Friday, January 7, 2011

Harriet Albina Say had passion for wild animal circus acts
She started with her father's circus, built act with her husband.

January 6, 2011 from: www.jacksonville.com
By Coulter Kirkpatrick
Retired lion tamer and circus performer Harriet Albina Say of St. Augustine died Dec. 20, just four days short of her 79th birthday.
Albina Diana Lorraine Beatty Say was born Albina Davilia on Dec. 24, 1931, in Chicago to Harriet Evelyn Evans Davilia and Clyde Raymond Beatty.
Say took her mother's name when her mother died in 1950, becoming Harriet Diana Lorraine Beatty. She moved in the early 1930s to Fort Lauderdale and graduated from Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach in 1950.
While in high school, she became a circus performer during the summers with her father's circus, The Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus.
She married Edward William Say in 1953 and had three children.
Inspired by both her parents' love for wild animal acts and being a fourth generation animal trainer, she started performing her own act when she and her husband bought her first set of two female lion cubs, Pam and Tam, from a zoo in Thousand Oaks, Calif. in 1959.
They built the act up to eight lions and two tigers, all performing different tricks.
Say routinely performed as a headliner with the Pan American Circus, Bartok Circus, Paul Kaye International Shows, Tom Packs Circus, Hamid Morton Circus and George Hubler Circus from 1960-1977 after which she retired from performing.
In 1977 Say and her husband produced several of Elvis Presley's conventions, as well as several international pet shows in cities throughout the northern U.S. and along the southeastern coast.
The Says changed their profession from producers to concessionaires in 1990 when they formed Ed Say and Assoc. to run snow cone and cotton candy concessions in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando and at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach.
The couple retired in 2008 when she was diagnosed with colon and ovarian cancer.
Survivors include her husband, Edward Say; a son, Edward Raymond Say; a daughter, Evelyn Marie Jaynes; and her grandchildren Nicholas Jaynes and Shanna Shay. Say was predeceased by her son Michael Robert Shay in 1983.

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