Have you ever wondered what stories made headlines in Jacksonville 50 years 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 the news in 1958 and today. As interesting as the similarities may be, so are the differences. These are some of the top stories published in the Florida Times-Union 50 years ago this week. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Salvation Army workers were distributing checks to thousands of Jacksonville residents. The checks ranged from $3-$10 depending on the size of the family and enabled those in need to purchase their own food. Volunteers were also filling 3,700 stockings that would be distributed to people in homes for the aged, hospitals, homes for children and the jail. It was also noted that street collections were running $500 behind the previous year’s total, but were picking up through the assistance of the Rotary and Meninak clubs.
• The City Pardon Board lived up to tradition and granted Christmas pardons to 173 inmates of the City Prison Farm who were sentenced in Municipal Court for minor offenses. The total population of the correctional facility prior to the release was 227 inmates. Those who remained incarcerated had been convicted of such offenses as “driving while intoxicated, shoplifting, possession of moonshine whisky and escape from prison.”
• People were on a shopping spree two days before Christmas. It was reported that passenger loading zones at bus stops looked like the clock had stopped at 5 p.m. all day. One shopper had to leave his car in a garage to have it washed in order to find a parking place and another, who headed Downtown from the Southside, said she had to park in San Marco and take a bus across the river to shop. One policeman commented on the congestion, but added, “Look at all the money it’s putting into circulation, and that’s good.”
• Two Jacksonville Beach City-owned lots were sold on the steps of City Hall to two women’s organizations, who were the only bidders. The Jacksonville Beach Woman’s Club and the Ribault Garden Club of the Beaches bid $2,500 each for a pair of plots on North 2nd Avenue near Penman Road.
• Christmas Eve, two divisions of the Criminal Court processed 1,200 bond plea sessions as judges and staff completed their courtroom work for 1958. It was the last day in court as a prosecutor for Clarence M. Wood, second assistant County Solicitor, whose resignation would become effective Dec. 31. He resigned in order to “devote more attention to the private practice of law.” It was announced that Raymond Simpson, an attorney in Jacksonville Beach, would join the County Solicitor’s staff on that day.
• The local architectural firm of Kemp, Bunch and Jackson was authorized to draw preliminary plans for a municipal auditorium on the Downtown waterfront. After cost estimates were determined, City officials planned to “get together with Duval County’s delegation” to the April, 1959 State Legislature to discuss means of financing the auditorium. City Commissioner Claude Smith Jr. said a possible proposal was for the City to issue bonds which would place an obligation on the City’s general tax revenue, but that would have to be approved by voters in a referendum. The City had previously paid $1 million to the Seaboard Air Line Railroad for the property at the foot of Hogan Street.
• Mayor Haydon Burns said local charitable agencies that collected food and gift packages for the less fortunate citizens had received a “wonderful response.” Burns also noted Jacksonville’s unemployment rate was “one of the lowest in the nation” and the “slight effects of the business recession several months ago have long since diminished to the point of being nonexistent.”
• Attorney Charles Cook Howell was initiated as an honorary member of the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity at the University of Florida. He was vice president and general counsel of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company prior to his retirement in 1955 and partner in the firm of Howell & Kirby.
• Miss America 1959, Mary Ann Mobley, rode one of the 34 floats in the Gator Bowl Parade. It was noted the 21 year-old brunette was a coed at the University of Mississippi, which would furnish the University of Florida’s opposition in the game the next day. Mobley also became an honorary citizen of Jacksonville, with official papers presented to her by the mayor and Van Fletcher, president of the Gator Bowl Association. On game day, Mobley’s food preferences came to light. When she arrived at the stadium, Mobley commented on the menus at the many functions she had attended during the week and said, “Banquets are fine but what I’d really like is a hamburger.”