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.
• A bill sponsored by the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce to create a port authority in Jacksonville was unanimously rejected by the City Commission as unconstitutional and unworkable.
The proposed legislation called for a port authority composed of two City commissioners, two County commissioners and three members to be appointed by the governor.
Commissioners voted to request the Duval legislative delegation not to put the bill before the Legislature. The commission asked the lawmakers to create a committee to study the entire port authority issue for two years and then make recommendations for legislation that might be filed in 1963.
Mayor-Commissioner Haydon Burns said the bill would make it mandatory for the City to surrender valuable municipal property, including municipal docks and Craig and Herlong airfields, to the proposed port authority within 120 days of the bill’s enactment. Burns also said the bill did not have provisions to relieve the City of indebtedness on the properties after the port authority assumed control of them.
Commissioner J. Dillon Kennedy rejected the bill on the grounds that it would weaken the City employees’ pension fund and would leave employees with no protection under civil service. He said the bill allowed for appropriation of $150,000 each year for two years but after that, “the sky’s the limit.”
• Airport Commissioner Lou Ritter called for planning and determining a method of financing for a new municipal airport within 60 days.
“The City must proceed with specific planning in order that the city’s airport facilities and airport needs will be properly provided,” said Ritter as he addressed members of the Lions Club at the Seminole Hotel.
Ritter told the Lions that 50 percent of the money to construct a new airport would be available from the federal government and none would be available for improvements at Imeson Airport.
Ritter said he hoped Jacksonville’s civic clubs and fraternal organizations would lend their support to the construction of a new airport. He suggested a citizens’ advisory committee be formed to study the airport situation.
• Mrs. William P. Bell and Mrs. L.J. Hutchins had some explaining to do to state wildlife officials concerning a 5-foot alligator in their custody.
The two women spotted the reptile in the road while on a fishing trip in Ocala, chased it barefooted through the woods, lassoed it, dragged it back to the road and with the help of a passing motorist, loaded it in their station wagon and brought it to Jacksonville.
When they realized the next day it wasn’t the season for taking alligators, they called the State Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. A game warden was sent to pick up the alligator, which had spent the night in Hutchins’ garage.
• A “thank you concert” was presented at the Prudential auditorium by the fire-stricken band and orchestra of Paxon High School.
Band Director Don Bradley said the concert was a gesture of appreciation from the musicians to persons who had donated money to help offset losses suffered during a January fire in the school’s band building. Instruments, sheet music and uniforms were destroyed in the blaze.
Don Papenbrock was director of the orchestra, which performed Mozart’s “Fantasy,” the “Jolly Dutchman” with four bass viola soloists and a number of selections from Victor Herbert.
The band offered Haydn’s “Overture Militaire,” the “Sinfonians” by Clifton Williams and “Have Horn, Will Travel,” featuring a trumpet solo by Robert Oliver.
• Roy Neering, a Southside beauty shop operator, was sentenced to one year in the Duval County jail for contempt of Circuit Court for attempting to influence a prospective juror in a civil damage case.
Neering cried out, “Oh my God,” when the sentence was imposed by Circuit Judge Roger J. Waybright.
Waybright said Neering calling a venireman before a case came to trial “strikes at the heart of our system of justice” and “Mr. Neering is a grown man. He knew when he called the venireman his act was corrupt and designed to influence the juryman.”
On May 3 Neering called a fellow beauty shop operator, Norman Benoit, who was scheduled for jury duty the following week. A case was coming up for trial involving a couple suing a grocery company for damages.
Neering was quoted by two witnesses, a woman who was in his shop at the time of the call who happened to be a legal secretary working for the grocery firm, and by Benoit, as saying he wanted Benoit to do him a “special favor.”
Neering admitted that he mentioned the case to Benoit, but said he made the call to Benoit to convince himself he would be a good juror.
The direct information filed against Neering by Assistant State Attorney Nathan Schevitz quoted the grocery firm secretary as hearing Neering make the following comments on the telephone to Benoit:
“I have an attorney friend who has a case coming up Tuesday. I can’t tell you anything about the case – in the meantime I see you are on the jury list, you are one of the jurors and there are a lot of insurance people and other undesirables we don’t like. Would you be averse to giving the old gal a little something for her pain and suffering and her broken hip and leg?”
When called to the witness stand, Benoit corroborated the statement. He said under cross-examination by Neering’s attorney, Alan G. Winter, “It sort of stunned me at the beginning.”
Neering said he made such a statement to Benoit but qualified it by saying, “if the facts warrant it.”
The civil case in which Benoit was scheduled as a prospective juror was postponed as a result of the revelation of Neering’s call to Benoit.
• A real horse opera took place in Arlington and it had a happy ending.
The horses involved, Bess and her 2-week-old colt named Cloudy, were owned by the B.S. Reid family of 152 University Blvd.
The Reids decided to let the animals out of their stable to wander on the grounds, where they sniffed the gardenias and the roses until something came over Cloudy. That’s when he leaped into the family’s swimming pool.
While Cloudy worked on his horse stroke for the first time, Bess threw back her mane and reared, then pawed the ground and generally threatened to join her offspring in the pool.
Before she could take the plunge, Melvin Canfield, who was working at the house, scooped the four-footed swimmer out of the pool and placed him on dry land.
Bess, a cross between a Tennessee walking horse and a Shetland pony, was so thrilled with the rescue she went off on a gallop through the neighborhood and out onto busy University Boulevard.
At that point a neighbor, Mrs. Harry Spanier, became the heroine of the horse opera when she rounded up Bess and put her back in the stable.