Broadway Producer Sonny Everett Dies At Age 72

EVERETT, Horace Henderson "Sonny," 72, passed away Wednesday, September 30, 2009 in New York City. He was born on August 31, 1937 in Fordyce, Arkansas to Jasper Horace Everett, a Ford dealer, and Corrine Henderson Everett, a school teacher.

Sonny attended Fordyce High School, home of "The Fighting Redbugs." He graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL in 1959, where he met his wife and best friend Toni Perzia Everett. They settled in south Tampa in 1962. His proudest accomplishments were his children and grandchildren. He is survived by his son Anthony Mark Everett (Julie), daughter Henderson Everett Lee (Ben), Toni Everett and their grandchildren, Mathew and Isabelle Everett, and Bennett and Everett Lee.

Sonny moved to New York in 1987 to pursue a dream of being a Broadway producer. In just 20 short years, his theater credits include: Tony Award-winning Avenue Q; In The Heights; The Drowsy Chaperone; Irving Berlin's White Christmas; State Fair; The Vita and Virginia; The Beauty Queen of Leeane; June Moon; The Laramie Project; Gross Indecency; Tru; As Bees in Honey Drown; Blown Sideways Through Life; Avenue Boys; Madame Melville; Hurlyburly; Moon Over Buffalo; La Boheme; the current revival of West Side Story; and the upcoming musical Minsky's. He was Kitty Carlisle Hart's producer for My Life on the Wicked Stage and History of American Musical Theater.

Beyond producing, Sonny was an important member of the theater community. He provided insurance through D.R. Reiff & Associates to many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, "insuring everything but the critics." He served on the board of several New York theater groups, and offered his encouragement, counsel and friendship to a generation of cast and stage professionals.

Sonny was a member of The University Club of New York and The Coffee House, and was a former member of Tampa Yacht & Country Club, Palma Ceia Golf & Country Club and The University Club of Tampa. He had great friendships throughout the world, including many in Palm Beach. Dramatic, effervescent and occasionally over-the-top, Sonny loved to dance, travel, and enjoyed books, dining and culture. He will be remembered for his sincerity, personality and style.

A memorial service will be held in Tampa at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 2101 S. Hubert on Wednesday, October 7 at 11AM. A memorial service in New York City will be announced. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to The Actor's Fund, 729-7th Avenue, 10th Floor, New York NY 10019 (www.actorsfund.org) or St. Mary's Church.

Photo Sonny Everett and Ashlie Atkinson