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A BERTH ON THE BAY Harriett Stieff. Photo by Rachel Hackney OWEN BURNS' LAST SURVIVING CHILD TALKS OF THE JOYS OF A CHILDHOOD SPENT LARGELY OUTDOORS ALONG WITH HER RELISH FOR FAMILY LORE By Rachel Brown Hackney Editor As the child of one of Sarasota's most prominent early developers — Owen Burns — Harriet Burns Stieff enjoys vivid recollections of a bay brimming with fish, school out of doors and accompanying her father around town as much as possible. with her family in 1912. The couple married in June of that year, according to Sarasota County historian Jeff LaHurd, and eventually had five children. Harriet actually made her own debut in New York, where Vernona was visiting family at the time of her due date. "Being the youngest, I was the tagalong," she Still, Stieff says, "I consider myself a native." says with a chuckle. "Dad was considerably After all, she was only four or six weeks old older than my mother," she points out, "so when she arrived in Sarasota. Mother liked to have somebody with him." With her 92nd birthday coming up in July, Stieff Burns was 43 when New York debutante Ver- recently sat down with The Sarasota News nona Freeman came to Sarasota on vacation Leader to recount some of her fondest mem-