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.
• Loss of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology Inc. would have an adverse effect upon Clay County and Orange Park, said Walter G. Odum, mayor of the town and chairman of the Board of County Commissioners.
The possibility that the facility, the only one of its type in the world, might be moved to Atlanta was made public when an official of Emory University said a study of the relocation was under way.
Yerkes Laboratories was controlled by the Atlanta university.
Odum said he was ordering a study of the economic factors involved, should the laboratory be taken from Orange Park. Results of the study would be forwarded to U.S. Reps. Charles Bennett and D.R. Matthews and Sen. George Smathers of Florida.
“It is the only real industry in Orange Park and it has a tremendous impact on this community,” Odum said.
Besides the facility’s local purchases and payroll to employees, Odum said an “above average caliber of personnel” was employed at Yerkes and “they are a welcome addition to any area.”
Odum said if the relocation plan was adopted, Orange Park’s only recourse would be to attempt to head off the action through congressional contacts. Yerkes received a large sum of money from the national Institutes of Health, a federal agency, which could be influenced congressionally, he said.
The laboratory was founded in 1929 by Robert Yerkes in Orange Park because the location offered privacy in addition to access to a large city, said his widow, Ada Yerkes.
She withheld comment on the possible move because she “did not know the Emory point of view,” she said.
The laboratory site occupied about 160 acres and had 50 employees. It was home to more than 100 chimpanzees, some monkeys and a gorilla. Its annual budget was about $250,000.
The facility was established in Orange Park under the sponsorship of Yale University and later the sponsorship was transferred to Emory.
Research upon the animals had led to “significant developments” in brain surgery upon humans, said Dr. Arthur Riopelle, director of the laboratory.
• The Board of County Commissioners contracted to purchase 100 new voting machines for $206,749.45.
The purchase would bring to 630 the number of machines that would be available for the May primary election in Duval County.
The contract called for a down payment of $20,674.94 and nine additional annual installments in a similar amount at an interest rate of 4 percent annually. The machines were to be purchased from the Automatic Voting Machine Division of Rockwell Manufacturing Co. in Jamestown, N.Y.
When the contract was signed, it ended one of the most contentious disputes within the County government in a number of years.
The County commissioners and the supervisor of registration originally asked the County Budget Commission to approve funds to purchase 200 new machines. After a series of charges and countercharges, including accusations of possible graft and corruption, the commission on a 4-1 vote approved the compromise purchase of 100 machines.
• Figures released by the U.S. Department of Commerce indicated that Jacksonville’s municipal payroll grew more during the period of 1950-61 than all but 20 other major cities in the United States.
According to the report, the City government paid its employees $1,732,700 in 1961 compared with $707,800 in 1950.
Employees of the City numbered 3,209 in 1950 and 4,427 in 1961.
Miami’s government payroll growth was ranked two positions behind Jacksonville, while Tampa was ranked 13th nationally.
• Claude Searcy was sentenced to serve from six months to 20 years in state prison for manslaughter in the fatal shooting of his wife at their home on Eastbrook Street.
Searcy was sentenced by Criminal Court Judge A. Lloyd Layton after entering a plea of guilty to the slaying of Jessie Lee Searcy.
Assistant County Solicitor R. Hudson Oliff, the prosecutor, presented evidence to show that Searcy consumed a large quantity of wine and whiskey when he got off work at 10 p.m. Dec. 30 and went home at 2 a.m. Dec. 31.
Oliff said Searcy found his wife frying fish and three other men were present. After a brief argument between Searcy and his wife, Oliff said, the defendant fired a bullet from a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle into the floor and ordered two of the men to leave, which they did.
Following another 15 minutes of the husband-wife argument, Searcy, at a distance of two feet and without warning, fired one bullet into the victim’s chest, Oliff said. She ran across the street, collapsed, and was dead on arrival at a hospital.
When police arrived, they said ok, Searcy was kneeling beside his wife and repeating her name again and again.
Searcy claimed in court he didn’t know the gun was loaded when he fired the second shot, but Oliff disputed the claim. He declared the murder weapon was a single-shot model that had to be reloaded and recocked after each shot.
Searcy also claimed he was drinking to alleviate his asthma and that he had been advised at a hospital to drink gin to combat the condition.
• U.S Rep. Charles Bennett and three judges from the Fourth Judicial Circuit were assured of election in 1962 when qualifying for state offices closed.
Winning automatic Democratic Party nomination for election besides Bennett were Circuit Judges William L. Durden, Frank H. Elmore and Charles R. Scott. With no Republican candidates qualifying for the four posts, Bennett and the three judges were assured of election in the November ballot.
Bennett was the only Florida congressman who had no opposition. He had held the 2nd Congressional District seat since 1948.
Durden, Elmore and Scott won full six-year terms on the circuit bench. All three were given interim appointments in December, 1960 by outgoing Gov. LeRoy Collins when the three court posts opened by virtue of population increases in Duval, Clay and Nassau counties.
• A group of 75 students and adults from Chile toured Jacksonville for three days, part of a U.S. tour that also included stops in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Miami.
The group was observing American customs and habits and said they liked Jacksonville the best of the cities they visited. Reasons cited were “the people are much more friendly and there is more hospitality.”
At the same time, they were having trouble becoming accustomed to the mixture of sweets and salads and the “watery” coffee.