The Way We Were: Julie Babcock

The Way We Were: Julie Babcock
Julie Babcock with one of her award-winning stained-glass pieces

Some people have a way of touching entire communities, generations of families. Some people have abiding faith, countless talents, and boundless energy. Some people are just natural servants, givers of good in a variety of ways. Julie Babcock (nee Cheves) is one such person.

Julie Cheves, “Pronounced like cheese—Cheevz,” she said, was born at St. Vincent’s Hospital on Halloween in 1941. When she was in first grade at Venetia Elementary, her family, including one younger brother, moved to Gainesville for her father’s work as a purchasing agent for the city. But she had extended family who still lived in Jacksonville; so, she spent a lot of time here, particularly with her maternal grandmother, Julia “Belle” Jackson, on East Main. “I used to roller skate all around Springfield,” she said. Some of Babcock’s favorite pastimes growing up were skating and bicycling with her Jacksonville friends, Joetta Hendry and John Wayne Shycove, in addition to writing poetry.

Bill and Julie Babcock, 2008
Bill and Julie Babcock, 2008

Following her college studies in education at the University of Florida (UF), Babcock landed her first teaching position at Cocoa High in Rockledge. It was there that she met her future husband, Bill Babcock, whose family was from Virginia. They married in December 1964 at Gainesville’s First Baptist Church and immediately moved to Virginia for work. The following year, they both attended graduate school at UF, while living with her parents nearby.

In the summer of 1966, the couple moved to Jacksonville not only because of Babcock’s warm affinity for the place but also because she and her husband wanted any future children they’d have to be well educated and for them to be raised in a town not so small that they’d want to leave and never come back except for a visit. That was a dynamic they witnessed in the small Virginia town they’d been living in. They wanted for any future children a hometown large enough to settle in and pursue a career. And that’s where an ironic twist of fate would come to play in Babcock’s life.

In Jacksonville, Babcock landed a position at Jackson and her husband at Bolles. At the same time, she became instrumental in establishing the Lakewood-San Jose Junior Woman’s Club, which had not yet existed. She went on to serve at the state level, directing the junior clubs for all of Florida.

Julie Babcock in the typing room at Bolles in the ’70s
Julie Babcock in the typing room at Bolles in the ’70s

Babcock’s teaching career in Jacksonville began not only with a short stint at Jackson but also at Wolfson and Butler before giving birth to their son, Mark, in October 1970. Two years later, she began working at Bolles alongside her husband, a career that would last 42 years for her, both of them touching generations of families.

Before Mr. Babcock retired in 2007, he had been head of the social studies department and advanced to chair emeritus; for a time, he was the director of student activities, even directing homecoming skits. His wife had started as a typing teacher at Bolles but, having business training in her background, soon developed an original course for seniors, one that colleges looked more favorably upon—Business Survey. The semester-long classes incorporated accounting, business law, economics, and math.

Reaching beyond the typing and business classrooms, Babcock moved to an advisory position. She attended Jacksonville University to get her credentials as a guidance counselor and, for nearly eight years, she counseled Bolles students headed for college, even taking groups on bus tours of southeastern schools. From there, she held the title of Registrar, while still teaching her Business Survey class. Directing records and testing came next, taking charge of standardized exams. For several years, she served alternately as the school’s principal and again in the registrar’s seat. When she retired in 2014, Babcock was back to being in charge of standardized test scheduling.

In earlier days, Mr. and Mrs. Babcock lived in what was then called the San Jose Terrace apartments on University Boulevard across from where Albertson’s used to be. For over a decade, the Babcock family of three lived on the Bolles campus—the couple on staff and their son a student. At first, Mark had to attend public school because there was no lower school at Bolles at that time. But once he was old enough, Mark attended Bolles and graduated salutatorian of his class in 1988.

On school breaks, the Babcocks would camp in the mountains of Dillard, Georgia and Franklin, North Carolina. As a little girl, Babcock had learned how to camp from her parents; they began in a tent and then graduated to a camper in Pisgah National Forest. “Right now, I’d rather camp in a Holiday Inn,” Babcock said. She recalls a funny story that, at the time it occurred, wasn’t so funny. A bear had gotten into their cooler and ate every bit of food but one item. The bologna. Her father vowed to never, ever again eat bologna.

Since 1979, Babcock has been living in the family’s San Jose home, close to Bolles, and close to her Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church, which is now 75 years old. Babcock has taken on many active roles there throughout the years—choir singer, deacon, Sunday school teacher, volunteer receptionist, librarian, and more. Faith is a stronghold for her.

Julie Babcock, volunteer librarian at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church, circa 2018
Julie Babcock, volunteer librarian at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church, circa 2018

In addition to her career at Bolles and her involvement with the Baptist church, Babcock has been and continues to be a contributor to the broader local community. She was a supporter of The Guild of the Jacksonville Symphony Association, which provided scholarships for music education and contributed to the instrument zoo. She is immediate past president and first vice president of the Southside Woman’s Club, having joined after aging out of the junior league at 40. In 2020, the Club placed a Little Free Library at 1200 Oriental Gardens Road, stocked with books for adults and children. Babcock painted it first, with bright flowers, animals, and ornamentation. “Especially during COVID, it has been well used,” she said of the box. The Club is currently working with Greenfield Elementary School students in partnership with America’s Best, providing free eye exams and eyeglasses, and Babcock has been instrumental in the cause.

Julie Babcock painting a Little Free Library, 2020
Julie Babcock painting a Little Free Library, 2020

Babcock’s creative side is vast, extending well beyond painting. Pre-pandemic, she sang with the River City Women’s Chorus and plans to return when protocols allow. On occasion, she posts her original prose on Facebook, which she began doing daily during coronavirus lockdown in response to a photographer’s postings of pictures. Babcock has responded to over 275 of the photographer’s posts. “It was my way of keeping in touch with the world,” she said. Babcock does stained-glass work, too, and has entered pieces into several art contests. An avid gardener, “I piddle around in the yard,” she said. She also knits and cross-stitches.

“I’m keeping busy all the time,” Babcock said of herself. And she still enjoys visiting the mountains. Although 80, she feels 60. “That comes from being around kids all my life, teaching,” she said. When it comes time to rest, she does so with her rescue cat, who happens to have the same name as her grandmother did—Belle.

Julie Babcock with her rescue cat, Belle
Julie Babcock with her rescue cat, Belle

In December 2012, just days before their 48th wedding anniversary, Babcock’s husband passed away. Their son, Mark, calls her every week to check on her. “You couldn’t ask for any better,” Babcock said of her son. He and his wife, Laura Bucher, who is a Jacksonville native and had attended Episcopal School, now live in Madrid, Spain. And there is the ironic twist to Babcock’s story. She visits them there most every year. She has three grandchildren from them—teenage twins who are still in high school and one older who is attending college in Scotland.

Babcock is the only remaining relative in Jacksonville. Throughout the more than five decades that she has lived here, she has witnessed many changes. “It’s gotten bigger. More traffic,” she said. A word of advice she offered is this: “Be kind to everybody. And always be grateful for what you have.”

By Mary Wanser
Resident Community News

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