Flora Mae King Jackson, who weighed 840 pounds and was billed as the “World’s Largest Woman,” died in Jacksonville while she and her husband, George, were visiting relatives.
She was born in 1930 in Sugar Lark, Miss., weighing 10 pounds. She was raised in nearby Meridian, where her father worked for a railroad. Her body would be shipped to Meridian in a specially made casket.
Many people saw Jackson, known professionally as “Baby Flo,” in October at the Greater Jacksonville Fair in a carnival side show.
Jackson’s sister, Alma King, came to Jacksonville to accompany the body back to Meridian for funeral and burial services.
“Flora weighed 267 pounds when she was only 11 years old,” King said. “The doctors said she had some kind of thyroid trouble.”
Nothing short of outright starvation would have caused her sister to lose weight, King added.
“She went on a diet in 1949. She ate only lettuce and skim milk for months and still gained 40 pounds,” she said.
Jackson weighed 621 pounds in 1955 when she went into carnival work in Chicago.
Although she never ate more than a normal person, she continued to gain weight as she traveled from coast to coast and from Canada to Cuba, said King, who accompanied her sister on the carnival circuit.
• U.S. Rep. Charles Bennett of Jacksonville said he was informed by the office of the chief of naval operations that a scheduled move of two photographic squadrons based in Jacksonville would not occur for at least two years.
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced two days before Bennett’s statement that VAP 62, stationed at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, and VFP 62, stationed at Cecil Field Naval Air Station, would be moved to Turner Air Force Base in Albany, Ga. The groups had a total of 565 personnel.
The anticipated move was part of the Lyndon Johnson administration’s decision to close, consolidate or substantially reduce 149 military bases.
• The Duval County Air Improvement Authority elected George Auchter Jr., president of The Auchter Co., a Jacksonville-based general contracting firm, chairman at an organizational meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel.
Albert Henderson Jr., chief chemist at Wilson & Toomer Fertilizer Co., was elected secretary.
Henderson was the industry representative on the authority; Auchter represented the public.
Other authority members were David Lee, director of the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering of the state Board of Health; City Commissioner of Health and Sanitation Claude Smith Jr.; and County Commissioner Fletcher Morgan.
The authority was created by the 1965 Legislature as a permanent agency to control air pollution.
Gov. Haydon Burns appointed members in September and in November, the Duval County Budget Commission granted the authority an $80,000 budget for its first nine months of operation, beginning Jan. 1.
With its funding in place, the authority would continue an air quality monitoring program begun by the University of Florida College of Engineering. The school’s contract was to end Dec. 31.
The contractual program began in October 1964. It cost $150,000, financed equally by the city, the county and 11 industries.
Auchter said plans called for the authority to maintain the $65,000 laboratory and countywide monitoring network set up by university personnel.
• A recommendation that the Jacksonville Expressway Authority reject all applications to lease expressway property for billboards died without being formally considered.
The question of leasing the authority’s property for signs came up on applications to lease sign space at 20th Street near Jennings Street and at Gary Street and Hendricks Avenue.
Arthur Sollee, authority executive director, said in view of the new Highway Beautification Act passed by Congress and since much of the expressway was part of the federal interstate highway system, the authority should adopt a policy of refraining from leasing property for highway signs.
Authority member Wellington Paul moved that Sollee’s recommendation be adopted, but the motion failed to get a second.
Road Board member R.C. Beaufort said he hated highway signs, but there was an area where the traveling public must be informed about lodging for the night. He said many travelers relied on highway signs for locating such places.
The applications were referred to the Bureau of Public Roads.
The authority approved a change in the location of the proposed Fort Caroline Monument Road because the original proposal would cut through private property designated for development as a golf course.
• The city Planning Advisory Board recommended to the City Commission an updating of the nearly 11-year-old city zoning plan.
Board President O.E. Harrell said many changes had occurred in neighborhood composition since the last general revision of the zoning plan in 1954.
In other business, the board shelved a suggestion by Harrell that the city acquire property for a Downtown entertainment center that would help attract convention business to Jacksonville.
Harrell suggested a nightclub be built on tax-free property. He said such a facility would “bring a lot of revenue to our community.” Other members said such a venture could pay its own way and the proposal was shelved.
• A Criminal Court jury deliberated just five minutes before returning a verdict of not guilty for a tavern operator charged with manslaughter in the pistol slaying of a customer.
After the verdict, Judge A. Lloyd Layton ordered the release of 44-year-old Robert Russell of 12074 Powell Road in Whitehouse.
Russell was accused of manslaughter in the death of Price Cribbs, 20, who was fatally shot in the chest during a fight that erupted March 9 in Mary’s Tavern at 2480 Rings Road, which Russell managed.
Russell, who was disabled, testified he shot Cribbs in self-defense as Cribbs, armed with a broken cue stick, tried to come at him across the bar.
Testimony showed the fight broke out around the tavern’s pool table among Cribbs and others before the fatal shot was fired.
Russell was exonerated March 15 after a preliminary hearing and inquest before Justice of the Peace Gordon Poppell, but the case was presented to the grand jury and the manslaughter indictment was returned in April.
Russell was represented by attorney Frank Cannon.
• The final touches to the holiday décor at Hemming Park were in place after a ceremony to light the Nativity scene.
Sponsored by the Downtown Council of the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce, the ceremony was under the direction of the Jacksonville Ministerial Alliance.
The festivities opened with prayers offered by the Rev. Bob Barnes of San Jose Baptist Church. Bob Banner, choral director at the church, led Horizon Club and junior high school members of the Duval County Council of Campfire Girls in singing hymns and carols.
• More visitors passed through the Cummer Gallery of Art in November than any other month since shortly after the gallery along Riverside Avenue opened in 1961.
Credited with attracting most of the 5,861 visitors was an exhibit of Spanish art loaned to the Cummer from galleries and museums across the U.S.
• Constance Cason was elected without opposition as first president of the Duval Teachers Association.
A sixth-grade teacher at Hogan-Spring Glen Elementary School, Cason was a leader in the 1965 school budget battle that eventually resulted in adoption of a $49 million spending plan for public education.
She also served as president of the association’s Interim Council formed by the merger of four education professional groups.
• About 4,000 local supporters of Gov. Haydon Burns gathered at the Civic Auditorium to greet the former Jacksonville mayor and his wife, Mildred.
The reception was the first of five the couple would attend during the week, with other stops in Tallahassee, Orlando, Miami and Tampa.
The reception was as informal as a family reunion, with guests sipping beer or soft drinks and munching chicken wings and meatballs.
“I don’t know what could be a greater Christmas present than this outpouring of friendship,” Burns said.
Prior to the public event, Burns met privately with about 150 of his key North Florida supporters to begin planning strategies for the May 1966 Democratic primary election when Burns would seek re-election for a four-year term.
• The basement of the Atlantic Beach Hotel was flooded by a leaking water pipe, but the accident was discovered before the rising water reached an electrical panel.
Atlantic Beach Fire Department Capt. Earl Keeth said the water was about 5 feet deep and just a few inches below the power panel when he arrived.
Suction pumps were started to lower the water level and electricity was shut off for a brief period for safety reasons, he said.
The ruptured 2-inch water line was temporarily installed to provide water to the hotel while an adjacent apartment building was under construction.
Keeth said damage was estimated at $1,500, mostly to the heating plant, which was not in operation when the flooding occurred.