• Conditions at Ribault High School were criticized by a committee from the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges.
After touring the school, the committee said it found a number of deficiencies and laid the blame on a lack of local financial support of the Duval County public school system.
The 24-member committee of Florida educators and administrators was led by Vincent McGuire, professor of education at the University of Florida and the incoming chairman of the association.
The committee commended the loyalty of the school’s faculty and administration to strive for good standards of education “despite almost insurmountable odds.”
McGuire said 23 percent (13) of the teachers had a classroom load beyond what the association deemed acceptable. He said six teachers were teaching subjects for which they were not qualified.
All 15 Duval County High Schools had been placed on probation by the association because of repeated warnings on instructional deficiencies.
The committee also found the school had only one night custodian, one day custodian and five maids “to keep thousands of feet of covered space clean and safe.”
• A minister, his wife and six children escaped from their burning home at 2579 Herschel St. after the family’s dog sounded an alarm.
Rev. Jimmie Dobbs, pastor of Paxon Revival Center, said he was awakened about 4:30 a.m. when he heard the dog, Topsy, scratching on the door and whining.
“When I heard her whining, I knew something was wrong. Then I smelled smoke,” said Dobbs.
Dobbs, who was sleeping in his downstairs office, discovered the kitchen was on fire and then ran upstairs yelling for his family to get out of the house.
Mrs. Dobbs picked up the youngest child, 3-month-old Sharon. Dobbs carried Steve, 11, and Becky, 6, while Diane, 12, and Glenda, 13, crawled onto the roof of the front porch and safely to the ground. Topsy also scurried out after the girls.
Once outside, Dobbs realized another daughter, Debra, was missing. He ran back into the burning house twice but each time was forced out by dense smoke.
On the third attempt and nearly overcome by smoke, Dobbs heard the gasps of his 2-year-old daughter. He felt her on the floor with his foot, picked her up and managed to get back downstairs and out of the house.
Assistant Fire Chief R.L. Gregory said the fire started from an electrical wire on a clothes dryer on the back porch. He estimated damage to the home at $2,000 and $1,500 to the contents.
• U.S. District Judge Bryan Simpson refused to transfer the trials of 200 white and black people arrested in St. Augustine for violating state laws in connection with integration demonstrations into the federal court from the county judge’s court of St. Johns County.
He also refused to grant writs of habeas corpus for the arrested integrationists.
Attorneys for the defendants, William Kunstler, Tobias Simon and John Pratt, indicated they would take Simpson’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
• The Downtown Council of the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce was planning a cleanup campaign in partnership with city and county volunteer fire departments.
William Hill Goodman, chairman of the council’s Beautification and Planning Committee, said the effort would begin April 11 with a full day of activities scheduled.
At 9:30 a.m. in the Mayflower Hotel, a film on beautification would be shown to Camp Fire Girls, Junior Chamber of Commerce members, city and volunteer firefighters and members of civic organizations.
The activities then would move to Hemming Park, where the Camp Fire Girls would distribute litter bags and then march around the park carrying posters and signboards urging people to “Keep Jacksonville Clean.”
In the afternoon, the volunteer firefighters would be stationed at shopping centers throughout the county distributing fire prevention literature and other materials promoting their slogan, “Clean Up, Paint Up and Fix Up.”
The U.S. Navy also would be pitching in for the effort. At Mayport Naval Station, Jacksonville Naval Air Station and Cecil Field Naval Air Station, 10,000 litter bags would be distributed at the gates to military personnel and civilian employees leaving the bases.
Goodman said the Jacksonville Youth Council on Civic Affairs had completed a survey of vacant stores Downtown. His committee would send letters to owners of the buildings and rental agents asking them to clean the storefronts and entrances.
• The Ortega Civitan Club presented a check for $600 to the Daniel Memorial Home to fund outside tutoring for children at the home.
William Hall, chairman of the club’s Fruitcake Committee, presented the check to Jean Tyler, Daniel president and Eva Byrd, executive director.
The funds were raised from club projects including the sale of fruitcakes during the Christmas season.
• The body of Walter Rogers Mason, 5, who had been missing from his parents’ home in Avondale for three days, was found by a police diver in the St. Johns River near the Mason pier.
It was noted that the boy’s toy pistol was still strapped to his side.
He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond K. Mason of 3710 Richmond St. The disappearance led to one of the largest searches in city history. Following a futile house-to-house search in the neighborhood, a bloodhound tracked the child’s scent to the end of a boat dock at the Mason home.
“It was just a job we had to do,” said Patrolman J.M. Byrd, one of the divers. “We do things like this all the time. At least it broke the anxiety for the family. They were in bad shape worrying.”
• Jacksonville Sheriff Dale Carson said the ongoing investigation into possible connections between police officers, gamblers and moonshiners would likely be prolonged.
Four ranking police officers were arrested and charged with accepting bribes from gamblers. Carson said 90 police officers had been questioned after the suspects were taken into custody and more arrests were expected.
The men were suspended without pay and scheduled for an appearance in Criminal Court on April 28, bond plea day.
Estimates of the yearly gross income from gambling in Jacksonville and Duval County ranged from $5 million to $10 million.
Numbers games such as “Bolita,” a game similar to the contemporary Florida Lottery, were the biggest contributors to the annual take, but it was noted that “a man with a wad of cash” could be steered to a card game if he knew the right people and places.
The game “Cuba” was a lottery operated on Saturdays only. Winning tickets were derived from a number drawn in the Cuban national lottery, which was a legal operation in Cuba. From the five-digit winning number drawn in Cuba, the last two digits represented the winning number in Jacksonville.
Bolita was similar to Cuba, but it was played any day of the week and the numbers were drawn locally from numbers 1 to 100.
In a game called “Bond,” newspapers played a part. Each day of the week, total transactions of the American and New York stock exchanges were published. From the total sales each day, three digits were selected to create a winning combination.
The game “Total” was played once a week when the total amount of cash on hand in the Federal Reserve Banks was published. Winning numbers were taken from that figure.