Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It was a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1961. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Maj. DeWitt E. Hooker, who had been a guiding influence on the students at The Bolles School for more than 25 years, was named superintendent emeritus for life at a testimonial dinner marking his upcoming retirement.
Hooker joined the faculty as an English teacher in 1939, six years after the school was founded. He became superintendent in 1946 and under his leadership, enrollment more than doubled and the school’s scholastic standing steadily elevated, said Herman Ulmer Jr., chair of the school’s board of trustees.
Ulmer presented Maj. and Mrs. Hooker a silver service on behalf of the board.
An oil painting of Hooker, done by Courtney Hunt, was presented to the guest of honor by Lt. Joseph Dyess, advisor to the senior class, on behalf of the student body.
The dinner was held at San Jose Country Club.
• Sen. Wayne Ripley of Duval County was pressuring the state health officer to “stamp out” air pollution that reportedly had burned human flesh and killed vegetation in Springfield and Arlington.
Ripley sent a letter advising Dr. Wilson T. Sowder that he probably could obtain legislative approval of a $155,000 appropriation to buy added land for the health board – if Sowder could come up with an immediate solution to the pollution problem.
Ripley told Sowder he had been deluged with calls from people claiming to be residents of the two areas, complaining that something had been in the air for two weeks. The callers alleged their skin had been burned if not covered by clothing and that trees had been killed overnight.
Ripley called on the health officer to “make all of the personnel on your staff, including the state chemist, available for attempting to determine the cause, and eliminating it, as soon as possible.”
Sowder also was reminded that Florida law gave him and commission members the right to enter all buildings, other than private residences, without a search warrant to seek the cause of air pollution.
In the last paragraph of his letter, Ripley held out this possible reward for Sowder:
“I have bragged to the Appropriations Committee how well you run your department, and, if you give immediate relief, I can probably get approval of the additional land purchases so badly needed, during the dying days of the 1961 legislative session.”
Ripley on April 28 introduced a bill appropriating $155,000 so the State Health Board could acquire additional property for expansion of its headquarters in Jacksonville.
The senator said the appropriation, if approved by the economy-minded legislature, would complete acquisition of a tract the health board had been seeking on the east side of Julia Street, north of First Street, south of Hogans Creek and west of Hogan Street.
• U.S. Navy crews worked to salvage a patrol bomber from Jacksonville Naval Air Station that crashed about 100 yards off St. Augustine Beach, killing one of six crewmen.
The tail section of the P2V Neptune had been dragged onto the beach. A preliminary investigation had begun and it was the intent to move the wreckage to NAS to complete the investigation.
The aircraft, attached to Patrol Squadron 742 of the Naval Reserve Training Unit at NAS, crashed about 200 yards south of the main pier at St. Augustine Beach, five miles southwest of St. Augustine.
• A writ of prohibition to bar Small Claims Judge W. Shannon Linning from taking contempt of court action against Martin Tire Co. operators for using court-type bill collecting documents was thrown out by Circuit Judge William A. Stanly.
The ruling cleared the way for Linning to proceed against the company and a notary public, E.H. Lohr, whose name was on such a document sent out by the company.
More than a month earlier, Linning took steps to crack down on persons using documents which he said appeared to be official court papers in bill collecting. Linning stated it was a misdemeanor to print and distribute documents which appeared to be court documents.
Linning had issued an order to the tire company and to Lohr for them to appear in his court and show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court for using such a paper to collect a bill.
The respondents then sought a writ of prohibition temporarily barring the hearing and further asking for a permanent injunction against Linning regarding the hearing.
After legal arguments before the Circuit Court, Stanly quashed the writ of prohibition.
A week before Stanly’s ruling, operators of an office supply company that printed and distributed such documents were cited for contempt of Small Claims Court.
They were given until the end of the month to purge themselves of the contempt by destroying the documents they had in their possession, by promising not to print more and by promising to notify firms they had sold the papers to that they were objectionable to the court.
Linning said that many recipients of the papers, some of which bore the name of his court, believed the documents were official papers issued by the court. He said it made it appear the court was taking unilateral action against the recipients of the papers without hearing their side of a case.
• The Jacksonville Zoo began the first phase of a $105,000 improvement program.
Enhancements would include a new parking lot that could accommodate 1,000 cars, a bear and lion pit, a flamingo island, additional restroom facilities and the purchase of more animals.
The parking lot would allow more people to visit the zoo, since many people were unable to find a parking place in the existing lot, said County Parks Commissioner Dallas Thomas.
The pit, one side for lions and the other for bears, was to be 110 feet across and 150 feet long and would be surrounded by a moat. A 10-foot wall topped by a 2-foot spiked fence around the moat would protect the animals and the public, said zoo Director Doc Baldwin.
• The City Council Budget and Finance Committee approved the purchase of half a block at Haines and Adams streets for a parking lot to serve the Gator Bowl.
George Robinson, executive secretary of the City Recreation Department, said the property would cost $36,000 plus $608 for taxes and fees. He said the property would replace property given over to the Jacksonville Expressway Authority for construction of a cloverleaf at Haines Street and the Expressway.
• Nancy Anne Fleming, Miss America 1961, stopped in Jacksonville on her way to Ocala to participate in the grand opening of a grocery store warehouse.
She arrived at Imeson Airport with her chaperone, Mrs. M.E. O’Neil of New York City, and was escorted to a Downtown hotel, where she held a news conference.
It was noted that since Fleming was crowned Miss America in September, she had traveled more than 130,000 miles and expected to pass the 250,000-mile mark before her reign ended.
Fleming said when she gave up her crown, she was planning to enter Michigan State University and study home economics.