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.
• The Duval County Criminal Court of Record began a new calendar-heavy year in solemn ceremonies in which a plea for an additional judge was made.
Sworn in to posts in the Fourth Judicial Circuit were Roger J. Waybright, who moved up from the Civil Court of Record, and former Juvenile Court Judge Marion Gooding. Both were replacing retiring jurists. Attorney Tyrie A. Boyer assumed Waybright’s post in the Civil Court.
All three were elected in the 1960 Democratic primary election and automatically won their new offices when they ran unopposed in the general election, or in Boyer’s case, by the traditional gubernatorial appointment of the May primary winner.
After Edward M. Booth was sworn in as the new county prosecutor and Judge William T. Harvey and Clerk Kathleen Hartley renewed their oaths of office, Judge A. Lloyd Layton stated an additional Criminal Court judge was needed.
Layton said the two-judge court handled 13,000 cases in 1960 and added that “with the phenomenal growth of Duval County and the increase in cases, the time has come when another division of the Criminal Court is needed.”
Booth stated he also would ask the Duval legislative delegation to add to his staff of assistant prosecutors. Booth said the number of additional aides would depend on whether an additional judgeship was created for the court.
• Six assistant prosecutors were also sworn in: T. Edward Austin Jr., L.O. Frost Jr., Harry A Gaines, Carlton P. Maddox, William D. Moore and R. Hudson Oliff.
It was noted that Booth would receive a salary of $12,600 and each assistant would be paid $8,600 annually.
Hans Tanzler, a former assistant prosecutor, had resigned in anticipation of being appointed by Farris Bryant, Florida’s new governor, to the post of attorney for the State Board of Health.
• A 1961 budget amounting to $2,340,351.18, which called for $200,000 in capital improvements, was adopted by the Jacksonville Beach City Council. No increase in ad valorem taxes for municipal services was listed in the new budget, which compared with the $2,036,485 budget in 1960.
City employees would get about $15,000 in salary raises, but there would be fewer workers to pay.
• Final plans were made by the Jacksonville Ministerial Alliance steering committee for the evangelistic crusade of Billy Graham and his team in the Municipal Coliseum Jan. 14-15.
The 18 members of the committee, most of them ministers, met in a conference room at the Independent Life Building after being luncheon guests of Cecil B. Carroll, committee co-chair and an executive of the insurance firm.
The committee issued a statement intended to dispel rumors that admission would be charged for Graham’s appearances and that tickets would be required. It was announced, however, that there would be a free will offering and that 30 minutes of the Jan. 14 appearance would be tape-recorded for use on Graham’s “Hour of Decision” national radio program.
William Stroup, who was in charge of the music, said a choir of 1,000 voices would perform at both services and the choir would be made up of singers from churches who were members of the Ministerial Alliance.
• The reorganized Florida East Coast Railway Co., with financier Ed Ball as chair of the board, began operation of the Jacksonville-to-Miami railroad.
Following a procedure specified in a U.S. District Court order, reorganization managers set up a temporary board of directors to serve until a regular stockholders meeting, which was scheduled for February. The reorganization, which returned direction of the rail line to a private company, ended almost 30 years of bankruptcy and receivership.
Part of the reorganization was the turning over of control of the railway to the St. Joe Paper Co., part of the Alfred I. duPont estate, of which Ball was a trustee.
Other officers of the new company were Irene Walsh, secretary; A.C. Hess, assistant secretary; Fred Kent, treasurer; and A.D. Stoneburner, assistant treasurer.
• A sentence rarely imposed in U.S. District Court was meted out to James George Webster, who was accused of making a false statement on an application for Christmastime employment at the post office.
Webster was sentenced to a year and a day imprisonment upon his plea of guilty to the offense. It was noted that such law violators usually were placed on probation.
Judge Bryan Simpson, in imposing sentence, said Webster had declared in his application that he had never been convicted of a crime. As a matter of fact, he had a long record of convictions, primarily for drunkenness, said Simpson.
Declaring that Webster appeared to be “unable to win his battle with the bottle without help,” Simpson said he would recommend the man serve his time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, where he could receive psychiatric and medical attention.
Simpson also said he would recommend that Webster be released on probation after having served one-third of his sentence if he indicated then he had been cured of his alcoholic tendencies.