Edited by Spessard Stone from The Florida Advocate (Wauchula, Fla.) of Friday, Jan. 4, 11, 18, 25, 1946
Mrs. Griffin's Last Rites
Jan. 4-The last sad rites for Mrs. Adella Pauline Griffin, 80, who passed away at her home a short distance east of Wauchula on Friday, Dec. 28, were held Saturday afternoon at the New Hope Baptist Church.
The deceased was the widow of the late Stephen L. Griffin, prominent citizen and fruit grower, and one of the pioneers of this section of the county.
The deceased was a member of New Hope Church. She was a devout Christian and a leader in all church and civic affairs in her community, and was a friend of the poor and needy, the sick and the afflicted. She loved children and her work in the church.
Survivors include one son, Grady Griffin, of Wauchula; a daughter, Mrs. C. F. Hull, of Arcadia; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; two sisters, Mrs. Donella Hull, of Bartow, and Mrs. Katie Bryan, of Wauchula.
Hartsfield - Johnson
Miss Laura Elizabeth Hartsfield, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Hartsfield, and George Clinton Johnson, both of Gardner, were married Dec. 26 at 3:00 at the home of the bride's parents in Gardner. The bride chose a soft suit of ice blue wool with black accessories and a corsage of red rose buds.
Mrs. W. G. Tyner, her sister and only attendant, wore gray sheer with black accessories and a corsage of pink rose buds. S1/c W. G. Tyner was best man.
Mrs. Johnson is a graduate of Hardee County High School and Southern College and for some years has taught in Hardee and DeSoto County schools. At present she is a member of westside faculty in Arcadia.
Mr. Johnson also attended Hardee County High School. He recently returned after 34 months in the Pacific where he served with the 32nd Division. He received the Combat Infantryman's Medal and the Presidential Unit citation with a cluster.
Personals
Doyle Spears and Tom Underwood, students at the Bolles Military School in Jacksonville, who have been spending the holidays here with friends and relatives, are expected to leave the first of the week to resume their studies.
Servicemen
Albert Carlton, of the U. S. Navy, stationed at Bainbridge, Md., where he is an aerial recognition instructor, after spending the holidays here with relatives and friends, left Wednesday for his base.
Sgt. Ward Gillette, Jr., of the U. S. Marines and stationed at Cherry Point, N. C., who has been spending the holidays with his parents, left yesterday to return to his base.
Reginald Roberts, seaman first class, of Uncle Sam's Navy, spent the holidays here with his parents, Sheriff and Mrs. E. O. Roberts. For several months Seaman Roberts was a member of the new cruiser Chicago and spent some time in the Pacific area.
Addison Whitman arrived here last week from Camp Blanding where he received his discharge after three years in the armed services, 23 months of which was spent overseas. He was attached to the weather observation bureau in the New Guinea area. He also served in Australia and other nearby islands. Prior to entering the service he was employed by the Farmers Supply Co.
Ad
Jan. 11-Kate Carlton, Florist, 316 East Palmetto, Wauchula.
Jones - Lambert
Mr. and Mrs. Evan E. Jones announce the marriage of their daughter, Miss Dorothy Mae Jones, to Charles Hildon Lambert. The Rev. C. A. Raymond performed the impressive double ring ceremony on New Year's Day at the First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland.
The bride was lovely in a gown of blue crepe with black accessories. Her flowers were pink talisman roses. The bride is a graduate of the local high school and attended Florida State College for Women.
The groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Lester K. Lambert, of Wauchula. He graduated from the Hardee County High School before his enlistment in the Paratroopers. He received his discharge Dec. 4 at Camp Blanding, after serving 18 months in New Guinea, the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan with the 511th Parachute Infantry.
Isham Coker
Last rites for Isham Riley Coker, 75, who passed away in Wauchula last Sunday afternoon, after a long illness, was held Wednesday afternoon at the Baptist Church in Lily. The deceased made him home in the Lily section for many years where he was a prosperous farmer and fruit grower.
Survivors include his widow; one daughter, Mrs. Yetta Gibson, and one son, J. L. Coker, both of Wauchula; two brothers, W. S. Coker, of Homestead, and Frank Coker, of Lakeland; Mrs. Laura Geiger, of Lakeland, Mrs. Ida Roberts, of Ona, and Mrs. Della Eason, of Lakeland.
Hollis Payne
Funeral services for Hollis Virgil Payne, 53, who passed away Sunday, Jan. 6, at his home near Ona, were held yesterday afternoon at 2 o'clock, at the New Zion Church.
He was a veteran of World War 1 and a staunch member of Herger Williams Post of the American Legion.
Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Bessie Roberts Payne; one sister, Mrs. N. S. Albritton, of Waycross, Ga.; two brothers, John Payne, of Ona, and Jim Payne, of Lake Worth.
Personals
Mrs. Harry Metheny received a wire Friday evening that her father, John L. Fritz, 83, of Atlantic, Iowa, had passed away that day at 3:00.
Clyde S. Simmons, former clerk of the circuit court, who served with the armed forces in the Pacific, has accepted a position with R. A. Gray, secretary of state.
Real Estate Transaction
The largest real estate deal that has been consummated in Hardee County in a number of years was closed last week when the Wright Estate, Inc., of Dallas, Tex., and Wauchula, sold all their holdings in Hardee County to Doyle E. Carlton, Jr., and wife, Mildred Carlton.
The (sale) is believed to be in the neighborhood of 18,000 acres, including improved properties, rural homes, groves and pasture lands. The real estate, at one time, was the property of the Wauchula Development Company, one of the most successful real estate operators in Florida (which) located hundreds of families in this section.
Mr. Carlton, who recently received his discharge from the Army Air Corps, is planning to move to Wauchula from Tampa and devote his whole time to his cattle and citrus interests.
He is building a lovely home a few miles west of the city which will be ready for occupancy within a month, or so.
Mr. Carlton, previous to acquiring the holdings of the Wright Estate, was already a large land and cattle owner in the county and the acquisition will place him at the top of the land owners in the state.
Servicemen
Capt. John J. Beeson 111, wife and little daughter, Brenda, arrived Friday afternoon from Tuscaloosa, Ala. for a visit of several days with relatives here and Punta Gorda. He was a member of the famous 26th Division, being in the severe fighting in the Bulge.
Mrs. Doris Sloat Stanton, of this city, received a wire and a letter from Navy, last week, informing her that the Navy Department had carried her husband, Arthur Lemmie Stanton, chief motor machinist's mate, U. S. N., on the official record in the status of missing in action as of Dec. 12, 1944, that he was reluctantly forced to the conclusion that he is deceased.
Stanton, 31, is the son of Mrs. Ellen Stanton, of 113 West Giddens street, Tampa. He is also survived by two children, Kenneth and Alice Stanton, who live with their mother in Wauchula.
Stanton served 12 years in the Navy and 10 of those years were with the submarine branch of the Service. He was a native of Arcadia but most of his boyhood was spent in Tampa.
Honor Roll
Jan. 18-The following is the honor roll for Hardee County High School:
All A's: tenth grade, Johnna Mae Cathcart; eleventh grade, Lewis Stancil; twelfth grade, Nell Brewer, Virginia Collins, Ann Hammond, Dorothy Rose Lanier, Nellie Schweigart.
All A's and B's: ninth grade, Patsy Baggott, Jewel Albritton, Alice Coker, Albert Farnsworth, Inez Lee, Geneva Stokes.
Tenth grade: Billie Bozeman, Alvin Clemons, Mary Sue Ellis, Helen Maddox, Nell McLeod, Opal Ragan, Doris Sikes, Ethelind Southerland, Barbara Turner.
Eleventh grade, Oline Boone, Ruth Germaine, Louise Howell, Montine Jones, June Lambert.
Twelfth grade: Marilyn Blackburn, Jean Bostick, Jean Durrance, Valda Long, Mary Helen Spearman, Lawrence Roberts, and James Whitehurst.
Politics
C. H. (Shag) Taylor, Jr., veteran county representative in the state legislature, last week became the first to announce for office in the approaching May Democratic primary. Taylor represented Hardee County in two sessions of the legislature.
G. W. (Dick) Williams will be a candidate for representative in the state legislature in the primary election.
Servicemen
At the Lions' meeting yesterday, Ralph Carlton, one of the club's newest members, who served a little more than three years with the armed forces, related a few incidents which occurred during the landing of the first troops in North Africa.
L. V. Douglas, as a sergeant served in the armed forces a little more than three years, arrived in Wauchula Thursday of last week with his discharge. He served in New Guinea and later the Philippines.
From the public relations office of the Oliver General Hospital in Augusta, Ga. comes the news that Sgt. Wm. B. Finney is a patient there undergoing special treatment. His father, R. E. Finney, and his wife left Wednesday to be at his bedside.
Corporal Alfred E. Johnson, son of Mr. and Mrs. I. D. Johnson, has received his discharge at Camp Blanding. He has served overseas 18 months, in New Guinea and the Philippines.
Sgt. R. B. Roberts arrived last week with his discharge from the armed forces, and is visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. O. H. Roberts, in Ona. He was in the service three and one-half years, with 30 months overseas, and was stationed in England with the hospital corps and an X-ray unit.
Oscar Tomlinson has recently returned home with his discharge. He is residing at his home near Ona. He has been in the service for five years and has spent 14 months overseas, serving in the European and Asiatic and Pacific theatres.
Traffic Death
Gillette Skipper, an employee of the Dansby Well Drilling Company, was killed instantly Saturday afternoon when he lost control of his truck on the Dixie Highway on the overpass just north of Bowling Green. The deceased had been a resident of Wauchula for the past two months. He was a World War 11 veteran.
Affray
Jan. 25-Red Albritton, serviceman home for a three-day pass from an Army camp, was released from the Wauchula infirmary the first of the week where he was carried following a cutting affray at Hill's service station late Saturday afternoon, in which he suffered a number of knife cuts across the back requiring 32 stitches, according to Deputy Sheriff Randolph Bonard.
Paul Berry, of Center Hill, was placed under arrest charged with the cutting and is being held under a $500 bond.
Band Master
The action of the Board of County Commissioners at their recent meeting in agreeing to appropriate $50 monthly to supplement the amount the state would pay toward the employment of a band master, to teach music in all county schools, appears to have met the approval of the public.
The board agreed to place $1,500 in the budget this next fall to be used for the purchase of band instruments for the students. A good school band is one of the best advertisements that a county can have.
Brown - Durrance
Miss Ernestine Brown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. E. Brown, of Bowling Green, became the bride of Larry Durrance, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Durrance, of Bowling Green, at a candlelight wedding Dec. 31, at the First Baptist Church.
The bride entered with her father and was charming in a filmy net wedding gown. The all-over embroidered bodice was fitted at the waistline and joined to the skirt with a full ruffled peplum. The gown was fashioned with sweet heart neckline and leg of mutton sleeves which extended over the hands in points with the full skirt extending in a sweeping train. A coronet of seed pearl orange blossoms held the fingertip veil and she carried a bouquet of calla lillies. She wore her mother's pearl necklace.
Mrs. Durrance was graduated from Fort Meade High School and attended the Florida State College for Women.
The groom is also a graduate of Fort Meade High School and was attending Georgia Tech when called to the service with the Air Force. He was discharged in October.
Church News
Saturday, January 12, members of the junior department of the Methodist Church were entertained by Mrs. Elver Hodges, superintendent, at the Range Cattle Station near Limestone.
Collier-Wingate
Mr. and Mrs. Daulton Collier, of Zolfo Springs, are announcing the marriage of their daughter, Norma Collier, to Ancel Wingate, son of Mrs. W. J. Wingate, of Wauchula.
The ceremony was performed at the home of Garvin M. Jones, pastor of the Church of Christ, in Tampa, on Friday, Jan. 11 at 8:30 p. m. The bride was dressed in a blue wool crepe dress with brown accessories.
Kiwanis
"Now, more than ever, is the time to look forward with confidence. America is on the threshold of a golden age of fuller and richer living." These statements were made to the annual ladies' night gathering of the Wauchula Kiwanis Club, which was held in the dining room of the Taylor Hotel last Tuesday night by former Gov. Spessard L. Holland.
President W. J. Kelly presided at the meeting and introduced Jeff Flake as toastmaster, who in turn introduced the guests.
Personals
Dr. and Mrs. E. M. Hodges, of the Range Cattle Station, had as week end guests, Dr. and Mrs. E. K. Vaughn and sons, of Tifton, Ga., and Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Bullis, of Eugene, Ore.
Politics
On Jan. 7th, Sen. Wilbur C. King, of Zolfo Springs, gave a statement to the press that he would be a candidate for railroad commissioner.
Ritz Theatre
Program, Ritz Theatre, Bowling Green
Fri.-Sat., Jan. 25-26, "Beyond The Last Frontier," starring Smiley Burnette.
Servicemen
S/Sgt. Howard Eric Bennett arrived home the first of the week from 16 months combat duty in the European theatre. He was attached to Patton's Third Army and assigned to the mortar section of the Infantry. He arrived in New York last week and was given his discharge at Camp Blanding Jan. 22. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Bennett, of rural Wauchula, and was a student at the time he entered the service.
J. G. (Slim) Anderson, with a combat duty record in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, arrived here last Saturday morning from the Separation Center at the Jacksonville Naval base, thus completing three and a half years service. At the time of his discharge, he held the rank of quarter master, first class.
Capt. Donald Yetter informs his parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Yetter, that he has been transferred from the recruiting branch of the service at Nashville, Tenn., to the Air Corps and was now at Maxwell Field, Ala., where he expects to get his discharge about the first of February.
These articles were published in The Herald-Advocate (Wauchula, Fla.), respectively, of January 1, February 26, and March 5, 1998.
November 26, 2001