes, and gardening. Ida was also artistically inclined and enjoyed hand-painting and teaching herself to play various musical instruments.

A student at Mitchell Elementary, Wilson Junior High, and Plant High School (54’), it was her musical talents that she would refine the most, eventually attending the University of Tampa on a Full Music Scholarship as the Head Majorette, leading the marching band both on the field and as representatives and good-will ambassadors for the City of Tampa locally, in many parades in other States, as well as Internationally in both Mexico and Cuba, where she led the marching band down the streets of Havana, in a national parade while on a good-will tour during the pre-Castro 1950’s.

Blessed with natural beauty, Ida was considered one of the most beautiful women in Tampa, and was named ‘Miss Tampa’ in 1955. In addition, she held several other beauty-pageant titles, to include being selected Queen of the Aluminum Bowl, in Little Rock, AR, Miss NAIA, and Miss Wool Princess in South Carolina. She was a finalist in the Orange Bowl pageant in Miami, FL and for the Miss Florida crown. She also modeled and acted professionally during her pageant career. Later in life she would serve in several different roles on the Miss Tampa Pageant Board of Directors, across several decades.

At UT she was named ‘Miss Spartan Warrior’ and graduated in 1958 with a degree in elementary education, which she would use in a 36+ year career within the Hillsborough County Public School system as an elementary educator, teaching at close to a dozen different schools, to include: Wimauma, Yates, Tinker (Macdill AFB), Grady, Mitchell, Gorrie, Roosevelt, with the final 18 years of her career spent teaching at Ballast Point Elementary School as a Kindergarten teacher where she was named ‘Teacher of the Year’ in 2001. One of her greatest honors in life was having former students seek her out after they had themselves embarked on a teaching career, in part inspired by their time as students in her elementary school classrooms, decades earlier.

After graduating from the University of Tampa, Ida married Harry Lee Coe, III, and together they had one child, son Harry Lee Coe, IV. Though they later divorced in the early 1970’s, Ida remained friendly and cordial with Harry for the remainder of their lives. In addition to being active in the UT Alumni Association for most of her adult life, Ida was a past-president of the University of Tampa Alumni Association’s ‘Alpha’ chapter and was also a long-time ‘Chisler’ at UT. In 2009 Ida was awarded the University of Tampa’s Outstanding Alumni Award, the prestigious ‘Esse Quam Videri’.

After her retirement from the public school system in 2006, Ida remained very active into her Eighty-Eighth year, living independently, driving, maintaining her home & yard, cooking, playing cards, solving cross-word and word game puzzles, and visiting with nearby family on a weekly basis. She also continued to serve as a companion for her neighbor and friend, Imogene Stokes’s disabled daughter, Carolyn Stokes, often visiting with her and taking her out for meals, shopping, and providing enrichment, while overseeing her facility care.

Those who were fortunate enough to have known Ida, remember and appreciate her warmth, honesty, sincerity, integrity, and kindness, as well as the strength and independence which she exuded in her own unique way, throughout her life. Being a strong, successful woman those initially off-put by her sometimes opinionated and out-spoken nature, usually came to love her for what she was and stood for- those very characteristics! In the end she was just “Idie being Idie” in her own unique and caring way- when we look back and think about her, the things she did, the lives she touched, and what she represented, we should only do so with a smile- that is because while we have lost one of Tampa’s finest here on Earth, her endearing memories and her legacy will live on forever, both in our hearts and in our minds, with her soul residing in Heaven. Until we meet again my Dear- We WILL meet again!

Ida is survived by her son, Harry Lee Coe, IV, his wife, Wendy Wright Coe, grand-children Isabella Rose Coe & Georgia Grace Coe, her sister, Frances Felicione Marshall, and brother, Frank S. Felicione, Jr., along with several nieces and nephews, and is predeceased by her parents, Francisco “Frank” Salvatore Felicione, Sr. (d. 1997) & Rose Clementi Felicione (d. 1987) and sister Constance “Connie” Felicione Segundo (d. 2006).

A Celebration of Life and Gathering will be held at Blount & Curry Life Event Center, 605 S. MacDill Avenue, Tampa, FL 33609 on Saturday, April 19, 2025 with the service beginning at 1:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers please send donations to the University of Tampa Alumni Association (or your selected local charity), in Ida’s name.