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 1962. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Don Wells qualified to run for clerk of the Civil and Criminal Courts of Record in the Sept. 11 special primary election.
Wells, who was in the printing business and qualified as a Democrat, was an unsuccessful candidate for clerk in the 1960 election.
Besides the clerk’s job, the ballot would include the race for justice of the peace in District 4.
Vacancies in both posts were caused by the Florida Senate’s action upholding Gov. Farris Bryant’s removal from office of Kathleen Hartley as clerk and George Harris as the District 4 justice.
Hartley was removed from office and later entered a plea of no contest to charges she embezzled funds from the clerk’s office. She was sentenced to up to five years in state prison and fined $8,668. Harris also was removed from office and was serving a three-year prison sentence following his conviction on charges he received a bribe.
• At the meeting of the Jacksonville Exchange Club in the George Washington Hotel, County Commissioner Bob Harris called the proposed Commodore’s Point Bridge “a $39 million monstrosity” and said he was “violently opposed” to threats made against an elected board.
Harris told the club the Jacksonville Expressway Authority, which had proposed a bridge over the St. Johns River at Commodore’s Point, had threatened to increase tolls on three existing bridges on the Expressway unless the commission renewed its pledge to earmark gasoline tax money for an additional bond issue.
“If this is done, it will be 10 years before we get any tax money for secondary roads,” said Harris.
He said that from 1960 until 1961, the gasoline tax revenue pledged for the recently completed Expressway system had been held in escrow.
“We are just starting to get that money and I don’t want it to stop. We need it to repair roads all over Duval County and to buy rights of way for primary roads,” Harris said.
In addition, he said that toll revenues were down on the Mathews, Fuller Warren and Trout River bridges while traffic on the toll-free bridges was increasing.
“If the Commodore’s Point Bridge is built, it will have to have steady, 24-hour traffic in order to bring in enough tolls to pay for itself,” said Harris.
• More than 9,000 Shriners and their wives, representing 26 temples, began arriving in Jacksonville for the 28th annual convention of the Southeast Shrine Association.
The four-day convention’s headquarters was the George Washington Hotel.
“On behalf of the officers of the association, I want to express our appreciation to the officers and members of Morocco Temple and to the City of Jacksonville for making it possible to have our annual meeting in this hospitable city during my term of office,” said Jack L. Chambers of Yaarab Temple in Atlanta, president of the association.
• The Green Bay Packers, defending champions of the NFL, defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 41-14 in an exhibition game at the Gator Bowl.
One of the highlights of the game was a five-yard touchdown pass from Green Bay quarterback to end Max McGee. It was noted that Packer Paul Hornung, the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1961, kicked five extra points, but carried the ball in the game fewer times than was expected.
The 8th annual presentation by Jacksonville Charities Inc. was watched by 18,250 football fans who each paid $2.50 or $5 for a ticket to the game.
• Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was in town, but not performing before the usual audience.
The circus, headquartered in Venice, was at the Municipal Docks and Terminal along Talleyrand Avenue preparing for a trip to Rio de Janeiro where the troupe would begin a South American tour.
Equipment, animals and performers were loaded aboard the MS Freya Torm for the 12-day voyage to the Brazilian capital.
One of the earliest to arrive was Heinz Naumann, a wild animal trainer whose No. 1 attraction, “Sahbra,” was billed as the world’s only aquatic tiger.
Special arrangements were made to transport Toto and Tony, the circus’s “world famous gorillas.” A 30-foot-long air-conditioned enclosure with glass three inches thick was loaded aboard the vessel to house the two animals.
• City Finance Commissioner Dallas Thomas expressed hope for a good market price in the sale of Jacksonville’s first ad valorem improvement bonds in 30 years.
Bids on the $7.65 million in civic improvement bonds would be opened by the City Commission and then the best bids would be sent to City Council for its concurrency.
The bond money would be used for a new $3.9 million public library along Ocean Street at Adams Street and a branch library at Wilder Park; a $2 million street along the St. Johns River and a parking lot expansion at City Hall; and a $1.75 million park on the Southbank between the Main Street and Acosta bridges.
• County Commissioner Lem Merrett presented certificates of completion to 14 graduates of the first Duval County Landscape Nurseryman’s School.
Assistant County Agent Ed Allen, who organized the course, presided at the ceremony at 4-H Park. He was joined by E.W. McElwee, head of the Department of Ornamental Horticulture at the University of Florida and chief instructor for the school.
Allen said when the idea for the course was conceived, local nursery interests were surveyed to determine the needs for instruction for persons in the industry. The course was designed to fulfill those needs and was one of the first of its kind in the Southeast, Allen said.
A fish fry preceded the presentation ceremony.