Raymond Mason, president of Charter Co., confirmed his firm purchased controlling interest in the Jacksonville National Bank from the St. Joe Paper Co.
The amount paid was about $1.2 million for 33,000 of the bank’s 40,000 shares of stock. Charter offered to purchase from St. Joe the remaining 7,000 shares at $35.50 per share, he said.
St. Joe Paper Co. was part of the Alfred I. duPont estate, which also included 30 banks of the Florida National Bank Group and the Florida East Coast Railroad.
Mason said before confirming the bank’s purchase, he was in contact with Ed Ball, trustee of the duPont estate. Ball’s only comment about the sale was St. Joe was not primarily in the banking business.
It was noted a factor that may have influenced the transaction was a change being sought in the federal Bank Holding Act. The change would require the duPont estate to part with either its commercial enterprises, such as St. Joe and the railroad, or its group of banks.
Mason said Charter Co. and its affiliates, Charter Mortgage Co. and International Charter Development Corp., had an increasing need for more business space.
The 10-story Jacksonville National Bank building along Forsyth Street would become the new home of the mortgage company.
Mason said the floors in the building each would be decorated with a décor of the various countries served in Charter’s expanding international operations.
Charter’s data processing center would be moved into the ground floor of the building behind a glass viewing wall, he said.
• The Jacksonville Port Authority was planning the sale of $15 million of its $25 million improvement bonds in July and the remaining $10 million in July 1968, said authority Managing Director Dave Rawls.
The $15 million sale would be used to improve the Talleyrand Docks and Terminal. The remaining bonds would be sold to begin development of Blount Island as a bulk-handling facility.
The authority planned to retire the two bond issues in 30 years with a tax levy of less than 1 mill, Rawls said.
• Ira Koger, president of Community First Corp., announced the firm filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for the license to operate television Channel 12 in Jacksonville.
The application asked the FCC to grant Community First temporary operating authority and the regular full three-year term renewable license.
The license, which was held by Florida-Georgia Television Inc., was in dispute and a federal court ordered the FCC to conduct new application procedures.
Edmund Bunker, senior vice president of broadcast media for Foote, Cone & Belding, a New York City advertising agency, was general manager of Community First.
Investors included Jacob F. Bryan III, president of Independent Life Accident and Insurance Co.; Guy Botts, president of Barnett First National Bank; Isadore Burney II, president of Afro-American Life Insurance Co.; Thomas McGeehee, president of Mac Paper Co.; and Mrs. I.M. Sulzbacher.
“The officers and investors of Community First Corp. are all deeply committed to the ideal of quality television service as a means of elevating standards of taste,” Koger said.
All profits from interim operation of the station would be donated to charitable and philanthropic organizations in the area, he said.
• Credit buying in Duval County represented about 75 percent of the $750 million in retail spending reported in 1965.
That meant residents spent more than $500 million on credit purchases, said Charles Moorman, executive vice president of the Credit Bureau of Jacksonville.
“When you consider that the majority of the average family income — between 70 and 75 percent — goes for major human needs, with only 25 percent or less left over for other items, you can see why buying on credit has become a way of life for most people,” he said.
The average family income in 1965 in Duval County was $6,674, Moorman said.
• Thieves broke into a Durkee Drive home and walked off with the family’s Christmas turkey, a mink stole and clothing valued at about $800.
The burglary occurred early Christmas Eve at 1920 Durkee Drive, owned by Joshua Bartley, a Post Office employee.
Stolen were a mink stole valued at $319; two ladies’ suits, $155; two men’s suits, $235; a suitcase, $42; and $50 worth of Bartley’s underwear, police said.
• Five projects for educationally deprived children in Duval County costing $1.9 million were approved by State School Superintendent Floyd Christian under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Projects included reading laboratories and remedial instruction in reading and language serving 1,046 second-grade students and identifying emotionally disturbed children and providing special teachers to work with an estimated 2,400 students.
• The aircraft carrier Wasp arrived at Mayport Naval Station carrying both of America’s newest space capsules, Gemini 6 and 7.
The spacecraft were recovered by the crew of the Wasp the week before, following NASA’s first rendezvous in orbit and a 14-day flight by Gemini 7.
Lt. j.g Christopher Bent, leader of the three swimmers who dropped from a helicopter into the water alongside Gemini 7, said he plugged a special telephone into the side of the capsule and, after learning astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell were fine, wished them a Merry Christmas.
After a roast beef dinner in the ship’s wardroom, Borman and Lovell were introduced to the crew and then autographed the hoist collar used to lift them aboard the recovery helicopter.
• Duval County’s new high school was dedicated to the memory of Samuel W. Wolfson.
The tribute to the deceased philanthropist in the auditorium at Wolfson Senior High School was led by Gov. Haydon Burns, who had known Wolfson since they attended junior high school together.
Burns recalled the activities of Wolfson that made him a renowned figure in the community, including contributions to the Gator Bowl, Jacksonville University and professional baseball.
The school opened Sept. 1 with an enrollment of more than 1,500 students, many of them former students at duPont and Landon high schools, which the new school replaced.
• A woman and her daughter were wounded when a prowler knocked a pistol from the woman’s hand outside her home and the weapon discharged.
Ruth Robinson of 10511 Donaphan Drive was grazed on the leg. The bullet struck her daughter, 15-year-old Patricia, in the knee.
Robertson told officers she had been bothered by a prowler for a few nights before the incident.
On the night of the confrontation, she said, she heard a garbage can knocked over behind her home, got the gun and walked out the back door.
Robertson told police a man standing outside slapped the .22 caliber Derringer from her hand and it discharged when it struck the concrete porch.
The daughter was standing in the doorway behind her mother and then the prowler ran away, officers said.
• Dogs held the stage and children ruled the day at the annual Christmas meeting of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville.
The Children’s Day program at the George Washington Hotel featured Lona Antalek and her trained dogs. Some were dyed in pastel colors and displayed their talents by dancing on two legs, leaping through hoops and turning somersaults.
The agenda also included reading of a Christmas story by club past President Robert Feagin.