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 1960. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• In Tuesday’s presidential election, Duval County voters “swarmed to the polls” in record-breaking numbers to better the previous high balloting in a general election by more than 15,000 votes.
With complete returns reported by Supervisor of Registration Fleming H. Bowden, the machine vote was 138,714, or more than 80 percent of the total registration of 159,997. In addition, 4,487 absentee ballots were cast to increase the final total.
While the voter turnout was the highest in the county’s history, the percentage of voters casting ballots was short of the turnout in the 1952 presidential election when 108,777 ballots were cast. In 1956 the percentage was 70 when 113,619 people voted, the county’s previous record vote.
Sheriff Dale Carson, who had numerous special deputies at the polling places, reported no unusual incidents and said the election went smoothly from a law enforcement standpoint.
• Military displays and an exhibit depicting the peaceful uses of atomic energy were expected to “steal the show” when the 6th Annual Greater Jacksonville Agricultural and Industrial Fair opened Wednesday. Fair officials anticipated a record attendance of more than 120,000 visitors.
Fair President James Watson said the 1960 edition would offer North Florida’s largest livestock show and “the nation’s largest leather craft exhibit in the state’s largest arts and crafts show.”
Doyle Connor, who had just been elected Florida’s commissioner of agriculture, cut the ribbon to open the fair by cutting a ribbon at the main gate on Adams Street facing the Gator Bowl.
Nightly entertainment would include five high school football games in the Gator Bowl, three fireworks shows, a fall fashion festival and a square dance festival. The Jetty Jumpers Club was bringing a tank to the fair for “continuous demonstrations of skin-diving” by members.
“We have more to offer in the way of exhibits and entertainment than ever before,” said George G. Robinson, executive vice president of the fair.
Military prowess would be displayed in exhibits of the Army’s Hawk missile and the Navy’s Polaris missile. The Hawk was intended to protect major cities in the event of a nuclear attack while the Polaris could be armed with a thermonuclear warhead and launched toward Russia from a submerged submarine.
Uses in agriculture, industry, medicine and research would be the focus of the atomic energy display, which was part of the Atomic Energy Commission’s educational program.
• An investigation of the operation of the Duval County prison farm was ordered by the County Commission following the arrest of a prison guard and a trusty for the alleged burglary of a Venetia shopping center pay telephone booth.
The investigation was called for by Commissioner C. Ray Greene and unanimously approved by the full commission.
County Engineer John Crosby was directed by the commission to request State Director of Corrections G.H. Cochran, who was in charge of all prisons, to make the probe and offer recommendations for the improvement of the facility. “There are too many questions coming out of the prison farm,” said Greene, elaborating on his request.
In 1959, after a less than satisfactory report on sanitary conditions at the prison farm, the commission hired a state prison warden to supervise the farm for several months. He was then replaced through Civil Service by former City Police Capt. Henry Collins.
Greene’s motion for the investigation came after the suspension without pay of William Simmons, 28, a guard at the farm who was arrested in connection with the burglary. Arrested with Simmons was Granville Lee Whigham, 25, a prisoner who was serving a series of sentences at the prison farm and was a trusty.
Commissioner-nominee Lem Merrett said early media reports of the arrest stated that trusties were taken out of the prison to do work on private property. Commissioner Joe Burnett said that no prisoner was allowed to be taken outside the compound to do work on private property at any time.
Greene called for the suspension of Simmons and the investigation. “I want anything that will prevent these things happening as it is a reflection on the County Commission,” he said.
• During the annual Veterans Day parade, a “nattily dressed” man held up a teller of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association at Julia and Adams streets and then walked off into the crowd of spectators carrying a paper bag stuffed with about $4,000 in cash.
All available police detectives and FBI agents began a search and investigation, but failed to turn up a suspect.
The teller, Mrs. Frances Dedrick, 39, of 2561 St. Johns Ave., said the bandit walked up to the counter and handed her a folded note. Before she had a chance to read the note, Dedrick said, she saw the muzzle of a gun protruding from a folded newspaper the man was carrying.
“I thought he was soliciting for something and I was about to tell him we didn’t make contributions like that when I saw the gun. I don’t even remember what the note said, but it was neatly printed on white lined paper,” said Dedrick.
The holdup was the first armed robbery of federally insured funds in Jacksonville in more than 25 years, FBI sources said.
• The Jacksonville Astronomy Club announced it would construct a public observatory in Burnett Park.
Ernest Rowland Jr., chair of the club’s board, said the County Commission had agreed to sell a corner of the park for the site and work would begin as soon as the deed was received. He also said the observatory, which had been a “dream of the club for years,” would be the nucleus around which an auditorium, planetarium and museum would be built later.
The cost of the observatory would be from $5,000 to $7,000 and much of the work would be done by club members, which would keep the cost down, said Rowland. The entire project was estimated at $30,000.
The 26-foot revolving dome of the observatory would be built from materials salvaged from the hard pine dome from the old County Courthouse, which had been demolished. The club bought the dome for $50. The observatory would house the club’s 16.5-inch, 2,000-pound reflecting telescope, the largest south of Atlanta. It was at the time in Rowland’s back yard.
• Richard E. Norman, 69, former director of the Norman Film Manufacturing Co. of Chicago, died in a local hospital after a lengthy illness. He lived at 6337 Arlington Road.
A native of Middleburg, Norman was an early settler in Arlington and purchased the Eagle Film Co. on Arlington Road in 1920. He made movie shorts, including silent pictures, and also produced some of the first talking pictures.
• The Jacksonville Beach City Council accepted, without discussion, a resolution from the Beaches Ministerial Association opposing extension of alcoholic beverage sale hours.
While no extension beyond the prevailing 2 a.m. closing had been openly discussed, Mayor I.D. Sams said after the meeting that he had been approached with a proposal to change the deadline to 4 a.m.
“I am opposed to extending the hours,” said Sams. “We would have to hire more policemen and we would probably have other problems.”
The resolution was signed by Rev. Carroll Kendrick of Neptune Baptist Church as president of the 13-church association.