Ande Bellevue Mayhue

Ande Bellevue MayhueBorn an only child in Mansfield, Ohio, Ande Bellevue Mayhue has lived in Fort Lauderdale long enough to consider herself a native. After attending Mt. St. Joseph Convent School in Cincinnati, she moved to South Florida in time for her final two years at Fort Lauderdale High School, but that was on the beginning of her travels, which have covered Europe, the Orient and South America. “I think Egypt was the most exotic place,” she says. “Some of the sights and sounds there made my skin tingle. Italy is every mile and every day a wonderful experience – but nothing I’ve seen in the world compares to Ephesus, where I could imagine the ancient squares and theatres filled with people, the most fascinating experience.” She thinks you should visit here. Ande has attended a production at the Vienna Opera House and still hopes to hear an opera at La Scala in Milan.

At home, her business responsibilities and charitable work have kept her busy. The business was the Mayhue Corporation, where Ande rose through the ranks to become Treasurer, then Vice President. The position introduced her to community charitable work as she handled hundreds of requests for wine donations to charity events.

When Monica Parks was president of the Philharmonic Society in 1990, she asked Ande to chair the Community Calendar that the Society published every year. Being ignorant of the size of the job, Ande accepted, and thus began a long line of projects for the Philharmonic: another calendar, two Plant Affairs, editing the Newsletter, and finally being Vice President for Membership.

Besides the Philharmonic, Ande has chaired functions for or served on the Executive Boards of the American Cancer Society 1000+ Club, Helping Abused Neglected Disadvantaged Youth (HANDY), the Henderson Mental Health Auxiliary, Kids in Distress, Pacers, and The Opera Society. She treasures the memories of two of June Taylor’s “Show Offs” – “very hard for me because I have two left feet.” In June’s last production, she made Ande her assistant.

Still in the theatrical vein, Ande appeared in three Pageant Book Reviews for Goodwill Ambassadors, portraying Coco Chanel, First Lady Rosalind Carter and Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Ande has also spent may years on the Broward County Library Foundation Board, participating in “one of the most enjoyable events in town: the Night of Literary Feasts,” when the Library invites famous authors to come to Fort Lauderdale, lecture at the schools, attend a large party at the Library and then go to private homes for dinners. Ande remembers, “One year, my job was to pick up Kitty Carlisle at the airport and escort her around for the weekend. I said to myself, “I’m sitting beside a woman who turned down George Gershwin’s proposal of marriage. ‘Wow!’ Then Kitty told me I drove like a cowboy.”

She supports PAWS devotedly. Why “I think the most wonderful things in the world are dogs. I can’t bear to think of a dog or a cat not having a loving home.”

Ande, always drawn to helping those who really need help, served on the board of Goodwill Industries for two decade, chairing it in 1994-95.