Mortician supports banning sirens on ambulances, judge declares he’s not in favor of people shooting his colleagues
Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It may have been 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 1960. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• An ordinance banning the use of sirens on privately owned ambulances within the city limits was proposed by Council member John Lanahan. The measure was supported by the Duval County Medical Society, the Jacksonville Hospital Council, the Jacksonville-Duval County Safety Council and the Jacksonville Insurors Association. The bill would also prohibit the use of whistles or bells on ambulances operated by funeral parlors or ambulance companies.
Lanahan said one effect of the bill’s passage would be that ambulances would “abide by the speed laws just like any other vehicle.”
Speaking for the medical society, Dr. Sanford Mullen said a study in Flint, Mich., showed that of 2,500 consecutive ambulance runs, not a single patient was harmed in any way by having the ambulance driven at the lawful rate of speed. He said speed caused more severe injury in many cases and also posed a hazard to bystanders and added, “I was a doctor with the infantry in Korea and I found that injured men could be virtually mutilated by fast driving and bumping over roads.”
Mortician Robert Naugle said he had been driving ambulances in Jacksonville since 1928 and, “I can’t conscientiously say I ever saved anybody’s life by blowing the siren or using the red light.”
Naugle said an ambulance might gain two minutes by speeding to a hospital, but quite often it would be 10 minutes before the patient was examined and treated. He said the system he employed was to radio information to the funeral home if the patient was in critical condition. The funeral home in turn would alert the hospital by telephone so that hospital personnel would be waiting to act when the patient arrived.
Mullen said the heads of the Hardage and Seashole funeral interests also indicated to him in conversation that they favored the ban on sirens.
A.D. Smith, chair of the noise committee of the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce for 17 years, said sirens had caused thousands of complaints to be lodged with the chamber and its support of the bill was based partly on medical surveys from 865 cities.
Victor Zambelli said the “wailing of sirens all night long” was behind 90 percent of the heavy turnover in a group of apartments he operated on Atlantic Boulevard near St. Nicholas Shopping Center.
Before the vote was taken, the bill was opposed by attorney Edward Siegel, who said he spoke for the Key-McCabe, Colonial, Estes-Krause, Giddens, Hardage and Seashole funeral homes.
Siegel said if sirens didn’t save lives they should be eliminated on police cars and fire trucks as well as ambulances. He warned that if the bill passed, the funeral homes would pull out of the emergency ambulance business and the City would have to furnish the service. Harrison Belote of the recently licensed Jacksonville Ambulance Service said his organization would not go on emergency calls if the legislation was enacted.
Among the private citizens against the bill was Norman Calishaw of 115 W. 33rd St., who said, “I’ve had two heart attacks and a light stroke in the last two months. If it hadn’t been for Estes-Kraus getting me to St. Luke’s Hospital quick, I’d be out there in Evergreen Cemetery pushing up daisies.”
The Council’s vote on the issue was a tie, which killed the proposed legislation.
• “I’m not in favor of shooting judges,” U.S. District Judge Bryan Simpson declared as he imposed a two-year prison sentence on Margaret Marie Thornhill, who had been charged with threatening the life of Criminal Court Judge William T. Harvey.
“A judge is just another man with a job to do, and trying to do his duty,” Simpson reminded Thornhill. “Do you still think that the best way to get your child back was to shoot the judge?”
Thornhill replied that she then realized that her threats to shoot Harvey “were the wrong approach.”
She was charged with sending letters through the mail threatening to shoot Harvey, who was responsible for having Thornhill’s child taken from her after she was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment on a forgery charge.
Before Thornhill entered her plea of guilty, Simpson announced that a psychiatrist who had examined the woman had reported her mentally competent to stand trial.
A motion that Thornhill be given a mental examination had been made jointly by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Palmer and Frank Decker, her court-appointed attorney. Decker advised the court that he would not seek to introduce any evidence or testimony tending to refute the psychiatrist’s report.
• The Federal Housing Administration approved plans for a 16-story luxury apartment building in Avondale. The FHA commitment application was filed by Commander Apartments Inc.
The apartments would be built on a small peninsula jutting into Big Fishweir Creek at the point of intersection with Little Fishweir Creek. The Auchter Company would be the contractor for the structure, which was designed by architect Willis Stephens.
Charles. E. Commander, president of the company, said the high-rise would contain 90 apartments, all fronting on the water. He said the units would range from one-room efficiencies to “spacious four-bedroom units” and that the project would cost “more than $2 million.”
Commander stressed that the new residential development would not be the only one in the area but it would be the first with a usable waterfront. Plans included facilities for docking small boats and “spacious lawns with a putting green,” said Commander.
The units would rent for $155 per month and up, he added.
• More than 500 U.S. flags flew Downtown in the annual observance of Flag Day. An inventory revealed most of the flags had 48 stars since the 50-star flag would not become official until July 4 and companies and institutions that owned 49-star flags were ordering the new flags. (Alaska and Hawaii had recently been admitted to become states.)
“We’ve only used our 49-star flag twice, but we’ll order the new ones right away in any event,” said one Jacksonville banker.
America Legion Post 9 placed 400 of the flags on Downtown streets. The flags were owned by Downtown merchants and Post 9 stored them on contract and displayed them on patriotic occasions.
It was the last Flag Day at the old City Hall because City business would be transferred to the new City Hall (now the Courthouse Annex at Bay and Newnan streets) in October.
• Speaking of flags, complaints poured in to the manager’s office at the Florida Yacht Club because the club’s flag was flying above the American flag on a recently installed nautical pole.
“When rules for flying the flag are brought up it is never pointed out that aboard ship and at shore stations, like the yacht club, it is perfectly proper for the club flag to fly above the American flag,” club member Downing Nightingale explained.
• It was reported that bids would be opened June 23 at the public works office of the 6th Naval District in Charleston, S.C., for optical landing systems for the Cecil Field Naval Air Station auxiliary landing field at Whitehouse.
The work would include two stations at opposite ends of the runway with manholes, handholds, wiring, wiring accessories, equipment footings and installation of equipment furnished by the government.
The cost range for the project had been set between $50,000 and $100,000 by Capt. John Gordanier, district public works officer.