What city could be called “Knoxville South?”

This is the current neighborhood of a former Knoxvillian. What city is it?

Wanda McMahan. Bobby Denton. Tommy and Susan Overton. Vernon and Jean Young. Sam Browder. Paul and Susie Siler. Brenda and Bryan Testerman. Nancy Butler. J.D. Schwartz. Peachy and Al Staley. Buddy Pack. Dee Payne.

These are all East Tennesseans who have homes — either all or part of the year — in Naples, FL. One University of Tennessee graduate, John Sorey III, is even the town’s vice mayor.

So why have these East Tennesseans established such an enclave there? “It has a small-town feel,” explains Wanda McMahan. “It has beaches and restaurants. It’s easy to get around in.”

Susan Brown, left, Bobby Denton and Wanda McMahan in photo taken on Naples Beach in 2009.

Bobby Denton has another theory. “Because people are like birds,” he laughs. “One person goes and a bunch of others follow. It’s like when some folks from Knoxville started going to Hilton Head a while back.”

Actually, Wanda’s late husband, Ron McMahan, who also was Denton’s best friend, is responsible for getting those two down there.

In anticipation of selling his lobbying firm, McMahan Vaughan, to his son, David, McMahan was looking for a good place to retire, Denton says. “Ron was a Weather Channel guy,” he explains. “He was addicted to it. He was looking for a place where you could play golf all year long. So he watched the Weather Channel for about a month. And then he said, ‘Boo (McMahan’s nickname for Denton), I’ve narrowed it down to either Naples or Marco Island — and you have to go over a bridge to get to Marco Island. So Naples is the place!” 

Bobby said Ron had figured out that the ideal city would have to be on the Gulf Coast rather than the East coast and would have to be south of Sarasota to provide year-round golf. Again, Naples fit the bill.

At least once a year for the past 14 years, Alan and I have gone to Naples to visit the McMahans and Denton. Lately, our friend Susan Brown has gone with us. It truly is a comfortable, happy-go-lucky place. Because of the weather and the natural beauty, it’s hard not to be happy there, as these photos from our Memorial Day weekend visit will attest to.

Delores and John Sorey III

“My favorite things are the weather and the fact that it’s so clean,” Denton says. “It looks like every inch of this place is landscaped.”

It also has fantastic air service to and from Knoxville. Allegiant Air flies from Knoxville to nearby Punta Gorda for dirt-cheap airfares. The trip takes about an hour-and-a-half.

McMahan and Denton say they see quite a few Knoxvillians — especially during the winter when many Naples residents entertain copious numbers of visitors.

For his part, Vice Mayor Sorey is in his second term on City Council. He is known for his interest in water supply and water quality issues. “Public service is the ultimate volunteer work,” the well-known volunteer and philanthropist explained during a recent TV interview.

When asked by a reporter whether Naples is “a tourist town or a residential town,” Sorey explained it this way. “It was founded as a tourist community, but it’s now a residential community. We’re really a community of neighborhoods and we have to find a way to balance it all.”

McMahan agrees. She says that almost everyone lives in a gated community on a golf course. Because it is so expensive to golf on a different golf course from where you live, most people stay in their own neighborhood. “It can get a little insular,” she said. “But I have my own golf cart and my own golf group. So why would I play somewhere else?”

But the social life in paradise is rich.  McMahan is a good example. She has been a member of the same book club for 10 years. And then there’s the golf group, the workout group, the bridge group and the “Girls’ Night Out” group. Life in Naples is good.

Dinner Friday when we arrived was at McCormick & Schmick's. We sampled six different kinds of oysters and decided those from the East coast are better than those from the West coast.

Almost all the restaurants in Naples have outside dining options. Alan poses outside the patio of McCormick & Schmick's.

Memorial Day weekend marked the opening of Sex and the City 2 and we went to see it on Saturday. Here, Wanda purchases our tickets at a fantastic theater in Naples called Silverspot.

Silverspot has a bar serving wine and beer that you can take into the theater. How civilized!

Here's the lounge in the theater lobby. They told me I couldn't take photos because they didn't want anyone to "steal" their ideas. So I took these pics from outside the theater. (How stupid!) We loved Sex and the City, by the way!

Veteran CBS newsman Phil Jones, a good friend of Ron and Wanda, joined us for dinner Saturday at a great little "supper club" type restaurant called Table 82. He here poses with Wanda, left, and his very fun wife, Pat.

This is Rick Valentine. He performs at Table 82 on Saturdays. He has a fantastic voice and personality and sings everything from Elvis to Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.

Alan and Wanda took to the dance floor at Table 82. What a fun night!

The owners of Table 82, Michael and Donna Ricci, are clearly crazy madly in love with each other!

Sunday was a full day. Lunch was at Olio at the Naples Bay Resort. Here's the view of the marina.

Wanda and Alan posed by the "O" shaped sculpture in the lobby of Olio.

Then, of course, they made up their own pose!

Then it was off to the Von Liebig Art Center. Susan and Wanda posed with the elephant sculpture out front.

What brought us to the art center was a display of 20 of Princess Diana's actual dresses. In the lobby was this display of tiny versions of all the dresses she auctioned at Christie's in 1997 to raise funds for charity.

You weren't allowed to photograph the actual dresses. But this replica was in the lobby and it was fine to take photos of it. Of course, poor Alan had to pose. Diana wore a size 8 dress and size 9 shoes.

Then it was on to 5th Avenue for shopping. Where Knoxville has bears on our sidewalks, Naples has gators.

After seeing all that Diana memorabilia, Susan couldn't resist trying on a tiara and practicing her wave at a shop called Best of Everything.

At a shop called Pandora, we were tempted by this bra studded with Swarovski crystals! (Not!) It cost $420, which actually seemed like a good price!

All the shopping made us thirsty! We had to stop at Tommy Bahama's for drinks.

These beautiful trees called Royal Poincianas were blooming all over Naples.

Here's a close-up of the blooms.

Then Phil and Pat Jones joined us again for a cruise on the Naples Princess, a sister ship of the Volunteer Princess here in Knoxville.

Susan and Alan on the Naples Princess.

My favorite picture of Phil Jones. Although he is retired from CBS, he is doing occasional reports for a PBS series called "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly."

Here's one of the many mansions you see from the Naples Princess as it heads for the ocean in time for sunset.

A sailboat in front of the sunset as viewed from the Naples Princess.

Bobby Denton's house in a neighborhood called Mill Run.

This is a shot of a hole on the golf course at The Strand, where Wanda lives. The first photo on this post also was taken at The Strand. On Memorial Day, all the pin flags were replaced with American flags. Nice touch.

Photo credits: The photo of Susan, Bobby and Wanda on the beach in 2009 was taken by Alan Carmichael; the photo of Delores and John Sorey III was taken from the University of Tennessee website.