Senior Residents

All the latest news and stories about our neighborhood’s senior residents.

Dixie Hardman

Dixie Hardman

Back in the late 1950s, when good taste and quality fashion were more important than the newest thing, Dixie Hardman’s stylish Aunt Gilda took her school shopping to stores like Sablow’s and Bolun’s in Jacksonville to find matching cashmere sweaters and skirts. By the time Dixie graduated from Robert E. Lee High School, her passion […]

Betty Altee and the St. Joseph’s Class of 1949

Betty Altee and the St. Joseph’s Class of 1949

By Laura Jane Pittman Resident Community News The St. Joseph Catholic School class of 1949 has been faithfully meeting once a month for the last several years. In the past, they had the usual major reunions, and even some yearly get-togethers, but the recent monthly meetings have been faithfully attended and thoroughly enjoyed. Many members […]

Eleanor Smith

Eleanor Smith

By Susan D. Brandenburg Resident Community News Eleanor Smith moved to a house on Jasmine Place when she was nine years old and, with the exception of three years when she and her husband, Lawton, lived in Jacksonville Beach, she has been a resident of Murray Hill. Eleanor and Lawton met at a Halloween Carnival […]

Tim Tyler

By Victoria Register Freeman Resident Community News Sitting in his Historic District military gallery, Timothy Morrish Tyler remembers how the seeds of his current life were planted over 50 years ago by his grandmother Dolly Sisk. “She taught Sunday School at The Good Shepherd Episcopal Church. She loved history, read constantly and shared her knowledge […]

Cathy Watkiss

Cathy Watkiss

Longtime Jacksonville area resident Cathy Watkiss fell in love with San Marco long before she actually lived there. Watkiss, who grew up at the beach, came to town frequently as a child and teenager for shopping and family outings. So, many years later when she and husband Dale moved to the area, she knew how […]

Rufus and Mariam McClure

Rufus and Mariam McClure

By Laura Jane Pittman Resident Community News Mariam Akra McClure can trace her roots all the way back to when her father and three brothers came to Jacksonville from Lebanon. Orphaned and fleeing the country after WWI in hopes of a better economic situation, the Akra brothers – TK, Meshall, Philip and Louis – went […]

Martha King

By Victoria Register Freeman Resident Community News Martha King’s life is a rich mixture of convention and contrast. Decades before married woman kept their maiden names, Martha kept hers. Of course, John Wesley King Sr., her husband, just happened to be named King also. No monogram changes were necessary. Martha’s parents, Frank and Jessie King, […]

Looking Back at 2013

Looking Back at 2013

By Laura Jane Pittman Resident Community News At the fresh new start of each year, I often take a look back at the inspirational people I’ve profiled throughout the year. This January, however, I want to write about an individual who, though he was never profiled in the column, occupied my heart and mind over […]