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.
• Samuel Bailey Mansell pleaded no contest to theft of 2,362 electric meters valued at $41,098.80.
A jury had just been sworn in Criminal Court to try Mansell, former superintendent of the City Electric Department, and Willard Mills, a City electrician, on the charge when Mansell entered the plea.
Sentencing was deferred by Criminal Court Judge A. Lloyd Layton until after all the evidence against Mills was heard.
The two men were charged with stealing the meters on numerous occasions between March 1960 and July 1961.
When he filed the charges, County Solicitor Edward M. Booth said the stolen meters were transported to Fort Lauderdale and then were sold to small rural cooperatives and independent power companies in Florida and Georgia. He said the meters, which cost the City $17.40 each, were sold for $4.50 to $5 each.
Mansell was represented by attorney Lacy Mahon Jr., Mills by attorney Wayne Ripley.
• How Floridians renewed their driver licenses changed in September 1961 when the state Legislature voted to institute a system to renew licenses in the birth month of the motorist. Previously, all licenses expired in September.
Nine months after the new system went into effect, the reviews were mixed.
Col. H.N. Kirkman, head of the Department of Safety and the Florida Highway Patrol, termed the change an “unqualified success.”
Duval County Judge McKenney J. Davis said it was a “step in the right direction.”
“It’s one of the biggest headaches I’ve had in a long time,” said Nassau County Judge J.E. Weatherford.
One of the reasons behind changing the system from having every driver renew his or her license in September to the 12-month plan was to relieve the annual crush at county courthouses.
In Duval County, Davis and County Judge Page Haddock had to hire each year as many as 40 additional employees to process license renewals. With the new system, the number of employees was constant at six.
Weatherford said before the change, he would travel from the county seat in Fernandina Beach to neighboring communities on September weekends to issue licenses. He said if he continued that process, as he was trying to do, it would mean he had to travel each month.
“We used to be able to do it without any extra help. We’d get it over within one month and that was it. I wish we could revert to the old method,” Weatherford said.
Delinquent renewals also were an issue in Nassau County. Weatherford estimated that 10 percent of the licenses he was issuing were delinquent.
“People identified September with renewing their driver license. Right now, they may be inclined to forget during their month of birth,” he said.
Duval County was issuing a large number of delinquent licenses as well, with almost 13,000 delinquent permits issued between September 1961 and June 1962, about four times the number of licenses that would be issued all year in Nassau County.
The issuance change had not improved what Davis called “major faults” of Florida’s driver license system — lack of any periodic evaluation of driving skill or physical impairment.
“The driver license system should be a safety measure, not primarily a revenue measure. I’ve been driving for years and have never had an examination. We’ve had people come in carrying their blind sticks to get their license renewed,” he said.
• E.G. Marshall, star of the television show “The Defenders,” was a guest at the meeting of the Meninak Club in the Mayflower Hotel. Marshall portrayed Lawrence Preston, senior member of a father and son law firm, in the show.
His role at the speaker’s table consisted mainly of answering questions about production of the weekly television program, but he also made a strong plea for increasing efforts to educate young people about America’s heritage of government under law.
“In our country, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and we believe that every person is entitled to justice and every opportunity to present his case,” said Marshall.
He said he had such strong beliefs about the American judicial system that he was a “propagandist” for it.
Marshall suggested that the Meninak Club take the lead in establishing a “junior Bar society.” He envisioned such a group as one that would provide youngsters education about the law, the courts and judicial procedures.
“It is gratifying to know that Lawrence Preston, a lawyer, and Dr. Ben Casey, a hard-working physician, have become heroic figures to a great many young people. I can remember some other heroes who were not so savory,” Marshall said.
Marshall said the meeting marked the first time he had been able to accept an invitation to appear before a civic club such as the Meninaks. He was introduced by attorney John W. Donahoo.
• A local attorney learned it pays to follow the suggestions of court officials, especially when it involves financial matters.
The clerk of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sent to an attorney a letter and a $20 check for the refund of a court fee. The letter stated, in part, “Kindly put this check through your bank as early as possible.”
The date of the letter with the request for prompt deposit was March 23, 1920. The clerk who mailed the letter and the check retired from his post in December 1952.
Forty-two years later, the uncashed check arrived back at the clerk’s office in a letter from Tom Stewart, a Deland attorney. He declared the check, with the letter from the clerk, had been found among the ancient papers of the former Jacksonville law firm of Stewart and Bly, in which Stewart had been a junior partner in the 1920s.
“If there is anything to be derived at this time, would it be possible to have the check reissued to me as the surviving member of Stewart and Bly?” he wrote in his letter.
Julian Blake, who was clerk in 1962, said there was nothing to be derived more than four decades later.
Blake said the ancient check was drawn on a bank which was no longer a depository for funds of the clerk’s office and normal attrition of the original account, caused by bank charges against what balance remained in the account when it was closed out, had absorbed any finds which might have been there to cover the outstanding check.
• Lois Wilkinson, president of the Jacksonville chapter of the National Secretaries Association, left for Chicago, where she would be a delegate at the organization’s 17th annual national convention.
Wilkinson was a secretary in the firm of Botts, Mahoney, Whitehead, Ramsour and Hadlow, attorneys.