Elizabeth Taylor Dies, Florida Regular in Her Heyday

With her children at her side, screen legend Elizabeth Taylor died early Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from congestive heart failure. She was 79.

Taylor, first a child actress, appeared in more than 50 films, winning Oscars for her performances in "Butterfield 8" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

In the 1950s, a ravishing Elizabeth Taylor was a regular in the Sunshine State -- on beaches, in yachts, in bars with husbands and boyfriends. She loved Florida.

One of her favorite haunts, she was known to tell friends, was Porky's Bayside in Key West. In the '50s it wasn't unusual to drop into Porky's and share a table with Ernest Hemingway, Jimmy Hoffa or Elizabeth Taylor. So, it's fitting that some of the folks who remember or who have shared the Porky's lore or just want to talk about the actress's eight mostly stormy marriages, will show up at Porky's Wednesday night and probably through the weekend to lift a glass to the life of a true American legend, to the breathtakingly beautiful Academy Award-winning actress.