Draft:David T. Warner

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  • Comment: Fails the requirements of WP:NAUTHOR. Lacks verifiable secondary sources. Dan arndt (talk) 05:38, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
As an author, filmmaker, and influential personality who funded arts organizations meets GNG. FloridaArmy (talk) 13:01, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

David T. Warner (November 25, 1948 - January 3, 2012) was an American author and filmmaker. He lived in Sarasota, Florida and wrote about Florida.[1] During his later life he lived in Lochloosa near Cross Creek, Florida.[1][2]

Early life

David Turner Warner was born on November 25, 1948 in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Jonathon Westervelt Warner Sr. and Elizabeth Butler.[3][4] His maternal grandfather was Florida politician, J. Turner Butler.[5]

Career

He wrote articles for various publications and was a contributing editor to Gulfshore Life and Sarasota Magazine. He wrote and produced three travel videos about Florida sights, Bimini By The Sea, Cowboys, Indians and UFO's, and Vanishing Florida. He said Borden Deal was his mentor.[6]

He was a contributing author on A Book Lovers Guide To Florida. He owned a bar and adult movie theater in Sarasota, where children's television star Paul Reubens who portrayed Pee Wee Herman was arrested for indecent exposure.[1]

His 1998 novel about sheriff Jim Turner was reissued in 2004 with a new cover and more illustrations. The Gainesville Sun reported, "The book is the story of Warner's distant cousin, James Turner, who was elected sheriff of Levy County five times by the time he was 80 years old" and is told "through Sheriff Turner's vantage point - his front porch in Fowler's Bluff, overlooking the Suwanee River" and "is the story of 1900 rural Florida."[7]

The Sub reported his book on Bimini Island, "introduces readers to the eclectic personalities of the people of the island - the fishermen and smugglers, the Hemingway scholars and the Hemingway compatriots, the lawless and the lovelorn - and recounts the adventures they lived."[7]

Warner was a contributing editor for Gulfshore Life and Sarasota Magazine.[7] He lived in Lochloosa, Florida near Cross Creek.[7]

He wrote and produced the film Cowboys, Indians, and UFOs. It was directed by David Saperstein.[8] It was screened at Bellamy Road in 2006 with questions and answers.[8]

Legacy

He was involved in establishing the James Turner Butler lecture series at Stetson University and established an arts organization in Melrose, Florida.[3]

Works

Books

  • Vanishing Florida : A Personal Guide To Sights Rarely Seen (2001)[9]
  • Bimini: Tales of an Island Getaway
  • High-Sheriff Jim Turner: High Times of a Florida Lawman (1999)
  • Druid City: Snapshots of Growing Up in the Segregated South (2010) with photographs by Chris Cooper

Filmography

  • Bimini-by-the-Sea
  • Cowboys, Indians, and UFOs, writer and producer
  • Vanishing Florida, a travelogue as he tours and does boom signings in areas and near sites covered in his book of the same title

References

  1. "Florida Authors: What They Wrote & Where They Lived". Florida Back Roads Travel.
  2. Marymount, Mark (December 16, 2001). "Books provide lasting glimpse of what makes Florida unique". Fort Myers News-Press. p. 142. Retrieved September 4, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Tuscaloosa News January 6, 2012
  4. Writer, member of Warner family dies by Mark Hughes, staff writer, January 5, 2012 The Tuscaloosa News
  5. Writer, Mark Hughes Cobb Staff. "Writer, member of Warner family dies". The Tuscaloosa News.
  6. Vanishing Florida film
  7. Writer, Staff. "Book marks". Gainesville Sun.
  8. Writer, Staff. "'Chaos & Control' a unique experience". Gainesville Sun.
  9. Moon Tampa & St. Petersburg. Avalon. 31 October 2017. ISBN 9781631217234.