Page 3 - Florida Sentinel 10-20-15 Edition

Features
Mrs. Lee Roy Selmon Shares More Than Football About Her Husband
MRS. CLAYBRA SELMON
Moffitt Cancer Center Hosts Luncheon For Student Athletes
Pre-released Advanced copies are now available for purchase
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
Mrs. Claybra Selmon, wife of the late football great, Lee Roy Selmon, has a lot to tell about her husband that doesn’t include the illustrious football career he had. She’s telling all those other things about his life in a book that she has been writing over the past 3 years. The book is entitled “A Life That Shined: Lee Roy Sel- mon,” released by Tate Pub- lishing and Enterprises, LLC in Oklahoma.
“Our family was one that told lots of stories. We’d get to- gether for holidays and some of the same old stories would be told. We’d talk about those stories late at night. I knew that we’d have grands that would not be privy to these stories,” she explained. The Selmons are parents to 3 adult children (Lee Roy, Jr., Christian and Brandy), have a 9-year-old granddaugh- ter and another grandchild on the way.
Mrs. Selmon also wants the community to know this side of him.
“There are also people that didn’t know him, and others that did, but don’t know that side of him,” she further ex- plained. “When the family gathered, there was not a lot of sports talk. I want people to know that he was an ordinary man – a dad, an uncle, brother. He was a young boy that grew up on a farm in Oklahoma, and we want peo- ple to know what goes along with that.”
In this city of Tampa, the name Lee Roy Selmon is posted on buildings, restau- rants, roadways. Mrs. Sel- mon would like to leave
additional history of her hus- band to the younger genera- tions.
Lee Roy Selmon died on September 4, 2011 after suffer- ing a stroke. He was the first NFL draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During his lifetime, Selmon collected numerous awards and acco- lades. He was 56 years old.
The pre-release book launch is being done in celebration of his birthday on October 20th. This project is one Mrs. Sel- mon thought she and her hus- band would jointly put together, but fate didn’t allow that to happen.
One of the funniest stories Mrs. Selmon recalls from her husband is how the two of them met. He was an out- standing football player at the University of Oklahoma – he and his brother, Dewey. It was common knowledge that both were headed to the pro- fessional ranks.
Mrs. Selmon tells the story that she and a friend (they were students there, too) saw Lee Roy, a bashful, shy gen- tleman, in a KFC restaurant. They knew he was a Selmon brother, but didn’t know which one. Her friend wanted to get his autograph. They went over asked which brother was he, chatted briefly and went on.
Later, Lee Roy would tell a somewhat different story about their meeting. He’d say, ‘that girl likes fried chicken and that’s the one for me.’
Proceeds from the book sales will go to the Selmon Mentor- ing Institute at the University of South Florida. The Selmon Mentoring Institute is a pro- gram for student athletes (in all sports) to prepare them for life after sports.
The book is currently avail- able for purchase ($18.99) at www.tatepublishing.com/leer oyselmon.
Moffitt Cancer Center will host a Success Youth Lunch- eon on Saturday, October 24, 2015, 10:30 a. m. – 2 p. m., at Moffitt Cancer, Vincent A. Stabile Research Building, 12902 Magnolia Dr., Tampa (33612).
The Success Youth Lunch- eon will gather 50-70 middle and high school athletes who will participate in a round- table discussion on future ca- reer options beyond sports. The Luncheon is sponsored by Moffitt Healthy KIDZ and 4 Real Sports Academy.
Professionals who have been invited to attend are: The Honorable Mary S. Scriven, U. S. District Court Judge, Middle District of Florida; Lex Smith, senior vice president, SunTrust
THE HONORABLE MARY S. SCRIVEN
Mortgage; former NFL player, Davin Joseph, first round draft pick in the 2006 NFL draft; and State Rep. Edwin Narain, D-Tampa.
For additional information,
STATE REP. EDWIN NARAIN (D-Tampa)
contact Nikki Ross-Inda, community relations coordi- nator at Moffitt Cancer Cen- ter, at Nikki.Inda@moffitt.org or (813) 745-6618.
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