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 1961. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Municipal Judge John Santora served notice he would seek a $2,500 annual raise and additional powers from the State Legislature when it convened in April.
Santora filed with the clerk of the Circuit Court a proposed legislative bill to set the municipal judge’s salary, effective July 1, at $8,500 annually. A salary of $6,000 a year had been paid since 1955.
Another measure filed by Santora would empower the municipal judge to hear a convicted person’s motion for a new trial and to order the City treasurer to refund to the defendant any amount which might be due him in fines or costs if the defendant received a new trial and was acquitted.
City Attorney William Madison said the City charter as it stood did not empower the judge to consider a motion for a new trial and the City Council had the sole authority to authorize a refund on fines paid.
• Michael Adams apparently became tired of playing in the yard of his aunt’s home, so he crawled underneath a fence, picked a cozy spot in the tall brush near the Timuquana Country Club and took a nap.
He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gene Adams. The family was spending the afternoon with Mrs. E.C. Vaughn Jr. of 5578 Fair Lane.
It might have gone unnoticed if Adams hadn’t been only 20 months old. His three-hour absence created quite a commotion.
Housewives in the area put aside chores, including cooking dinner, and converged upon the boy’s aunt’s house singly and in groups of twos and threes.
As word of the missing child spread over the golf course, players put down their clubs and joined the search for the boy. Duval County Patrol motorcycle officers, three patrol cruisers and Sheriff Dale Carson arrived and joined the hunt, as did volunteers from the Wesconnett Fire Department. At Jacksonville Naval Air Station, a helicopter stood ready to aid the effort.
The infant was discovered by Danny Crisp III, 13, and Michael Conrad, 12.
It all had a happy ending except that Mrs. Adams said she was afraid a roast, left in the oven during the search, “might not be edible.”
Patrolmen J.L. Zier and Lindsey Dunaway summed it up for the search party after the boy was returned safely to his aunt.
“Everything’s fine now, except to get home and wash off the red bugs.”
• A special audit of the City Treasurer’s Office revealed that the records were “exceptionally well kept and modern in every respect.”
The findings were released by George W. Dandelake, special auditor to the City Council, following an audit of all transactions in the office for 1960.
Dandelake told City Treasurer H.S. Albury that the office during the year had handled transactions involving a total of approximately $524 million for which Albury was responsible.
Dandelake said a surprise cash count was made at Albury’s office the afternoon of Jan. 6. It revealed that all cash on hand was properly accounted for.
• A study to determine the cost of completing work on the unfinished sixth floor of the Duval County Courthouse was ordered by the County Commission. The space would be used to provide a public hearing room and offices for five commissioners.
The motion was made by Commissioner Fletcher Morgan, who said the present space was inadequate for commission use and further that the floor would be used for a proposed County Building Department.
For several years the commission had heard requests for the establishment of a County building code and a department to administer it.
In 1961, the County had electrical and plumbing inspection departments controlling those phases of construction, but no building code. The zoning code covered the use of land only, but not construction specifications.
On Morgan’s request, the commission directed that the engineering firm of Reynolds, Smith & Hills, designers of the courthouse, make the expansion study.
“When the courthouse was built, it was thought it was good for 50 years,” said Morgan. “But in 10 years, everybody will be as cramped as they were in the old courthouse.”
The new building on Bay Street was opened for business in January 1958.
• A chimpanzee nicknamed “Ham” was plucked from the Atlantic Ocean after a 420-mile ride through space aboard a rocket fired from Cape Canaveral.
The survival of the ape demonstrated that a man could duplicate a similar flight and return to Earth unscathed.
The crew of P2V Neptune patrol plane from Patrol Squadron 18 stationed at Jacksonville Naval Air Station was the first to spot the capsule containing the chimp 43 minutes after the rocket was launched.
“We were happy, real happy,” said Lt. Albert Howard, pilot of the plane.
“The crew really whooped it up when we realized we got there first.”
The aircraft circled the capsule for two hours while guiding the recovery ship and a Marine helicopter to the splashdown site.
It was the second capsule located by the squadron in a little more than a month. Just before Christmas, another plane from the squadron spotted a capsule as it was still descending in its parachute.
Cmdr. R.A. Sampson, who served as coordinator of all aircraft in the recovery fleet, said, “We’ve been lucky so far. I hope our luck holds out and they let us have a crack at finding the astronaut when they launch the big one.”
• Pebbles from the beach in front of President John F. Kennedy’s home in Hyannis Port, Mass., were for sale for 5 cents each at the Children’s Museum on Riverside Avenue.
They were proving to be a fast-moving item, said Mrs. F.Q. Morcom, sales manager at the museum.
Were the smooth quartz specimens authentic?
“Indeed they are,” said Morcom, a former Bostonian.
“I gathered them myself last summer on a trip to Cape Cod.”
• Banker C.R. Lanman was elected president of the Jacksonville Symphony Association at the organization’s 12th annual meeting.
Lanman would succeed G.H.W. Schmidt in May when the new officers were to be installed.
Archie Freels was elected first vice president. Mrs. I.M. Sulzbacher would serve as second vice president in her capacity as new president of the Women’s Guild of the association.
• What started as a quiet dinner for newlyweds ended with the groom pocketing a semiprecious stone.
Ed Roberts was eating oysters on the half shell when he bit down on something hard. It turned out to be a pearl the size of a large pea.
“At first, I though it was my tooth or a piece of oyster shell,” said Roberts.
“I was almost afraid to look but I reached into my mouth and was I shook when I saw it was a pearl.”
A waitress saw the disturbance at the table and came over to investigate.
“When I asked her if there was a reward for finding a pearl, her mouth fell open. She ran to find the manager,” said Roberts.
“He took it around to show anybody who would look at it. As for me, I just sat there in a state of shock.”
Roberts wanted advice, so he took the pearl to a friend who was in the jewelry business.
“My friend said it was a big pearl, all right. But he also said it probably wasn’t worth the expense of having it ground, shaped and polished. He said the pearl market is flooded now with cultured pearls from the Orient. They’re usually perfect in shape with a natural luster,” said Roberts.
He said his enthusiasm for oysters was greater than ever.
“I’m going to order them every chance I get. Who knows, I might come up with half a dozen more.”